Won a 3 hour night enduro with our \"gulf\" Radical
About a year ago, I seriously looked into getting a GT40 replica to convert into a race car to do the NASA enduros on the west coast. I talked to CAV and Gordon Levy and GT40NZ but ultimately decided that it wasn't suitable or cost effective so got a Radical instead. In deference to my nostaligic side, I ended up painting it "gulfesque" colors and we ran our first enduro Saturday night.
We we figured we could run 1 hour on our tank pretty conservatively so the plan was to have me run the first two stints and my co-driver run the last hour.
Here's me getting ready mentally...have my ear plugs and also some cotton taped in place.
So we get pole position and there are some intersting cars in the race including one of those damn stock cars with six lights on the front on a light bar and a Birkin (Caterham knock-off) and some really cool Porsche and a bunch of BMWs and stuff...unfortunately nobody got any photos of the grid and it was too dark when the race started to capture that.
Well I had four tear-offs on and it was REALLY dark and the sun hadn't even fully set. We checked the lights before I rolled off and I came around and blew everyone's doors off at the start and pulled out a lead. It was REALLY dark and I was having a hard time seeing the track. After two or three laps (with the daylight fading fast) I suddenly got the bright idea that maybe my headlights were off (they'd click themselves off if the motorcycle engines' alternator couldn't keep up) and sure enough, they were off! The voltage must have dropped too much on the slow pace lap. Fumbled them on...that helped...a bit.
But I'm still at the head of this race and it's getting darker and darker and the lights aren't working for beans and I pull off a tear-off just to see a little better and struggle around the track praying I don't go off on one of these turns I can't see. The only lights at this track are in the pit lane. Otherwise, I'm in the middle of nowhere.
After an hour of this I'm called in for my first pitstop. Immediately they have problems with the fuel jugs and I hear a lot of yelling. I'm tired but feeling okay and am worried about giving the car to Mike to drive without being able to see the track so I say "good to go".
There's some commotion and it seems that we only used 1/2 the tank in one hour...such is my slow pace.
They get the pitstop handled:
And away we go:
So I'm still having trouble with the lights (the "switches" are actually circuit breakers which do NOT like to be toggled) but get them all on and like magic, I can see WAY better...maybe it was cycling the power or the fact the moon came out...I dunno but I now have a sporting chance at seeing the track.
I get a radio message that I'm something like 1 and a half minutes behind a lead BMW and get to work setting some hot laps. I'm in a groove but have a couple of hairy moments coming upon slower cars and one of the problems with having a little 1000cc engine is when you catch up to someone...you get stuck behind them at their speed (because race tracks consist of a racing line about one car wide) and it's VERY hard, with low power, to go around someone from their speed after having lost momentum.
Anyway, I come across some interesting lap cars including a (literally) fire breathing Mustang AIX car (unlimited) with a huge wing and huge tires and huge flames coming out of it's side exhaust. He's nearly as fast as me but I get around him and keep on going. Pass that cool Porsche...basically in teh zone lapping people. I lap the stock car several times..he never makes it easy for me and his lack of any side-mirrors probably doesn't help. Still, the 10 pro-dressed pit crew and the videographer they had isn't helping this guy out here in the night and I take no small satisfaction for lapping him after being in that "race" with those guys at CA Speedway last month.
Red water temp light comes on and I'm running between 99C and 110C which is 208F to 230F. Nothing I can do about that and the oil temp and pressure are fine so I hope my two bottles of water-wetter help and remind myself to cut more air evacuation in the rear body work (a change to the later cars I didn't know about until this weekend).
The pits can't really hear me so communication is one-way. Somewhere along the way the lead BMW pits and some other car is in the lead...from what I understood of the radio message, it was a ES class RX7 race car. I'm 30 seconds behind...then 17 seconds...I'm passing cars looking for this guy and finally pass him on the front straight.
There track has some pretty fair reflectors in MOST of the turns except three places. One of them is a (normally) flat-out left hander before the "bus stop" turn which is absolutely insane...eventually I figure out that if I run fully along the left side of the track, I can JUST make out the edge and basically have to not take a line but simply follow the turn when I can see the edge of the track (on the inside) turn! This works...thank goodness I can generate 2G of cornering however.
The next insane spot is the last turn of the esses...this is also flat-out and happens to put you facing a part of the track where everyone's headlights are pointed straight in your eyes. This goes well when there doesn't happen to be a car on that section pointing towards you...not so well otherwise.
And finally...the last turn onto the front straight is simply invisible. I can see the apex but that's it and I'm pinching that every time to ensure I don't run off into the dirt.
I'm getting uncomfortable...I have to keep my head so far forward (because I'm nearly lying-down in the car) that it's very tiring and yet my helmet always seems to be tilted back. I try not to think about the burning sensation and growing numbness in my hands and forearms and my neck-restraints are working pretty well except the time I went to tighten one and pulled too hard so my head was tilted to the right until it gradually loosened up.
If it was easy, there wouldn't be any point in doing it right?
We're leading now but I get a call that we are 2 hours in. We were supposed to do a driver change. I'm thinking maybe we don't need the stop but I'd hate to run out of gas...coming in the pits for a splash, Mike comes over to get in and I say "Mike, how long is left?"
He says "45 minutes roughly"
me "I'm still good to go...it's up to you but I can go till the end"
he hesitates then gives the thumbs up.
They finish dumping the gas and off I go feeling crappy for Mike but we no longer have the lead (a good pitstop in this context is 2-3 minutes...this isn't 8 second pitstop F1) and there's only 45 minutes and the extra 3-4 minutes it would have taken to change drivers would have lost us the race. He understood and it was a gutsy decision for him.
So off I go to reclaim what is ours. I am only 20 seconds behind the RX7 and reel him in and pass him within 5 laps. Pull out about a 38 second lead and then ask for time remaining reports so I can back off and save the car and myself to make it to the finish. Still lapping a lot of traffic and I come up on this Miata who not only doesn't do anything to let me by but actually BLOCKS my moves to lap him!
I get really pissed at this point. The adrenallin that's keeping me going is not happy about this turn of events. I'm stuck behind him through the esses which blows my run on him for the turn before the main straight but I get next to him and out brake him but the idiot doesn't give way and attempts to stay with me under braking...BUMP he hits me twice but I keep it under control and leave him beind. I probably could have given him a bit more room...didn't feel like it though. Have a nice bead of rubber on the rim of my right rear where it ben-hur'd his tire:
Catch up to the fiery Mustang again (who aparently DID have a minor fire in the pits) and he's fast enough that I don't have to try and pass him but he won't hold me up too much so I sit back but then he backs way off and lets me by after a couple of laps...think he had an overheating problem.
At some point in the race, I saw what I thought was a big rock in the road and WHAM! Nailed it. Figured it would tear up my splitter and nose. All through the race, scraping and banging stuff...it vaguely occurs to me I have some summer body work to do heh.
Getting close...I'm near exhaustion and consciously telling myself to go on...keep remembering to blink...stretch your hands on this straight, sip some water...keep looking at the flag guy...then I get a call they put the checker out behind me! Damnit...one more lap...and there it is!
One cooldown lap and I'm helped from the car and totally fricking happy. I feel bad for Mike and I apologize again and he says "I really wanted to win and if I'd gotten in we wouldn't have won". Everyone helping us in the pits was thrilled and I have to go to the awards cerimony.
Winner in Enduro Sports Racer, Winner overall...hang the medals on the headrest.
The guys helping us took our stuff back to the garage and I walked from the awards cerimony to the garage by myself in the dark as I tried to return to the real world. My hands have that burning feeling like when the blood returns after they "fall asleep"...I can't hear properly and My arms feel like lead but I don't know when I've been happier in my life. I see a white rabbit run across the grass and realize that was what I hit on the track. Feel bad about that for a moment...but that's life isn't it...you get what you get and you better make it good while you got it.
Racing is an entire life stuffed into a couple of hours.
It was worth it...every dollar, every hour, every set back
THIS is why I race.
About a year ago, I seriously looked into getting a GT40 replica to convert into a race car to do the NASA enduros on the west coast. I talked to CAV and Gordon Levy and GT40NZ but ultimately decided that it wasn't suitable or cost effective so got a Radical instead. In deference to my nostaligic side, I ended up painting it "gulfesque" colors and we ran our first enduro Saturday night.
We we figured we could run 1 hour on our tank pretty conservatively so the plan was to have me run the first two stints and my co-driver run the last hour.
Here's me getting ready mentally...have my ear plugs and also some cotton taped in place.
So we get pole position and there are some intersting cars in the race including one of those damn stock cars with six lights on the front on a light bar and a Birkin (Caterham knock-off) and some really cool Porsche and a bunch of BMWs and stuff...unfortunately nobody got any photos of the grid and it was too dark when the race started to capture that.
Well I had four tear-offs on and it was REALLY dark and the sun hadn't even fully set. We checked the lights before I rolled off and I came around and blew everyone's doors off at the start and pulled out a lead. It was REALLY dark and I was having a hard time seeing the track. After two or three laps (with the daylight fading fast) I suddenly got the bright idea that maybe my headlights were off (they'd click themselves off if the motorcycle engines' alternator couldn't keep up) and sure enough, they were off! The voltage must have dropped too much on the slow pace lap. Fumbled them on...that helped...a bit.
But I'm still at the head of this race and it's getting darker and darker and the lights aren't working for beans and I pull off a tear-off just to see a little better and struggle around the track praying I don't go off on one of these turns I can't see. The only lights at this track are in the pit lane. Otherwise, I'm in the middle of nowhere.
After an hour of this I'm called in for my first pitstop. Immediately they have problems with the fuel jugs and I hear a lot of yelling. I'm tired but feeling okay and am worried about giving the car to Mike to drive without being able to see the track so I say "good to go".
There's some commotion and it seems that we only used 1/2 the tank in one hour...such is my slow pace.
They get the pitstop handled:
And away we go:
So I'm still having trouble with the lights (the "switches" are actually circuit breakers which do NOT like to be toggled) but get them all on and like magic, I can see WAY better...maybe it was cycling the power or the fact the moon came out...I dunno but I now have a sporting chance at seeing the track.
I get a radio message that I'm something like 1 and a half minutes behind a lead BMW and get to work setting some hot laps. I'm in a groove but have a couple of hairy moments coming upon slower cars and one of the problems with having a little 1000cc engine is when you catch up to someone...you get stuck behind them at their speed (because race tracks consist of a racing line about one car wide) and it's VERY hard, with low power, to go around someone from their speed after having lost momentum.
Anyway, I come across some interesting lap cars including a (literally) fire breathing Mustang AIX car (unlimited) with a huge wing and huge tires and huge flames coming out of it's side exhaust. He's nearly as fast as me but I get around him and keep on going. Pass that cool Porsche...basically in teh zone lapping people. I lap the stock car several times..he never makes it easy for me and his lack of any side-mirrors probably doesn't help. Still, the 10 pro-dressed pit crew and the videographer they had isn't helping this guy out here in the night and I take no small satisfaction for lapping him after being in that "race" with those guys at CA Speedway last month.
Red water temp light comes on and I'm running between 99C and 110C which is 208F to 230F. Nothing I can do about that and the oil temp and pressure are fine so I hope my two bottles of water-wetter help and remind myself to cut more air evacuation in the rear body work (a change to the later cars I didn't know about until this weekend).
The pits can't really hear me so communication is one-way. Somewhere along the way the lead BMW pits and some other car is in the lead...from what I understood of the radio message, it was a ES class RX7 race car. I'm 30 seconds behind...then 17 seconds...I'm passing cars looking for this guy and finally pass him on the front straight.
There track has some pretty fair reflectors in MOST of the turns except three places. One of them is a (normally) flat-out left hander before the "bus stop" turn which is absolutely insane...eventually I figure out that if I run fully along the left side of the track, I can JUST make out the edge and basically have to not take a line but simply follow the turn when I can see the edge of the track (on the inside) turn! This works...thank goodness I can generate 2G of cornering however.
The next insane spot is the last turn of the esses...this is also flat-out and happens to put you facing a part of the track where everyone's headlights are pointed straight in your eyes. This goes well when there doesn't happen to be a car on that section pointing towards you...not so well otherwise.
And finally...the last turn onto the front straight is simply invisible. I can see the apex but that's it and I'm pinching that every time to ensure I don't run off into the dirt.
I'm getting uncomfortable...I have to keep my head so far forward (because I'm nearly lying-down in the car) that it's very tiring and yet my helmet always seems to be tilted back. I try not to think about the burning sensation and growing numbness in my hands and forearms and my neck-restraints are working pretty well except the time I went to tighten one and pulled too hard so my head was tilted to the right until it gradually loosened up.
If it was easy, there wouldn't be any point in doing it right?
We're leading now but I get a call that we are 2 hours in. We were supposed to do a driver change. I'm thinking maybe we don't need the stop but I'd hate to run out of gas...coming in the pits for a splash, Mike comes over to get in and I say "Mike, how long is left?"
He says "45 minutes roughly"
me "I'm still good to go...it's up to you but I can go till the end"
he hesitates then gives the thumbs up.
They finish dumping the gas and off I go feeling crappy for Mike but we no longer have the lead (a good pitstop in this context is 2-3 minutes...this isn't 8 second pitstop F1) and there's only 45 minutes and the extra 3-4 minutes it would have taken to change drivers would have lost us the race. He understood and it was a gutsy decision for him.
So off I go to reclaim what is ours. I am only 20 seconds behind the RX7 and reel him in and pass him within 5 laps. Pull out about a 38 second lead and then ask for time remaining reports so I can back off and save the car and myself to make it to the finish. Still lapping a lot of traffic and I come up on this Miata who not only doesn't do anything to let me by but actually BLOCKS my moves to lap him!
I get really pissed at this point. The adrenallin that's keeping me going is not happy about this turn of events. I'm stuck behind him through the esses which blows my run on him for the turn before the main straight but I get next to him and out brake him but the idiot doesn't give way and attempts to stay with me under braking...BUMP he hits me twice but I keep it under control and leave him beind. I probably could have given him a bit more room...didn't feel like it though. Have a nice bead of rubber on the rim of my right rear where it ben-hur'd his tire:
Catch up to the fiery Mustang again (who aparently DID have a minor fire in the pits) and he's fast enough that I don't have to try and pass him but he won't hold me up too much so I sit back but then he backs way off and lets me by after a couple of laps...think he had an overheating problem.
At some point in the race, I saw what I thought was a big rock in the road and WHAM! Nailed it. Figured it would tear up my splitter and nose. All through the race, scraping and banging stuff...it vaguely occurs to me I have some summer body work to do heh.
Getting close...I'm near exhaustion and consciously telling myself to go on...keep remembering to blink...stretch your hands on this straight, sip some water...keep looking at the flag guy...then I get a call they put the checker out behind me! Damnit...one more lap...and there it is!
One cooldown lap and I'm helped from the car and totally fricking happy. I feel bad for Mike and I apologize again and he says "I really wanted to win and if I'd gotten in we wouldn't have won". Everyone helping us in the pits was thrilled and I have to go to the awards cerimony.
Winner in Enduro Sports Racer, Winner overall...hang the medals on the headrest.
The guys helping us took our stuff back to the garage and I walked from the awards cerimony to the garage by myself in the dark as I tried to return to the real world. My hands have that burning feeling like when the blood returns after they "fall asleep"...I can't hear properly and My arms feel like lead but I don't know when I've been happier in my life. I see a white rabbit run across the grass and realize that was what I hit on the track. Feel bad about that for a moment...but that's life isn't it...you get what you get and you better make it good while you got it.
Racing is an entire life stuffed into a couple of hours.
It was worth it...every dollar, every hour, every set back
THIS is why I race.
