Just got back from my last race weekend of the season. The plan was to get
points to solidify my class championship, and to continue to work on carb
tuning.
For Saturday's qualifying session, I didn't qualify particularly well. The
car was sliding around a lot. My tires are pretty old now, but other guys
were having some traction problems as well. The good news was that my carbs
were working much better than they did at Mid Ohio. There was one car each
in EP, FP, GP, and HP. The HP car was bumped up into GP, so all I had to do
was beat him to get 1st place points.
I started 15th in the race, and passed a couple of Spec Miatas within the
first couple of laps, and started working on getting around a Spec Racer
Ford (SRF). I inadvertently bumped him in the left rear at one point, as I
was trying really hard to get around him, and get some clean track for some
fast laps. I finally got around him, but then gave that position back to
him, and another SRF came through after I messed up my braking at the end of
the back straight. I wound up finishing 12th overall, and 1st in class. The
carbs were running pretty good, and I was turning 7900 rpms. Still some carb
problems lower down in the rev range.
For Sunday's class race, I started 12th overall, and finished 9th overall. I
was able to get past a few cars during the race, and there was some
attrition up from as well. The HP car didn't show on Sunday, so the EP, FP,
and GP cars were grouped together. The EP car was gaining on me, but I was
able to get through traffic a bit better than him, so I finished 2nd in
class among the Prod cars. The new needle I tried on Sunday worked great.
There's still some fine tuning that needs to be done, but I've finally
worked through all my driveability problems. The needle I have now will be a
good baseline for future development.
During the race on Sunday, I noticed that my oil pressure was about 10 psi
lower than where it normally runs. Based on that information, the fact that
my tires were really offering no grip at all, and I already had enough
points to lock up the Waterford Hills Class Championship, we decided to pack
up and head for home. I'd rather freshen up this engine rather than build a
new one from scratch!
2003 has been a pretty decent racing season for me. My first Waterford
Championship, and it looks like I could still win the Cen Div Regional
championship as well. I successfully competed at three different tracks
(Waterford, Grattan, and Mid-Ohio), which was one of my major goals. I've
also made great progress in sorting out my carburetors.
I'd like to send a big THANK YOU and Les and Dennis at Classic Datsun for
their support this year. I also want to thank Bill Wessel for the tips and
insight he's shared with me. And finally, thanks to the excellent crew I had
this year. It made the race weekends go that much smoother, having an extra
set of hands at every single race. Thanks Meg!!
--
Chris Coker
69 1600 SPL311 <http://mywebpages.comcast.net/chriscoker/roadster.html>
66 1600 GP Race Car www.risensonracing.com
Royal Oak, MI
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