Very promising and frustrating day. We were running all 3 cars on this day. Mark Clyde was out in his ex-Capaldi Cougar, I had my ex-Mumm Bros Cougar out and I also had my RX7 out being driven by Malcolm Strachan. Malcolm is a very good shoe, so I knew the car was in good hands. The other exciting thing was that for the very first time I was going to run my car on the new NA Carrera Advanced Technology Bias Ply Race Tires. There are only 2 sets in North America and I have a set for the Cougar and another set for the RX7, though this weekend they are only on the Cougar.

First, it was hot, freakin' hot, Africa hot at the track. We measured 93 air temps and the pavement was around 150. There was also about 10,000 people in the facility as it was also the drag strip side of the track's biggest weekend. There were people milling about all day. That added a sense of occasion to the day and made things fun.

First Race - I started 3rd, Malcolm about 10th and Mark maybe 14th. In this series you start where you show up. A lot of fun as the mix of cars really adds to the passing experience and the faster cars always make it to the front anyways. On the pace lap I was throwing the car around pretty good to get a feel for the tires. They seemed to have a decent amount of grip and were very predictable. We came around, got the green and bang we were off down the long front straight into turn 1. A little argy bargy coming out of the corner and I had to brake a bit more than planned and dropped down to 6th. Battled with a very well prepped and driven Civic for the rest of the lap as I tried to get by him. I was quicker, but he was giving me no room to get by. Finally, used the extra grip to pull alongside him coming out of the twisties in Turn 5 ran through 6 side by side and got a bit ahead into turn 7. Climbed on the brakes, gave him room on the inside and powered out of the left hander, all on the outside dirty part of the track. Awesome grip and feedback to pull that off. As soon as I got ahead, boom I was gone chased down the 5th place car and was by him in half a lap. Then set my head down to make some hard fast laps.

The car was flying. I was doing stuff and finding capabilities I never knew existed. These cars always tend to understeer like tanks and I almost always leave the rear bar at full soft, but today I was adding rear bar and the car was going faster and faster and it was on rails. My throttle pick up points were far earlier and the car was extremely predictable. I was loving it and ended up in the lead group with a NASCAR style truck, a Porsche 911, a heavily modified Camaro and then me. Our grouping was a little strung out, but we were about 20 car lengths ahead of 5th place. I noticed Mark pulled off to the side of the track going into Turn 1. Too bad dude, but I was on wings of speed and didn't really care as long as it looked okay. I was totally happy and ready to drive to the finish, then going into turn 1 my peddle went to the floor. Pumped like hell and it came up, but by then I had gone way wide through the corner and lost a bunch of time. I am all WTF???? And by Turn 2 it still needed a couple of pumps, but after that it was good and hard. Now I was slowing down a bit as I couldn't trust that the car would stop and the next lap I pumped hard into 1, good. Pumped hard into 2, good. Drove the next 3 corners and everything was good, then entered Turn 7 and again nothing. I was pumping like Arnold Schwarzenegger and nothing. I made the corner by the skin of my teeth and carried on thinking I had no brakes, but the other guys were getting close so I was hoping we were on the last lap and I could hold them off.

Nope, at least 1 more to go. So there I was pumping the peddle like mad trying to get it to stop every time. Running a fair bit slower than before and I started to get swamped going into turn 2. First a very nice Vette got me under braking for 2, then as I came out of turn 5 the car started shuddering hard and I ground to a halt......

They ended up red flagging the race as I didn't make it off track and the tow vehicle pulled me in and I got my first good look at it and bang it was my drivers side front wheel bearing. I guess the extra grip and the age of the bearing were too much for it and it let go. The wheel had come over and was rubbing on the caliper hard enough to shave the cooling fins off in one place. All in all about the best possible outcome. Then Malcolm came in and the RX7 was banged down the passenger side (over compensating BMW driver) and then Mark was towed in and his Cougar had broken another halfshaft. Both Cougars were out.

So, we decided to use my car as a parts car (very handy to have the sister cars as everything swaps) and we got his ready for the second race. Banged out the rear wheel well on the RX7 and it was good to go as well. In the second race Mark was doing very well. Battling hard with a number of cars and moving up. His car looked a bit of a handful as you could see it literally bouncing off the track in a few spots. Malcolm was driving the wheels off the RX7 and was running upper mid pack and far above where that car should run. Then with about 5 minutes to go in the second race we could see that Mark had spun coming out of Turn 1. Again we are all scratching our heads but Mark got going again just as the race finished and idled back to the pits. When he pulled in, we could see coolant coming out everywhere and it made sense. He had spun in his own juices, LOL. Malcolm had done a good job and was totally fine.

We found the leak on Mark's car (some capped off coolant line had cracked), fixed that, swapped the tires on the RX7 to a fresh set of Toyo RR's I had and they all started the 3rd race. By now a number of the cars and drivers had said enough with the heat, so the grid was down from 26 cars to about 16. At the green, Malcolm came to life on the tires and had moved up to first place overall and held it until about 2 laps from the end when he got passed a couple of times and ended up 3rd. Mark battled the good fight and ended up around 5th. They were both able to drive the cars onto the trailers. So all in all a good day.

For those of you who care, I got my Cougar down into the 1:20.xx range, though we didn't time every lap and as there is no tracking, we don't know what was the fastest. The RX7 got down into the 1:22's in the final race, but again we didn't time every lap. Pretty good on an extremely hot day with a very dirty and dusty track.

Eric

 

So, 216 views and no comments? I thought the fact that the RX7 was leading most of the 3rd race would get at least a rock on or B@MMMM or something. We are all getting so boring.

On another note, As its going to take too much time to build a new glass front splitter, anyone have an S4 nose they want to donate so that I can put a different front on the car for the 3 Hour in September?

Thanks,

Eric

 

What day was this? Would've loved to come out! and +1 for Malcolm

 

Here is a shot of Malcolm in the pig going very quickly in the first race on the 888's. The car was transformed later on when we put it on the Toyo RR's. They are a very good tire.

Eric