Salute to the Dogs (06/28/2020) - 7 hours - Ridge Motorsports Park:
Last night we bled the brakes, and I am very hopeful that this will take care of our issue. I get in the car to head out on track, and .. I hear the faint sounds of a wheel bearing. Again?? Well now it's too late, the race is about to start, we just need to see how it feels. I have a sinking feeling that what I was hoping to contribute to air in the brakes.. was actually this wheel bearing getting sloppy and pushing the pistons back into the brake caliper.
I start the race in 8th place, and happily find that the brakes are definitely much better than yesterday, so bleeding did improve the situation. I make it up into 6th place before there is a red flag on lap 8. Apparently a car blew it's guts all over the track, so they get in the car paramedics to pick up the engine intestines. Before the red flag I could feel I had a good lap going, but our lap timing has been acting up so I don't know what the predicted lap would have been. After we get going again, I get up into 5th place behind a V6-swapped MR2. Things are going well, when I get an unexpected fuel-starve happen in 8a, a right-hander. The 240SX factory tank is usually great at getting all the fuel out, and I still have 1/4 tank of fuel in there. At least it's an odd-hour race, that gives us a little more flexibility with 2-hour max stints. After getting more and more fuel-starve, I pit in 5th place on lap 46 with a fastest lap of 1:58.2.
Due to Covid, they can't fit us all in the hot pits like normal. So we go out into the cold pits and refuel at our trailer, and this also means they moved to 10 minute pit stops. This will actually help us a bit, as that's a few more minutes that we don't have to be on track suffering with fuel issues. My dad jumps in the car and heads out on track in 6th place. Soon after heading out on track, he is next to a Volvo with his bumper up at their door. They don't see him, and he is forced to hit the grass to avoid contact. Being they were just side-by-side going through the last corner, it's a little bit of a head-scratcher, but responsibility is on the passing car, so no harm no foul.
At the Ridge they have to drive the meals out to the corner workers, which means a yellow flag around noon. We had missed it Saturday, so today we have already had the discussion as a team that we have to nail our 2nd pit stop during the lunch time yellow flag. It's after noon, we see the yellow/white flags so we dive into the pits on lap 82 while in 6th place. Dave's fastest lap was a 1:59.9.
As I head out on track.. it's not yellow. I'm confused, as it normally takes quite a while to do all the lunch deliveries. We pit early.. and now we are in 10th place with our faster rivals going to be pitting during the actual lunch yellow. I guess we were a bit too eager! When the lunch yellow comes out and the pace truck comes out, they let the field go until they get to the #177 Finally Racing BMW. I am directly behind #177, so now I am stuck at the beginning of the queue while all the other cars get a free lap on me. Then to add insult to injury, #177 pulls right into the pits so I am directly behind the pace car. All I can do is laugh at this point and then try to make use of the clean air after the yellow ends.
When I am released I pull off a string of 1:57s and 1:58s before hitting traffic again. Eventually I am further up in the order when the fuel stumble hits again. It's bad enough that I even try to give a little steering back, trying to slosh some fuel back. This is bad, as I'm barely under a half tank at this point. This could be a real challenge just to finish this race! I stretch it as far as I can, then pit on lap 126 with a fastest lap of 1:57.4. There is about an hour and a half left, use a light foot Dad!
As people cycle through their last pit stop, we are now in 4th place. Dave drives a bit easy and we finish a lap behind both 2nd and 3rd place and three laps behind 1st (#177). Rats! Our missed call on the lunch hour pit stop definitely cost us a podium, but live and learn! Next time we will ask and make sure we know that it is actually happening.
During our race we could hear the splitter scuffing after the downhill to 8a.. these screws are looking a little flat! Still not too bad for a splitter made in 2018.
When we got back home I checked out the fuel tank to see what had happened. The 'bucket' inside the fuel tank had broken free from its welds, as well as knocking off the vent and sock on the fuel filter.
Video overview:
Now for some fixes... we need to fix this gas tank, brakes, and wheel bearing issues!