SCCA regional race, July 17, 1994, Thunderhill
(this is the third in a series of race reports
and for now the last.)
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It was Rochelle's turn to drive. She had not driven the racecar in
about 4 months and she had never driven the new track at ThunderHill.
Also we had made some changes to the oil pan and baffles so we
decided to go up on Friday morning for a day of testing. We pulled
in to the track at about 9:00 am after an uneventful 3 1/2 hour drive
and a good breakfast. We changed from trailering tires to race
tires, setup our EZ-up and unloaded the bus and the trailer.
It was hotter then hell. Over 100 degrees by noon. We said hi to
various friends and plunked down $75 for the afternoon test
session. It was supposed to run from 1:00 to 5:00.
Rochelle suited up and went out on track to try to find the
line. After about 15 miniutes they black flagged the field
and broke the cars into two run groups that would alternate
throughout the afternoon. I sprayed Rochelle with water from
a garden sprayer and gave her water to drink.
Rochelle went out again. She was still going slow but starting
to pick up a few seconds as she got used to the track. She pitted
to tell me that the car seemed to be handling strangely. She wasn't
sure if it was her or the car or the track. The track had several
fresh patches as well as a number of ripply places that people
were having trouble with. They had also added several new berms
in the two weeks since I had last driven it. I looked the car
over and checked the tire pressure. She went out for another
session. Her times improved enought to be encouraging. She lost
it in turn 1 and again in turn 6. I didn't see the one in turn 6
but she said that the car launched off one of the new berms and
was airborn before coming down hard backwards. She said it was a
pretty hard landing and that she was worried that the rear
suspension had taken a hit. I jacked up the car and gave the rear
suspension a good look and a few shakes. Everything still looked OK.
There was one more session in the afternoon but by then she was to
hot and tired to go out again. The air was probably 110 and the
asphalt was over 140. (We measured the asphalt with a pyrometer)
That night we went into town and had a nice airconditioned dinner.
After dinner we bought 4 bags of ice and a big umbrella and headed
back to the track. It was still too hot for me to sleep so I sat
outside and read for a couple hours . About 1:30 am the air started
to move a bit.
The normal practice and qualifying covered by our entry fee, had been
reduced to a single combined session on Saturday afternoon. T
If you wanted to run the Saturday morning test session it was an
additional $75. A lot of us felt a bit cheated about that.
We bit the bullet and ponyed up another $75. Rochelle made several
laps and then was black flagged at start-finish and had to come in.
In the pit lane we looked for a black flag station and looked the
car over. Unable to find anything wrong or any black flag station,
Rochelle finally drove to the starter's stand to ask what was up.
He explained that he had called her in for not wearing a face mask
or goggles. I inquired when the rule had been changed to require
goggles in a closed car. He said "oh.. er.. I thought everyone had
to wear them..... "
Rochelle pulled back out on track but soon ended up parked off
track near turn 6. At the end of the session they towed her in.
She said the transmission had made lots of uggly noises and now
the car wouldn't go.
We had carried both a spare trans and a spare diff with us all
last year. Finally this year I decided we probably didn't need
that stuff under foot in the bus. Thinking that our racing weekend
was over, I started to put the trailering tires back on the car. With
the back wheels off the ground it became clear that the damage was
in the differential not the trans.
Art Van Degglin, who drive a Spitfire, had a couple of spare diffs,
including one that was the ratio we needed. He was nice enough to
loan it to me for the race.
I got to work. I had to pull the exhaust system and a fair amount
of the rear suspension to change the diff. Around 5:00 I took a
break and did pit crew duty for Dave Balingit's 280Z in the
IT-enduro. I finally got the diff in and the car on the ground
about 8:30. Dave and Rochelle had dinner ready. I was ready to eat.
When I was changing the diff Rochelle had missed the qualifying,
session so she would have to start at the back of the pack.
Next morning on pregrid I told her that starting at the back was
the secret of Frank Emit's success. Frank offen missed qualifying,
starts at the back and then passes everyone to win first overall.
As she was now the one starting from the the very back, I maintained
that she had a good run at it. ;^)
At that point (rumble,rumble) Frank pulled in behind her.
Our run group is GT1-2-3, super-production and GTA and American
sedan. Mostly very heavy, very fast cars. The race was at 10:00
am. Hopefully we would be done before the track got so hot that
the surface was coming appart. There were 10 GT3 cars signed up,
8 GT3 cars started the race. Rochelle's lap times were not as
good as she has been getting in practice, but she kept going.
Various other cars fell by the wayside. The track was hot and
slick and a lot of cars were having trouble. An engine blew
and oiled a couple of turns.
The race ended with Rochelle fourth place in her class. She
came off track hot and tired and somewhat discouraged at not
having gone faster. She said it was all she could do to keep the
car on the track. I had hoped she would be able to dice with some
of the other cars in our class but it hadn't happened. Still she
finished the race which is more then about half the people in
our class could say.
Even Emit didn't have his best day. He only got fourth overall
(Though he did set a new superproduction lap record.)
We packed up, had a good lunch and hit the road home.
When we got home we unloaded the car from the trailer and found
bits of shock absorber on the trailer bed. Further examination
showed that the right side front shock (which is under a rack of
Webbers and a large cold air box) was broken.
Thunder is a lefthand track and most of the serious turns are left.
Rochelle had been driving without the most important shock absorber
on the car. It had probably caused handling problems all weekend
and in the race I doubt it worked at all. In light of this new
information her lap time looked mighty fine. And keeping the car
on the track at all was a victory.
She will be driving again in 3 weeks at Sears Point. Maybe I can
give her a car that will stay together.
/Dick
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