Nelson Ledges ChumpCar 14 hr Race 07/13/13

[Fred32v]

The Nelson Ledges ChumpCar 14 hr Race 07/13/2013 is now history,
but MostMint Racing was there in full force with their Saturn 50 Rocket ship
(# 5 was not available) and four determined drivers and a large supporting crew.
The race started at 8:00 am with Tiresmoke at the controls of the Saturn.
There were 34 entries in the race. Several pit stops and driver changes,
6 hours later the 2, 3, 4, and 5th place cars were still on the same lap and
MostMint was in the mix sometimes running as high as second. This made for many
hours of excitement with each on-track pass and pit stop. After 12 hours the team
had secured a lock on third place and was looking for a podium finish.
With less than 2 hours to go, the power steering pulley came apart.
A quick repair eliminated the pump and put the team back in the race and still in 3rd place.
Then the last pit stop, MostMint jumps in the car ready to bring it home.
The short belt failed on his first lap and back to the garage it went,
where there was a furious attempt to replace the bad pump but time ran out.
In a little over 12 and half hours the little Saturn completed 475 laps (950 miles).
Even though #50 sat out the last 1.5 hours they still finished 12th overall.
They received a Bad Break award of a gift certificate for new Brake Rotors.
I believe there were some other awards they received but I don’t remember what they were.
Even though the drivers were fast and racing hard, the Saturn went home with not a scratch on it.
The wheel bearing issue seems to be under control, and the new set of Bridgestone tires worked great.
The finish was disheartening, but there is no denying that it was serious fun and excitement while it lasted.
I’m looking forward to the two seven hour races in Pittsburgh in October.

Tech inspection………....................…..Stickers……………............…….Ready for the Start

Pit Area………....................…...MostMint & LittleMints…...................……Oak Tree

Repair attempt…..........…......………Ride home……….......................……..duplicate


Just like TRP, Nelson Ledges is always great fun.

[TireSmoker]

What a blast it was! Littlemint Kurt was my radio man on that first stint, calling out my lap times over the radio, and about halfway through says "you're in 5th place!" That fired me up! I had realized that I was doing a lot more passing than being passed and his message over the radio confirmed to me that we had a good car. As much fun as we had the first two years running the race, being in contention was a whole new level of excitement and motivation.

Having some previous experience under my belt, plus the lighter car count, really helped in managing traffic. I figured out about just getting the nose of the car under people in certain spots to force the position. If they turn down into you, they're gonna pit-manuever themselves, so they are forced to back off. You gotta grab and defend the inside line for the carousel and The Kink, because passing on the outside is really hard unless they are really slow. Force the other guy to take the tougher line. Use traffic to help kill the drive of faster cars. Dive bomb into Oak Tree every time someone is there. I don't know why other drivers weren't doing it, but our car just works down there.

I went back to the video and confirmed that I got black flagged for something I couldn't possibly have done. Corner workers called me into race control for contacting the #69 Civic (an EC class car, no less!). Reviewing the incident, the #141 RX-7 was in front of me when #69 spun it in Oak Tree. I'd even go so far to say that neither of us hit him. Happened at 8:37 on the dash clock (file GO10700, Andy). You can hear the pit marshal talking to me at 8:41-8:42. As a team, we had a perfectly clean race. However, with that said, I think I passed the silver Saab #930 under yellow in Turn 13 at 8:34 and didn't get called on it -- it certainly wasn't intentional. You can see my battle with the Subaru from 8:25-8:33 (that dash clock rocks!)

I'd love to share the videos with everyone, but the files are huge. I only have about 6-7 hours of footage and it's 20 GB. It takes too much time to view/edit/re-encode/upload to Youtube. However, if anyone is interested, try this link: ftp://ftp.studly.net/gopro/ It might take 30 seconds to connect. Once it does, right-click on a file and choose "Save target as.." or "Save link as..." Keep in mind, this is coming from my home internet connection. It won't be fast -- but just start it, and walk away. It'll eventually finish.

Can't wait for Pittsburgh! A whole new challenge!


-Dave

[TireSmoker]

I found the MyLaps info for the race. http://www.mylaps.com/en/lapchart/2766345

It's a little confusing the way you have to scroll around it, but it shows you lap-by-lap what position everyone was in. It looks like we took the green flag in 18th position. By lap 10, we were up to 8th. At lap 46, we were up to 4th.

Way cool -- I was dying to know where I started. I'm gonna remember that drive for a long time.

-Dave

[MostMint]

Mostmint Racing almost did not attend this race. After they shortened it from 25:25:25 to 12 I was fairly disgusted. Some of the guys wanted to try a different track so we decided to run the PIRC race instead. However a couple guys from the team were interested so I challenged them to organize it. This allowed me to focus on car preparation and everything else in my life.

So we showed up at Nelson Ledges looking at the possibility of getting into the top 10, maybe. On Friday we set up camp as usual. Dave got us a great spot close to about everything. We skipped practice, got through tech inspection early (I asked John if they were ready for tech and he said “do we look ready?”) and got everything set up in the paddock and the basics at the pit wall, along with hangin out with whatever Chumps we saw. We were casing the competition at practice and not especially liking what we saw from the fast cars – like they were too fast!

On Saturday everyone got there on time and we were ready to go on time. Dave was taking the first stint and I was doing crew chief duty as our crew chief was not there yet. This happens when you are at your home track.

The first surprise came when our pit mates came in on lap one after a run into the tire barrier. We spent all this time figuring out how to coordinate our stops and that went out the window on lap 1.

Somewhere in here I noticed there were only 3 trophies which I pointed out to Mike. He said if we finished 4th he would get us our Chump Change. He did not have a trophy at that time. I told him we would wait for the trophy to be built and shipped – like we could finish 4th.

The next surprise was when the live timing came up and we found out we were in 5th place! This was an amazing start and exceeded what we thought we could do. It's not clear to me when the penalty laps are plugged in but surely the faster cars would come and crush us so it was fun to be there. The next surprise came when Dave got black flagged for contact. He came in and took his medicine (even though video evidence shows there was another car between us and the one that spun) – good thing we sat in the new driver meeting for the reminder from Chisek to just accept it – because mistakes happen. It was a short talk and we were back on track.

The next surprise came when Dave started running out of gas. We had practiced and made 2 hours with 2 gallons left in the tank but something was different today and we ran out at like 1:50. Lucky it started sputtering on the back straight and he was able to get in. So our first pit stop went 5:43 as we did some pushing to get to the pit. During the second stint Tom was driving and we were working our way back up the leader board. We shortened the pit cycle and I'm pretty sure we were 4th at the second pit in. We did our regular driver change, routine maintenance and were back out on the track. Yes routine maintenance now included some fresh grease for the LF bearing.

Our third driver was Joey – new to the team for this race – and he really got to work out there. I knew he could reach 1:24 in the car and after a while he did that. We were running Bridgestone Potenza RE11A's for the first time and I was glad to see they matched the times we got with the Star Specs in our last test session. I had seen Bill's yellow MR2 come in on the wrecker and that moved us up from 4th to 3rd. Not too long after that we figured out that Joey was closing in on the #12 BMW for second place – more than a second a lap. So once we told him that he was able to catch and pass and we were in second place! Needless to say the Mostmint rocket ship was exceeding expectations at that time. At the end of the stint we came in for regular maintenance. My daughter was manning the radio during my stint. I told her don't tell me where I am in the standings I don't want to know! I'm the slowest driver on the team and I did not want to put too much pressure on myself trying to get back to second place. She was giving me lap times every lap over the radio – which was helpful and pretty cool. Anyway after about an hour I noticed that the #12 had not passed me once. Of course the V6 MR2s were crushing me and a few others and I generally pointed them by so I could focus on what was in the windshield view vs the rear view. I was so rusty my lap times started in the 1:30's but by now I remembered how to race a little and was getting consistent 1:27-1:28 sometimes in 1:26 range.

I had a few good battles with our pit mates in the 23 in between this. They had overcome their encounters with the tire barrier and we were racing.

I had one adventure with the 49 car. It was fast and erratic. In this event it just passed me but I was regaining on it coming out of turn 3 and it blew up right in front of me leaving me in a blinding smoke cloud! A quick move to the left and I was clear. Somehow no oil on the windshield so I just kept going.

Not too long after that I finally came upon the #12 car. It was not an epic battle though, the car was stopped before oak tree. I passed it twice there before it was moved off and presumably into the pits for repair. I had moved us back up into second place. I was in the car at the midpoint where we were running second. This was so exciting. As much as I am excited I am hoping the car stays together. Besides the new tires we're running a new bearing configuration and I'm hoping it's good enough to get us to the end.

So during the next several hours we just kept going – following the same pattern. We did lose second place when the 184 Saab finally overcame the deficit of having to replace a CV or halfshaft. They were too fast for us. It did not matter – every time they announced us in the top 5 over the PA we all cheered. This was just our 3rd race and we looked like a lock for a podium finish. In the 11th and 12th hour it started sinking in that we were going to be third if the car held together and the first two did not break. I was getting very edgy and short with people. I was not going to rest easy until it was over.

For the entire race all the guys kept the car on the track and did not have any contact with anyone or anything. Except for the bugs on the front the car did not even get dirty – no mud splash at all.

When Tom came in from his second stint he was having a hard time hearing us and he stayed out a lap too long and ran out of gas at almost the same spot as Dave but coasted into the pit. Again we were pushing the car in the pits but no tow was needed so it only cost us a minute.

At 8 PM is when the trouble started. Joey had a problem – he heard a clunk and the steering was hard so he came in. After a quick inspection we determined the belt was off – in fact the power steering pulley had broken in at least three pieces. Well I was prepared for potential power steering problems as I had a shortbelt and in 12 minutes we were back on track. We had a big enough cushion we were still in 3rd place with a 3 lap lead! I can't actually believe that. We were really going to be tight on fuel so this time allowed Joey to stay in a little longer and that problem was cured. So at 8:25 he came in and we did our last routine stop. Joey said the low coolant light was coming on so the guys added some water. We were done early and so I waited like a minute at the pit exit. There was nothing to do but bring it home.

Well that idea lasted about 30 seconds from there as the car pitched the belt in turn 1 on pit exit. It is not clear to me why except that the short belt had to run with the ribbed side on the flat of the pulley. I noticed the battery light come on shortly after and figured the water was on the belt still and would clear up shortly after. Well it did not and by the time I got through turn 1 the second time (I did not see my own belt on the ground there) the hot light came on and I noticed the temp gauge was just at the red line. At this point I backed off the throttle and eased it into the pits.

We went behind the wall. What to do next? Well I had a spare regular belt so the only way to get out there was to change the power steering pump. We knew 3rd was done but maybe we could get 45 minutes and make the top 10. We had a spare power steering pump. Thing was it was off a DOHC Saturn of unknown origin and while the reservoir looked the same the rest was not. The guys told me to get my gear on and get back in the car after the old pump was out and the new one started going in. Problem after problem came up and I watched the clock tick while the agony of defeat started setting in. Finally at 9:45 they were ready to try it. Unfortunately the rigged up pump shifted as soon as I tried to start it and that was the end of our race. I probably could have done a lap or two at the end with no belt to take the checker but I was too shell shocked to think it out.

So while the other teams were celebrating we started cleaning up.

After a while I remembered my old man bought some 50/50 tickets and I suggested we get up to the tech shed to see if he won. Shortly after we found we were awarded a gift certificate from Frozen Rotors. I really appreciate it now but at that moment I was not a happy camper.

I even missed the barbeque. However before I left I decided to see if I could get something to drink for the drive home (think water or cola people!). At this time I saw Mike and we chatted a little. When I told him we ended up 12th he told me we were the winners of the prize from Bruce High Performance Transporters. Right now I can't wait to see them, but it just barely took the edge off at that moment.

I talked with lots of people during the race. When the black Firebird went out with a bad power steering line I told them they would need a new pump also as the loss of fluid wrecks the pump quickly at this track. I know because I did the same thing with my 95 Camaro at a track day at NL.

I also ran into Jeff G and was glad to hear he had resolved his fuel supply issues and the Datsun was turning great lap times.

At the live timing monitor I chatted with the guys from the Beretta team and learned of their wheel bearing and halfshaft woes. I shared some ideas with them to help with the next race. Little did I know they were about to help us out in a big way. With the missing belt we decided to have the car towed home. On Sat night Jeff - one of the guys from the team offered to trailer it for us and he made good on his offer on Sunday. Many thanks Jeff!

There is some irony in the fact that we were in 3rd at the 12 hour mark and I was one of the proponents of extending the race to 14 hours. It is what it is.

One last thing. As we were going in to pick up the car the place was almost empty, though there was one car leaving – it was another teal Saturn SC2. It belonged to the photographer. So he came back in and chatted with us for a while.

Many thanks to ChumpCar for putting on the show, to Bruce High Performance Trailers, Frozen Rotors and all the event sponsors, and to Allen Paintball Products for their support. I also want to thank all my team and crew (it was great to have my teenagers there helping out) and supporters.

Not bad for our third race.

[TireSmoker]

Here is my first-stint battle with the 729 Subaru. This was probably the most protracted battle I had during the race. It was real good fun and had a nice chat with that team later in the day..

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksSDojHnv9k[/youtube]

[Basement Paul]

I don't know if the Subaru finished the race, but it was a pretty cool car. Looked almost bone stock, ran an auto trans, had a decent amount of body roll, but seemed to be a pretty rock solid ride. I was there watching this whole battle, it was pretty cool to see how it unfolded. I actually thought that when Dave got black flagged, that he wiped this guy out because the part of the racetrack where he passed is out of view from spectators, and it wasn't more than five or six laps after the pass that he got pulled into the pits.

-BP

[MostMint]

That guy experienced first hand why you let the faster car go by. Looks like they must have saved it (not got stuck or hit the barrier) because they had a 1:39 lap in there so it only cost them 13 seconds that time. With a slight lift costing maybe 2 seconds he could have let the faster car go by and saved the off track excursion.

I first saw these guys last October during a test session in the rain - they were just starting out and looking to see a ChumpCar. They were part of the reason I decided to go do a test in the rain with the car that day.

[TireSmoker]

Paul, watching those guys chuck that thing into some of the corners totally reminded me of the way we (I) sometimes drove those AWD subarus in Gran Turismo. Just chuck it in there and let the AWD pull you through. Heh..

-Dave

[MostMint]

BTW they did not finish. IIRC they had some halfshaft problems before the midpoint and not enough spare parts. I think Todd will figure it out so we can expect to see more of them.

[Fred32v]

I’m not a big fan of Road & Track, especially since they went to their new format,
but the October, 2013 issue had an article that you Mostmint Chump Car fans might find interesting.
R&T took a new $140,000 BMW M6 to six road courses. The M6 is 4371lb, has 552hp,
and does a 12.1 quarter at 120mph with a top speed of 155mph computer limited.

One of these road courses was the Nelsons Ledges Road Course. I thought he presented the track in
a reasonably accurate way. His quote “There is a timeless quality to what happens here.”

“Length: 2.0 miles, Turns: 13, IN A WORD: Cojones.”

“The M6 fires out of the Carousel and toward the Kink at 142 mph, the anonymous scenery blurring in the windows.”
“The M6 is in no danger of cracking the one-minute mark, but a few exploratory laps dip into the 1:17 range,
with more to come if we had fresh tires and time to work out the kinks. Or, more specifically, the Kink.”