October 2 Race Report, GT Challenge
10-05-10, 04:05 PM
#1
Rotary Freak
Thread Starter
October 2 Race Report, GT Challenge
I know its not an RX7, but some of you guys may like to read this.
Race Report Oct 2 2010
Weeeellllllll.........., the best thing I can say about the day is that Mark and Kyle are great guys to go racing with and the car really handles extremely well. Oh yeah, we finished the race.
Generally, the clutch was slipping horrendously bad. I couldn't use more tham 1/4 throttle after any shift until the car got over about 7,000 rpm. If I tried to get the car to pull hard in any gear it would shudder and slip really badly. The clutch issues were caused by repeated loading the car onto the trailer by driving it on. This combined with repeated abuse from mis-shifts finally has taken its toll.
I thought that even though the car would be slower than normal, maybe I could nurse it through to the finish of the race. So we decided to start the race. We also had an issue with the ride height of the car. After Qualifying Mark noticed that the rear tires were coming into contact with the bodywork, so we had to raise the car up about an inch to get it to clear. I didn't get a chance to drive the car before going back out for the race, but I thought, what the heck I can't really push the car, so lets give it a go.
Coming out of the Mock Grid area to form up for the pace lap I gave the car a bit of a squirt to clean off the tires. All I got was a bad clutch slip and a shudder until I lifted off the throttle, ooooohhh no , this was going to be fun. As well I had qualified the car 5th in class and 18th overall, so I was in the middle of the field.
As we got the green flag I tried to accelerate and all I got was a slip and a shudder. I lifted and tried again, same thing, but the car was going faster anyways and a was passed by about 5 cars going through 1 and down into Turn 2. As I turned into 2 and hit the bump between the first and second apex, the back end stepped out bigtime and my heart went into my mouth a bit as I gave it gas to pull out of the slide and the clutch just slipped........ again. A bit of a tank slapper and I got the car pointed the right way again. As I went up the Andretti straightmI tried t minimize the load on the clutch and used 5th. Going into 8 I need to downshift into 4th. Now keep in mind that I was pulling 7200 rpm in 5th at the time. I lifted off the throttle pushed in the clutch and went for 4th. The box went all neutral on me. I couldn't find a gear anywhere so I went back to 5th and tried again. It went into 4th this time and I let out the clutch, keep in mind that I was still over 100 mph at this time and turning into the corner. As I let out the clutch, I wasn't in 4th I was in 2nd, , I must have wound the engine to 10,000 rpm. Luckily the clutch wasn't fully out and that the clutch was slipping, so the engine didn't feel the full effect. I went back to 5th and tried again with my fingers crossed. This time I got 3rd, but I had slowed down enough that it was at an okay rpm.
The engine didn't blow, so I eased it around the next lap and pulled into the pits. Mark and Kyle ran over to ask what was wrong and I yelled that the box was all messed up and that I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. So as I sat there for about 5 seconds I listened to everything. The engine sounded good. The pressures and temps were as normal, so I thought, what the heck lets see what will happen and I went out to run the next 55 minutes.
So I spent the next 55 minutes trying to carry as much speed through the corners as I could and not accelerate hard. I got going pretty good and pulled a bunch of 1:39's out of it, but it was really hard not being able to pull a stock Honda coming out of the turns and if I got baulked, taking 3 corners to build up speed again. Man it was frustrating as after I got the rear tires hot, the car cornered like a monster.
As well I was still struggling with the box that seemed to have a bunch more gates and missing gates at times. As the race wound on I started to have the car jump out of second gear and I was forced to hold it in second. Not an easy thing to do, steering through the hairpin with one hand and holding it in gear with the other. So when I got the last lap sign, it was like whoo hooo, . I had just finished finally getting by this GT4 Civic that I had been battling with and life was good. Everything was running well with just the clutch and second gear issues. I down shifted from 4th to 3rd going into 5a, downshifted into second for 5b and powered out of the corner. Holey cow it stayed in gear, pushed in the clutch and went for 3rd. What 3rd. Nothing. Tried 4th, 5th nothing. Managed to get back into 2nd and drove up the left hand side of the track at 6,000 in 2nd. A bunch of cars re-passed me on that last half lap including the Honda. I crossed the finish line and made the end of the race.
I then pulled the car into the Impound Area and shut it off to wait to be cleared. I listened to all the presentations and saw that the guy I had qualified behind had taken 2nd place in GT3 and had a case of coulda shoulda's, but everything was still together, so I wasn't too sad. After the Awards were given out Mark, Kyle and the previous owner of the car helped me push the car back to the pit area and onto the trailer. It sounded like there was a bucket of rocks in the box. Obviously something broke. I am thinking a shift fork.
So thats my story of this last race. We still ended up in 4th place in GT3. 23rd out of 31 cars and I got a ton of track time out of the car wringing its neck using handling only. The fastest lap was a 1:39.5 so not great and not bad. That is only about 5 seconds a lap off its potential.
Thanks for reading,
Eric
Race Report Oct 2 2010
Weeeellllllll.........., the best thing I can say about the day is that Mark and Kyle are great guys to go racing with and the car really handles extremely well. Oh yeah, we finished the race.
Generally, the clutch was slipping horrendously bad. I couldn't use more tham 1/4 throttle after any shift until the car got over about 7,000 rpm. If I tried to get the car to pull hard in any gear it would shudder and slip really badly. The clutch issues were caused by repeated loading the car onto the trailer by driving it on. This combined with repeated abuse from mis-shifts finally has taken its toll.
I thought that even though the car would be slower than normal, maybe I could nurse it through to the finish of the race. So we decided to start the race. We also had an issue with the ride height of the car. After Qualifying Mark noticed that the rear tires were coming into contact with the bodywork, so we had to raise the car up about an inch to get it to clear. I didn't get a chance to drive the car before going back out for the race, but I thought, what the heck I can't really push the car, so lets give it a go.
Coming out of the Mock Grid area to form up for the pace lap I gave the car a bit of a squirt to clean off the tires. All I got was a bad clutch slip and a shudder until I lifted off the throttle, ooooohhh no , this was going to be fun. As well I had qualified the car 5th in class and 18th overall, so I was in the middle of the field.
As we got the green flag I tried to accelerate and all I got was a slip and a shudder. I lifted and tried again, same thing, but the car was going faster anyways and a was passed by about 5 cars going through 1 and down into Turn 2. As I turned into 2 and hit the bump between the first and second apex, the back end stepped out bigtime and my heart went into my mouth a bit as I gave it gas to pull out of the slide and the clutch just slipped........ again. A bit of a tank slapper and I got the car pointed the right way again. As I went up the Andretti straightmI tried t minimize the load on the clutch and used 5th. Going into 8 I need to downshift into 4th. Now keep in mind that I was pulling 7200 rpm in 5th at the time. I lifted off the throttle pushed in the clutch and went for 4th. The box went all neutral on me. I couldn't find a gear anywhere so I went back to 5th and tried again. It went into 4th this time and I let out the clutch, keep in mind that I was still over 100 mph at this time and turning into the corner. As I let out the clutch, I wasn't in 4th I was in 2nd, , I must have wound the engine to 10,000 rpm. Luckily the clutch wasn't fully out and that the clutch was slipping, so the engine didn't feel the full effect. I went back to 5th and tried again with my fingers crossed. This time I got 3rd, but I had slowed down enough that it was at an okay rpm.
The engine didn't blow, so I eased it around the next lap and pulled into the pits. Mark and Kyle ran over to ask what was wrong and I yelled that the box was all messed up and that I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. So as I sat there for about 5 seconds I listened to everything. The engine sounded good. The pressures and temps were as normal, so I thought, what the heck lets see what will happen and I went out to run the next 55 minutes.
So I spent the next 55 minutes trying to carry as much speed through the corners as I could and not accelerate hard. I got going pretty good and pulled a bunch of 1:39's out of it, but it was really hard not being able to pull a stock Honda coming out of the turns and if I got baulked, taking 3 corners to build up speed again. Man it was frustrating as after I got the rear tires hot, the car cornered like a monster.
As well I was still struggling with the box that seemed to have a bunch more gates and missing gates at times. As the race wound on I started to have the car jump out of second gear and I was forced to hold it in second. Not an easy thing to do, steering through the hairpin with one hand and holding it in gear with the other. So when I got the last lap sign, it was like whoo hooo, . I had just finished finally getting by this GT4 Civic that I had been battling with and life was good. Everything was running well with just the clutch and second gear issues. I down shifted from 4th to 3rd going into 5a, downshifted into second for 5b and powered out of the corner. Holey cow it stayed in gear, pushed in the clutch and went for 3rd. What 3rd. Nothing. Tried 4th, 5th nothing. Managed to get back into 2nd and drove up the left hand side of the track at 6,000 in 2nd. A bunch of cars re-passed me on that last half lap including the Honda. I crossed the finish line and made the end of the race.
I then pulled the car into the Impound Area and shut it off to wait to be cleared. I listened to all the presentations and saw that the guy I had qualified behind had taken 2nd place in GT3 and had a case of coulda shoulda's, but everything was still together, so I wasn't too sad. After the Awards were given out Mark, Kyle and the previous owner of the car helped me push the car back to the pit area and onto the trailer. It sounded like there was a bucket of rocks in the box. Obviously something broke. I am thinking a shift fork.
So thats my story of this last race. We still ended up in 4th place in GT3. 23rd out of 31 cars and I got a ton of track time out of the car wringing its neck using handling only. The fastest lap was a 1:39.5 so not great and not bad. That is only about 5 seconds a lap off its potential.
Thanks for reading,
Eric
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