March 2009 CMP Race, 260Z Outing

[Ron Earp]

I was hot and having a dream about sleeping in a no-tell motel. The bed was lousy and the sheets stank vaguely of old cigarettes and beer. A dog was lying on my leg. Every few seconds the dog would shiver. Odd dream I thought. Then I realized I didn’t have a dog and woke up with a start.

The bed was still lousy and could be used for torture in countries that couldn’t afford better devices. I smelled a lot like cigarettes and beer. There was a large Greyhound in my bed. I wondered why it wasn’t sleeping with his owner who lie a few feet away, snoring like a two stroke chain saw with a bad carburetor and a ignition miss. The Greyhound was black and was in fact shivering periodically. I pulled some cover over the dog figuring I’d warm it up and then tried to go back to sleep.

I woke again to the sound of water falling, sort of like the sound a gentle stream makes as it meanders by your picnic site. The dog was out of the bed. I sat up and looked for the dog. He was standing by the door looking back at me and urinating on the carpet, or what passed for carpet in this place. It’s owner was still sawing down the forest. It was 6am and my head hurt. Welcome to racing at Carolina Motorsports Park, CMP.

Jeff and I were down for a double SARRC weekend at CMP. Two sprint races (that is a wheel to wheel short race for you Europeans, 30 mins) were being run and we thought we’d split the 260Z since Jeff’s TR8 was still laid up for the fuel injection conversion. I choose Saturday for racing and in addition to waking up with a dog peeing on the carpet we were looking at a wet weather forecast. The weatherman did not disappoint.

CMP is my favorite track to race. Relatively short at about 3.25 miles it has lots of corners and the driver is always busy at CMP. Incidentally, it is probably my best track for being competitive.

Qualifying came early and the track was still damp from Friday rains. I went out and performed a little track ballet in the kink, a typically high speed right bend in the main straight. Car was ok, I think I ended up qualifying near the front.

CMP SPIN VIDEO

As the morning wore on it was apparent rain was coming. Fortunately, I’d traded for some rain tires and wheels a few months ago. Some Toyo Proxie DOT race tires in full tread. I’d just gotten them on the car when Steve Parrish, a fellow Z racer, came over.

“Hey Steve, check it out. I have some rain tires now. I’m gonna be fast! Do you have any rains?”

“I dunno, those look like those wheels that Jeffrey Roussel bought from me a year ago. They had some seven year old Toyos on them. I’ve got some new brand new Hoosier rains. You want a sandwich?”

Given that I did get the wheels and tires from Jeffrey my confidence was now somewhat diminished .

As I was strapping in the car for grid time it was pouring steadily. Once in I realized we had a problem. I couldn’t see. Despite the anti-fog on the inside of the car it was fogged up like a bathhouse. I was wondering how to solve the problem when a buddy of ours, Neil, come over and mentioned his engine was blown in his RX7 and he wouldn’t be joining the coming crashfest. I mentioned my visual problem and he had a wonderful solution – he duct taped a shirt to a stick and handed it to me. “Just drive normally and then use the stick to wipe the inside of the windshield.” Yay.

The track was fooking flooded. Water everywhere. Pouring rain, not just rain, but Noah’s Ark proportions. We formed up for a green but got waved off because we were apparently not formed up. If a car was within 15 yards of my car I could see it. If the car had brake lights on that range extended to 40 yards.

Second form up and we got the green but I didn’t see it. A red BMW was in front of me on the first or second grid row so I just gave it some gas when I heard other cars gas up. Man, was the track slick. Since visibility was about nil I think I’d done much better with a in-car GPS zoomed all the way in, or, someone on the radio saying “okay…4…3….2…..1…..turn left now!”.

A couple of the front running cars with defrosters fared better. I ended up staying on track and not hitting anything, no small feat. Lots of cars were off but all in all the race was relatively clean. I ended up with a 4^th, about 10 seconds off the lap times with guys with defrosters but ahead of a lot of other folks.

Video is up here, has a couple of minutes at the beginning of pace car laps.

CMP RAIN RACE VIDEO

In summary, I like driving in the rain. I enjoyed how the car felt and I felt I could be fast if I could see. I will definitely not hesitate to race in the rain again but only if I get the visual aspect work out. And I’m working on that now.

Next up Jeff’s Sun race which was the best SAARC race I’ve ever watched. Period.

[Ross Nicol]

I have a solution to the fogging windscreen Ron. Duct cold air from the front of the car to the plastic heater vents. I had this in my 240z and I have it in the 40. Cold air blowing in (unforced) keeps the screen pretty clear. I also use rain-x deffoger as well.
Actually I got this from a seasoned racer who knows his stuff.

Ross

[Ron Earp]

Originally Posted by ross nicol

I have a solution to the fogging windscreen Ron. Duct cold air from the front of the car to the plastic heater vents. I had this in my 240z and I have it in the 40. Cold air blowing in (unforced) keeps the screen pretty clear. I also use rain-x deffoger as well.
Actually I got this from a seasoned racer who knows his stuff.

Ross

I had no air blowing in.

But I have tried Rain-X defogger (the inside stuff) as well as dishwashing detergent. No avail. When the air temp and dew point are the same there is really no help short of ducting air to the windshield and I didn't have that.

But I will next time. I like that rain driving!

[Randy V]

Excellent post Ron!!! You should consider being an author.. I could smell the room you were in and could readily visualize every bit of the action as you called it..

If you would have grabbed 2nd gear while still in that spin, you would've been called Danny Sullivan! Nice and lucky recovery on track!

I'm not a huge fan of rain races.. Those races that I've run were either torrential downpours or just miserable conditions with crappy tires.. I ran a couple with my Cobra that I was praying for Checker flag every lap..
I wish it was mandatory for all cars (not just open wheel) to run rain-lights but it's not in the SCCA (or it wasn't as of a couple years ago).. Too many people like black as a racecar color.. In the rain, they disappear.. Perhaps part of their plan? Dunno...

[Johan]

Great race report Ron ! Thanks. Hey at least you did not dream of having sex with a short fuzzy woman.

[Malcolm]

You like driving in the rain now? Cool, come race here in UK, always raining when you don't want it to. Next time at Donnington, I will make you go out!

Nice to hear your race report, makes me jealous of not being out in any car this year so far and no racing planned.

It does rain at Spa quite a bit......I just got me some new tyres?

[Straight 8 Racing]

Ron,

When it rains here (Australia) Its usually off, on, off,on, with all the usual side effects !

What a lot of people do here is to apply an after market rear screen electric filament demister to the front screen, you would need to have it turned on some time in advance to generate enough heat to keep it working, I dont think they draw too much from the electric system, the filaments can look a little wide when you first apply them but they seem to just disappear when you are driving.

Iain

[Ron Earp]

Hey hey now, we need to be going out on some modern rain tyres, not those modern reproductions of some 40 year old rubber! :-)

Iain, that is a damn good idea. I'm going to look into that. I've thought about the defroster and hooking it up, but I don't have hot water in the heater core, in fact, I don't have a heater core or working blower!

I think with some good rain tires I'd be competitive and have a good time - as long as I could see. The Hoosier wets must be run in very wet conditions, rooster tails and all, or they'll chunk up. They are damn soft. Perfect for the flood we had. My Toyos are sort of an intermediate, will work in damp conditions and rain, but aren't the best for rain. I have a spare set of wheels though so I could get some Ho hos if the wallet would allow.....

R

[Jac Mac]

Pert 2 in 1 with active conditioner. Now your wife can make a contribution to your wet weather racing.[Hair Shampoo & Conditioner] other brands might work/might not!

[Ron Earp]

We tried the track lore Dawn dishwashing detergent on the inside time before last - didn't work. But, I'll try another one as we might get some rain this weekend at VIR.

[Molleur]

Ron, past weekend at the "Mitty" was horrible. Red clay & rain running across the track esp. by the esses made for 6 cars going off on first lap of one race. Red flagged it. The big open wheel guns gridded only 4 cars (of 14 entries) and race was stopped on lap 4.

Good luck at VIR! Nice track, one of my favorites.

[Ian Anderson]

Ron How about these?

ELECTRIC DEMIST HEATER DEMST

Got the GT40 through the SVA and will demist the screen - even at Le mans last year with all the rain there

Ian

[Ian Anderson]

Or if you just need a good blast of air get a Bilge Room Vent Fan

Like this

eBay Motors: Marine boat bilge air blower fan 4 inch in line NEW (item 250420202182 end time May-13-09 22:41:11 PDT)


250CFM is like a gale blowing and it will only draw 4 amps pipe it into your screen vents (A bit noisy but in a race car that don't matter)

Ian

[Ron Earp]

Hey Ian,

I bought one of those blowers but haven't fitted it yet - great minds think alike!

Thanks for the good luck, headed up this afternoon for the weekend. Raced two weekends ago at Roiebling, this weekend at VIR, and next weekend up at CMP. Busy time of race season with three big races inside of five weeks.

Ron

[Molleur]

Ron, the DETMAR bilge blowers peak at 8 amps at start up. Make sure you have some form of overcurrent protection (fuse, etc.) in case of rotor lock-up. Suggest 10 amp fuse as used on most boat applications.

Should work well for you.

[Johan]

Originally Posted by molleur

Ron, past weekend at the "Mitty" was horrible. Red clay & rain running across the track esp. by the esses made for 6 cars going off on first lap of one race. Red flagged it. The big open wheel guns gridded only 4 cars (of 14 entries) and race was stopped on lap 4.

Good luck at VIR! Nice track, one of my favorites.

Wish I had known you were there. We were trying to race as well and our saturday race was called due to the weather.

[Molleur]

Johan
Saw your car in the paddock, didn't realize it was yours until later. I do get to many HSR/SVRA events, we'll meet up somewhere this season.

[Johan]

A Ford F350 dually backed into my car on Friday and broke the wing. Yes, my car spent most of the weekend in the paddock.

[Molleur]

Sorry to hear that! With the poor turnout there seemed to be an unusual amount of room in the paddock areas. Was the driver simply not looking? Hope repairs were successful.