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I need to note here that the Mustang was running much better Saturday than it did on Friday, but it still wasn't 100% right. There were some stumbling issues I could feel at part throttle, something that was very noticeable to me but Amy said it felt fine to her. The new Oxygen sensor had seemed to clear up the wild bucking and popping issues, but maybe the fouled sensor was a
result of another issue, not the
cause of it? Kyle checked the codes on the car throughout the day and kept seeing (and clearing) O2 Bank 1 issues... now showing stuck full Rich. We would end up monitoring this closely all weekend.
Left: On the scales, where I got within 9 pounds of my 3770 lb minimum, running with the "low fuel" light on! Right: Adding more ballast (aka: fuel)
Two of our customer's had some car troubles that kept us busy, too. One of them broke a rear control arm and the other had a motor issue that led to lots of black smoke. We diagnosed the UCA failure and had the customer ride with us to the shop, where his ride picked him up. We had a new UCA at our shop we would install the next morning. And the 2nd customer's car was loaded into our trailer for a tow to their house, and later to a Ford dealer for diagnosis. So after unhooking our trailer and unloading all of our gear... we had to load everything back up, load up the customer's broken car, and leave our TT3 Mustang sitting in the paddock overnight (along with another friend's car who crashed out at our place that night and rode back and forth to the track with us). Dropping their broken car off and then taking the other customer to our shop for pickup made for a long night, but we finally made it home by 10 pm.
NASA at ECR, Saturday, Nov 2nd, 2013 - Day 2 of 3
Sunday was a new day and I was determined to find that elusive sub 1:55 lap time if I could get a clear lap. Today we had Olof (technician) and Brandon (photographer) from Vorshlag joining us, and they stayed just as busy as Kyle did on Saturday and Ryan did on Friday. This is the point where the pictures started to get a lot better, as it was Brandon using his talent and gear to shoot them and not me or Amy shooting with our Nikon or camera phones. I slid in a couple of Brandon shots from Sunday in the Saturday post above, too, because they are so much better than ours'.
Vorshlag Event Picture Gallery: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...CR-Nov-110213/
Amy and I got back out to the track at 7:30 am towing the now empty trailer. We set our paddock back up, unloaded our gear for the 3rd time this weekend, and got ready for TT session 1. Olof worked on our customer's Mustang and installed the
new and improved Whiteline UCA and mount (KTA141-A). This job was a little tricky doing it parked in the paddock on jack stands, but he got it done. This customer was able to get his HPDE sessions later that day without issue, which made him very happy.
Jamie's Forgestar/AST/Vorshlag/Whiteline equipped car getting some trackside repairs and heading back out for more laps
The first TT session was at 8 am, so we were a bit rushed checking tire pressures, fuel level, and getting everything ready before heading out on track. Well, with all of the frantic work going on in the paddock and people stopping by to talk I spaced out and forgot to plug in my damned transponder. You see, Amy and I have separate AMB transponders for our separate, individual TT3 entries, and we swap on her battery powered unit and unplug my wired unit when she races. Well her battery powered unit was off the car but we didn't plug mine in, GRR!
Left: Out on track in my "timeless" session. Right: Hitting the scales again after another session stuck behind "the blocker"
I was oblivious and went out on track, which was still pretty cold at 44°F, sitting in a good grid spot and hoping to get a good lap in... then I was black flagged on the first hot lap. WTF? Apparently Amy had been watching the Race Timer app and noticed that my first hot lap time never triggered, she immediately knew what had happened, asked the NASA folks to black flag me, which they did during my 2nd hot lap - so I came in. She waved me over in the hot pits, explained the issue, opened the hood and hooked up my transponder and sent me back out about 30 seconds later. I knew time in this session might be running a little short so I took a warm up lap at full speed and right as I came around to the start/finish to get a timed lap... the flagger at the stand whipped out the checkers, 13 minutes into the session.
NOOOOO! Apparently they shortened all of our TT sessions from 20 minutes down to 15 minutes, but gave us 5 sessions on Sunday instead of the typical 4. Normally this would be welcomed news, as I only want to take 1 or 2 hot laps, but in this case that 5 minute (really, 7 minute) shorter session left me without a single hot lap. My whole session was blown and I
never got a timed lap. It was so cold that I only saw an indicated 1:56 lap (on Lap 1) on my AIM Solo anyway, and nobody else set a fast time in this session, so that wasn't likely going to be the time for that golden lap to happen.
So that first session was wasted and totally my fault, but this happens sometimes. I have had an item on our build list all year to get a dash-mounted switch for the 2nd transponder, with an indicator light, but we just never got around to it. One of several sessions that were blown this year for the same stupid reason - no transponder. Switching beween two transponders for two drivers is highly unusual and takes an extra effort, but apparently too much for my old, feeble brain to remember, heh. Next year Amy and I are racing as "Team Vorshlag" so we can use the same car and ONE transponder (and pay one entry fee), so hopefully this won't happen again. I will have them set the TT2 car up with a single, wired transponder that is always on when the engine is running, so I cannot forget!
Long story short, Amy let me drive again in TT session 2, where I was gridded 5th in line, right behind the TT1 car that I've been having trouble get held up behind all weekend (and pretty much all year), so I was worried I would get blocked again. Even with a big gap on the Warm Up lap, where I held back for an entire straightaway before Turn 11, he also held WAY back and I caught him by the start/finish line line on hot lap 1. Then I followed about 1 car length off his bumper through Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4, to let him know I was there ("Hi!") and obviously getting held up. Right where you normally accelerate between turns 4 and 5 he freagin
brake checked me! I came so close to crashing into the back of his car and taking us both out I cannot describe it. It was a very close call, an absolutely
insane move, and totally caught me off guard. I braked so hard going down the hill into Turn 5 that there couldn't have been inches between us. There was a lot of speed differential, too, and the incident could have totaled both cars - not a good place to brake check someone.
Left: Out on track. Right: Coming in after a brief off track excursion with grass in the grill
So that Near Miss really spooked me, and I backed way way off and let the train of three cars held up behind me go by (who were also held up by the slow poke in front) while I let loose a
stream of expletives. I took another brisk cool down lap, trying to build up a gap ahead while not holding up more drivers behind, so as not to ruin anyone else's session.
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