Ron Earp
Admin
Well, as you have probably surmised from the real time data scoring, we're out. But it wasn't for lack of trying or any fundamental problems with the car.
First off, I have never encountered such nasty weather at VIR as we did on Friday and Saturday morning. Wet, cold, windy, raining, just nasty.
All the long hours of preparation over the last few weeks did pay off with a very comfortable and excellent driving race car. Four of the drivers, Ron, Steve, Jeff, and Robert cycled through the qualifying and light checks on Friday night - in the pouring rain and 43F weather. We set the car up for the rain, which we'd never done before so we were using our best judgement, and it turned out very well. The drivers reported the car was easy to drive and they actually LIKED it in the rain. I was a bit shocked because we were worried about if anyone would drive the car in the rain, at night, flatout. But they did and Robert ended up driving for about 45 mins in the light check, in fact, he was the last car in - track empty, just Robert going the distance.
One thing to note, the rain tires were tiny though and knocked about 25 mph off our top end. We were out of RPM by the flag stand on the back straight. But, even so we kept up good speed and reasonable rain lap times.
Jeff Young did an excellent job qualifying the car and placed it sixth in an extremely competitive field. Rain negated some of the horsepower advantages a few of our competitors had. Jeff enjoyed driving the car, stayed pretty dry, and coming from him about the Lola that is mighty praise. Since Jeff was the fastest of the two qualifying drivers he was picked to start the race.
7am Saturday - pouring rain. It had rained all night, heavy rain, so there is no question of starting on wets. Jeff gets a good start, clean, and works his way up to third place overall - very nice job. Things were going good, the car looked strong, then in T1 Jeff reports getting passed by a cloud of coolant under braking. Uh-oh. Jeff nurses the car around to the pits, 3 miles of track, but the coolant temp spikes to 225F+. Water is boiling out of the overflow tank and the engine is flat out hot, very not. We push the car off pit road and back to our garage. Thirty minutes of thrashing and we learn the thermostat is good but we’re getting no coolant pumping to the front of the car, just pressure and heat in the coolant tank.
So, the team made the decision to withdraw. We suspect the water pump has failed, impellor has probably broken off, and the head gaskets could be cooked. We didn’t have a spare water pump as that is one of the things on the car we really can’t swap out at the track – a clutch, gearbox, or just about anything else would be possible but our access panel in the firewall isn’t big enough to extract the pump or to provide working work on it. If we could get a pump we figured we might get It on by 5pm if we busted ass, but none of us were really wanting to go out and run laps as the race would be long gone.
Anticlimactic way to check out, I know, but as they say, stuff happens. Still, we have proved we have a very competitive, racable, and comfortable car even in the worst of conditions so not all was lost. The drivers were upbeat and the crew is the best ever, a really good bunch of guys. Just the personnel support you need to pull one of these races off is serious business.
Here are a few pictures and if our photo man sends more over I’ll post those too.
Now, the RCR SLC is still kicking butt in the race and they are working their way up to first place overall. I think they can do it and seeing the team and car I’m sure they can.
First off, I have never encountered such nasty weather at VIR as we did on Friday and Saturday morning. Wet, cold, windy, raining, just nasty.
All the long hours of preparation over the last few weeks did pay off with a very comfortable and excellent driving race car. Four of the drivers, Ron, Steve, Jeff, and Robert cycled through the qualifying and light checks on Friday night - in the pouring rain and 43F weather. We set the car up for the rain, which we'd never done before so we were using our best judgement, and it turned out very well. The drivers reported the car was easy to drive and they actually LIKED it in the rain. I was a bit shocked because we were worried about if anyone would drive the car in the rain, at night, flatout. But they did and Robert ended up driving for about 45 mins in the light check, in fact, he was the last car in - track empty, just Robert going the distance.
One thing to note, the rain tires were tiny though and knocked about 25 mph off our top end. We were out of RPM by the flag stand on the back straight. But, even so we kept up good speed and reasonable rain lap times.
Jeff Young did an excellent job qualifying the car and placed it sixth in an extremely competitive field. Rain negated some of the horsepower advantages a few of our competitors had. Jeff enjoyed driving the car, stayed pretty dry, and coming from him about the Lola that is mighty praise. Since Jeff was the fastest of the two qualifying drivers he was picked to start the race.
7am Saturday - pouring rain. It had rained all night, heavy rain, so there is no question of starting on wets. Jeff gets a good start, clean, and works his way up to third place overall - very nice job. Things were going good, the car looked strong, then in T1 Jeff reports getting passed by a cloud of coolant under braking. Uh-oh. Jeff nurses the car around to the pits, 3 miles of track, but the coolant temp spikes to 225F+. Water is boiling out of the overflow tank and the engine is flat out hot, very not. We push the car off pit road and back to our garage. Thirty minutes of thrashing and we learn the thermostat is good but we’re getting no coolant pumping to the front of the car, just pressure and heat in the coolant tank.
So, the team made the decision to withdraw. We suspect the water pump has failed, impellor has probably broken off, and the head gaskets could be cooked. We didn’t have a spare water pump as that is one of the things on the car we really can’t swap out at the track – a clutch, gearbox, or just about anything else would be possible but our access panel in the firewall isn’t big enough to extract the pump or to provide working work on it. If we could get a pump we figured we might get It on by 5pm if we busted ass, but none of us were really wanting to go out and run laps as the race would be long gone.
Anticlimactic way to check out, I know, but as they say, stuff happens. Still, we have proved we have a very competitive, racable, and comfortable car even in the worst of conditions so not all was lost. The drivers were upbeat and the crew is the best ever, a really good bunch of guys. Just the personnel support you need to pull one of these races off is serious business.
Here are a few pictures and if our photo man sends more over I’ll post those too.
Now, the RCR SLC is still kicking butt in the race and they are working their way up to first place overall. I think they can do it and seeing the team and car I’m sure they can.
