PRI Visit in November 2011

Last November (2011) Dad and I decided to take a break from the off-season to attand the PRI trade show in Orlando.  The F1600 Series would be holding their Winter meetings there, and it promised to me a sensory overlaod of all the kind of stuff we 'gear heads' like.  If little league or Jr. Dragsters are not your cup of tea, how about a Junior Monster Truck???

The Austrailian made Spectrum was on display.  You can see they went 'all out' complete with a lavish display, umbrella girls and a multi-media extraveganza...  (oh, come to think of it that was the GoPro booth).  The Spectrum guys DID have some smazzy brochures.  This might be the car to beat in 2012.

Bertrand and the Mygale organization went a little further with some nice banners and pictures, a meeting table, and a cool car stand that screams "I just touched tires and I'm about to fly off the track"... or something like that.  Cool car - good to see several make the 2012 VIR race.

For the bike fans, I got to throw my leg over this Motus.  An american build V-4 powered sports cruzer in the Honda VFR mold.  Hopefully we will see some of these on the road soon.

F1600 Series Display complete with a venerable Swift Db1...

I liked the statement that teh Stach folks were making here...  Our dash is SO waterproof that we are going to leave it submerged in a fish tank for all three days of the show.  Like a Timex it kept on ticking.

Lime Rock 2011 - F1600 Series rounds 7 and 8 (continued...)

The elaborate Maisey Racing Paddock.  That is the GTP Racing trailer behind us to contrast how the big boys roll.  Lime Rock was not one of our better outings.  It took me too long to figure the track out, and once I did I was under geared.  Unfortunately a problem with the pinion shaft support bearing and "top hat" made teh gearbox unwilling to come apart.  Meaning I ran a frustrating race hitting the rev limited long before the end of the front straight.  Despite this handicap, I had some good racing with several locals.

One of the cooler aspects of the compact Lime Rock track layout is that from the paddock we could watch the F200 race pretty well.  We caught them streaking down to turn one, through 2, 3 and 4 before they disappeared out of sight.

Lime Rock 2011 - F1600 Series rounds 7 and 8

Like the 'Glen Lime Rock actually attracts spectators.  They lined the track from turn 3 around to the downhill.

Teh NASCAR Modifieds were an interesting bunch.  MUCH beating and banging.  The tow truck got in as many laps as some of the field.

 

Nice faciliteis and a fan friendly atmosphere are something that is foriegn to those of us used to running closed events at tracks like Roebling Road or Road Atlanta.  Nice to see so many people out having a good time watching the turn 1-2-3 action.

MidOhio 2011 - F1600 Series rounds 5 and 6 (continued...)

The Mygale of Steve Bamford was 'beached' after the first race.  An 'off' filled the sidepods with grass and caused severe overheating. 

Interesting packaging solution...

With my dad experiencing severe Piper lust, we spent a lot of time going over John Grooms DF5.  It was extremely clean and well put together.

The engine bay bracing and fabricated bellhousing/oil tank are works of art.

I particularly liked the sanitary and simple oil cooler arrangement.  Maybe something similar for the Citation for 2012?

MidOhio 2011 - F1600 Series rounds 5 and 6

The paddock was cramped at MO.  We squeezed into a little bit f space between the RFR factory team and Andy Brumbaugh.

Honda brought along the "Indy Car" Hospitality seetup and fed us all very well all weekend.  This was first class treatment and a really nice gesture from the folks at HPD.  Wish they could be at all the races.

Side view of the HPD Hospitality Rig. Pretty cool setup.

Like the racing equavalent of a sidewalk cafe.  Great food, nice accomodations, big screen TVs to check out the other racing action and the Weather Channel.  I could really get used to this.

Load out

Tonight I am all loaded up and ready for the Glen races.  At 6:00 we leave for the track.  Wish me luck!

Sean

Final Race Prep

Newly re-rimmed Panasport C3 wheels with rains. They were a bit of work to get together, but they seem to hold air nicely. So now I am ready for the wet weather.

Front repairs all done. Nose came out perfectly nice. New lower a-arm was a pain to install, but in the end it all came out looking good during the alignment process.

One brain fart to tell on myself. After the repairs were done, I wanted to scale the car to make sure that the new a-arm hadn't changed the corner weights... So up on the scales it went, and to my surprise the readout read 167/276 for the fronts. I sat there scratching my head for a while wondering how I had managed to get the corners 100# off with a simple a-arm change.

Well after a few minutes, I figured it out. The rears were reading 274/170. Checked my scale cables and yep, I had one set reversed (front in rear, rear in front). So the real corner weights were spot on...Whew!

Tonght is the final load up for the Glen. Hope it cools off soon, becuase pushing aropund a 800# racecar in 95 degree weather kinda sucks.

Later,
Sean

Nose job complete!

So after several hours of prep work, out came the paint gun and the part is now "finished". A little wet sanding and polishing tomorrow morning, and it will definitely pass the 50/50 test (looks good from 50 feet at 50 mph).

Tomorrow I should finish up my prep for the Glen round of the F1600 Championship Series. I still need to reset the front toe and check out the camber/castor/corner weights. Then load it all up for next weekend.

I am getting pretty excited about going back to the Glen. I haven't raced there since 1995 (in my old Reynard FC). But I really enjoyed the track and the area back then. So I am hoping for a similarly positive experience this time. My dad (Bill Maisey) will be tagging along as my 'crew' and chief engineer. Hopefully we can pull off a couple of respectable finishes...

Sean

Nose Job

Repairs to the damaged upper nose are nearing completion. There were two big jagged tears in the part about 9" and 12" long. All bonded back together and filled. I spent the better part of the Indy 500 sanding and finishing the repairs.

Post Summit Damage Assessment

On the opening lap of the Summit Point National this weekend I had a little coming together with Jim Oseth in his Van Diemen. I can't really blame Jim at all - Colin Thompson was fighting for the lead into turn one directly in front of us, and inexplicably he either missed a shift or brake checked us. At full accelleration under green things happened VERY fast and before I could zig enough to miss them I was climbing Jimmy's left rear wheel. The impact was enough to send the nose of my car skyward to about 45degrees.

My dad was running a couple of positions behind and caught the action on his incar: Here

The rear tire ran up the right side of the nose and dinged the lower a-arm and tie rod. I continued on and ultimately worked my way up to 3rd overall, but the race was not kind to me. On lap 8 I developed a slight miss. By lap 9 it was getting worse and coming into turn 9 the car quit completely. The AIM system was in alarm mode and the fuel pressure was dropping like a stone.

Poor focus in the photo, but the point here is that the failure was the spade connector on the fuel pump switch on the back of the dash. The hard impact of the car coming back to the tarmac apparently knocked it a little loose. Over the 9 laps afterward it started to arc and voltage to the pump dropped. By the time the engine quit pressure was down to 7psi. I wish I had thought to reach under the dash, bacause a quick reseat of the connector returned operations to normal and 52psi. A probable National podium finish wasted.

When it bagan to rain around noon at Summit I was really sweating it. I had rain tires in the trailer, but they were not mounted. Fortunately the rain let up shortly after lunch and the group before us largely dried the track, so I did not have to go out on a wet track on slicks (the tire guys were long gone).

Monday afternoon my new wheel halves arrived to allow me to rerim the Panasport C3 wheels to 5.5". Another small project for this week as I prepare for the next Pro Series races at the Glen. They look very pretty and seem pretty light too.

As the week progresses:
1) Replace bent a-arm
2) Replace bent tie rod
3) Fix Nose and paint
4) Fix crush box cover and paint
5) Rerim the C3 wheels and mount the rains
6) Install Glen gearing
and so on...

Sean

All packed up and ready to go...

So the car is prepped. The trailer is packed, and the truck is ready to pull out Friday afternoon. Off to Summit Point - one of my personal favorite tracks - for the reinstituted National. Can't wait!

Sean

Final Summit Prep Work

Sadly time to swap out the 31.0mm restrictor for the wimpy 29.0mm unit. The SCCA will wonder as the season progresses why more Honda owners aren't running Nationals. Where are the Hondas? In the Pro Series where they are given a fair shot...

So I will go to Summit playing the role of the poor sucker who is bringing a knife to a gun fight. I bet Bill Valet will be running at full HP with his Ford motor... (no offense meant to Bill BTW). Hopefully I can at least put in a respectable showing.

I think this will probably be my only SCCA National this year. A pity, but the F1600 Series is too appealing by comparison, and the SCCA politics have left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Sean

Prep Work for Summit

Over the break between races I accumulated a stock of 2"ID springs in a variety of rates from 350-750#.

I also decided to fit new fule injectors and a 10 Micron version of the XRP filter than came with the HPD kit. The 10 micron filter is the same external dimensions so it was an easy bolt in swap. Removing the injectors was easier than I thought it would be too. I just popped off the top half of the intake manifold and access was fairly easy.

New rear springs (now also in the correct rate). A quick scale check suggests that the springs are good for a couple of pounds weight savings between the front and rear. They look much better too.

I really wanted to mount a camera after watching all of the cool VIR videos. But, I struggled on how best to mount it given the minimal options on the Citation bodywork. In the end here is what I came up with. I will try it out at Summit this weekend...

Sean

VIR Complete

And so after two fairly successful races, it was time to pack it all back up. The #99 Citation had performed flawlessly all weekend. It was one of those rare races where I just made minor tuning adjustments and added gas. I ran more and more competitively all weekend, and finished 9th in both races - leaving me 8th in points going in to the Watkins Glen rounds in June.