Nelson Ledges ChumpCar 25.5 hr Race 10/6-7/2012

[Fred32v]

I was at the race on Saturday, but a serious commitment caused me to miss Sunday.
It was really cold (mid 40’s) and quite windy during the day. For those who were there
overnight, it was in the 30’s. Still it was great fun. Four drivers and many, many support folks.
I have a BEFORE picture of the passenger side, maybe someone has an AFTER picture,
It isn’t pretty, but it was running to within 10 minutes of the 25.5 hour finish when a bearing failure
stopped them with not enough time to change it. During the race they did change 3 wheel bearings
In an hour, wow! The Saturn 5 finished 15th in a field of 58. Way more laps than last year.

BEFORE side view……………………......……..Pit Partners………………...……Call to the Post


Trophies……………...........……….Status was available on-line……………........……Night


The Pinion Trophy on the left was awarded to MostMint Racing.

First pit stop
http://youtu.be/QO3kXPqk798
Night time stop
http://youtu.be/SeoEuKHduJg

Can’t wait until next year, old #5 will require some cosmetic changes as well as some upgrades
but all in all this was a resounding success. Just like TDR, Nelsons is serious fun.


Copied this from Tiresmoke's Project post:
Thought I would post the summary of my on-track moments from this weekend's 25 hour race..
fortunately, they were very few.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMGRKDxQbKc

You can see a car spinning off ahead of me just as I'm pulling out on the track for the very first time,
then a bone-headed self-induced spin, and then a nowhere-to-go wreck that, fortunately,
didn't damage the car very much.

-Dave

[MostMint]

The car ran great this year. We had issues with the bearings but we monitored them and changed them as maintenance items not as broken parts. The timing shows we completed the 3 bearing change - including the time to move the car to the pits and back out - in 54 minutes. During that time I took opportunity to clean the inside of the rear window, adjust the hood alignment from the earlier contact and some other maintenance items. I was shagging tools, getting torque specs and whatever else was needed during that stop also.

The first stint in traffic was not my favorite but I really enjoyed my other three sessions even though 1.2 of them were in the dark.

[Fred32v]

ChumpCar posted the race results.
Mostmint Racing Saturn #5 finished 15th in a recorded field of 49 cars.
They completed 859 laps, running time 25:19:26.557.
Best lap was 827 by John, 1:23.798, avg. 85.92 mph.
The Nelson Ledges web site says the track is 2 miles around,
so Mostmint racing went 1718 miles in 25.5 hours,
134 laps behind the winner #7. They were in the pit next to us.

WAIT UNTIL NEXT YEAR!!!

[Fred32v]

Track Day. Threatening rain all week, but none until the day was done. The Saturn is out of the garage.
MostMint, Smoke, with teamates Tom and Joe were there to take turns putting the car through its' paces.

Typical stop checking things...........A Sponsor....................All over that Red Vette


The Red Corvette in the picture could not shake the Saturn V rocket with Smoke at the wheel. Joe had a 1:25 Lap.
The Saturn was driven home. Just a routine day at the track. Just like TRP, Nelson is always good fun!

[MostMint]

Nice pics! One of these days I am going to remember to ask for action shots of the car on the track.

This was a highly productive test. We got some accurate heat readings on the front bearings (191 degrees was the hottest we recorded), was able to adjust tire pressures some in order to flatten the contact patch from inside to out. I should also be able to refine the camber adjustment on the RF for the same purpose. We ran 75 laps in 2 hours track time and used 11.2 gallons.

We also spent a good bit of time in the afternoon talking about preferred race line and the fine points of driving this track. I know I changed my line in 13.

I also relearned that being away 6 months means you have to relearn the fine points of the line to take, braking points, etc.

In the afternoon there were a few guys going off and hitting barriers but nothing more than some sheet metal damage. We were not among them. IIRC Joey, Tom and Dave all made it into 1:25 range for lap times. I'm guessing I made it to 1:26 range but no one was recording lap times during my afternoon stint.

The best part is the car ran great. We addressed a few minor issues during the day (brake duct, rubbing brake line, strut to knuckle bolts loosened on the LF).

The junkyard trans we installed grinds on the 2-3 speed shift. It's fine driving regular and when racing you don't notice because we rarely need to make that shift.