Thunderhill Update, busy, busy, busy Options

[nine14cats]

Doris and I are at Thunderhill Raceway this weekend for a 3 day event. Weather is hot but not unbearable ~mid 90's. Track is good although the heat is affecting horsepower, at least in our car. I'm currently running 2:14's on a old set of Vracers. Tomorrow we will put on fresh tires for practice and the time runs. It looks to be too hot to get to 2:09's this time. Maybe this fall.

I have been working on Lucille and other folks cars non-stop since Friday noon. It has turned into one of those weekends where everyone pitches together to keep everyone running. It started with my 3rd run of the day Friday (right before noon). Lucille lost the left CV bolts coming out of turn 6. I had to be towed in. I found that the CV worked itself loose and that we had damaged 2 of the 6 CV bolts beyond use. I located 2 bolts from a 944 guy, re-packed the CV and re-attached it. We were back up during our lunch hour.

Later in the day the same guy I got the bolts from snapped off his AC compressor bracket on the track. The AC compressor is attached to his alternator so there was issues about driving the car home in the dark. We moved out Lucille from our canopy in the pits and he used our tools and his to pull the brackets off. The track had a motorcycle repair shop open, so he was able to get the parts welded. We got him back up and running for the drive home to the Bay Area in 2 hours.

The real news is that Doris had a breakthrough in her driving this weekend. An absolute breakthough! She has found the "zone" where she is pushing the car closer to it's limits and has picked up almost 8 seconds a lap from her previous best. She now lines up at the beginning of her run group and leaves them during the session. I went for a ride with her after I had finished instructing my student load and I was blown away at her lines and how fast she was carrying speed through turns. I am a happy camper! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/clap56.gif)

We did have a scare with her today as she had a big off with another car in turn 6. A 964 in front of her lost it in the turn and went spinning backwards at speed through the apex of the turn, bringing all kinds of dirt and plant life onto the track right in the middle of the turn. Doris came through the turn, hit the marbles and did a 360. The Boxster spun out but instead of following the 964 into the outside of the turn, she spun to the inside. They ended up facing each other across the track from one another. Luckily Doris is fine and not too much damage to Lucille. Going sideways at speed through the dirt forced an unbelieveable amount of dirt in the car and into the undercarriage. The right rear tire has rocks forced down into the bead of the tire. It's weird looking at rocks caving in the tire at the bead while still holding air. All 4 tires are flatspotted big time. It's going to take us quite alot of work to clean up the car again. But other than a small crack in the front spoiler and more damage to the plastic wheel well liners, were are still up and running with our back up practice tires. Doris brought the car in under it's own power and we did a safety check, did a little plastic "surgery", and should be ready to do battle tomorrow.

Then at the end of the day a driver in a Boxster pitted next to me overheated his car while on track. He came in and after the car cooled we went through his cooling system to check for leaks. As he was a newbie it appears he was driving around the track all day in 3rd gear, which will boil your car pretty fast on a 3 mile track with temperatures at 95 to 100 degrees. I have extra coolant for our Boxster, so I showed him how to bleed the coolant in his closed system and we had him back up and running before leaving the track for the day. The asphalt gets pretty warm here at Thunderhill.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) This is a sweaty sport!

Doris and I also are trying out cool suits this weekend. They really are refreshing, but we only have the shirts and portable refrigerant cans. We will need to invest in the "ice chest" system and mount it in the car. Truthfully, the portable cans only work for several minutes. In the car during a 25 minute session plus pit staging, you exhaust the can's supply of refrigerant quickly. While you can feel the cooling effect, it does not last and the cans are too expensive to use. If anyone has wondered if the cool shirt portable system works the answer is yes...for a few minutes. In practical terms the answer is no, it does not work in the real world of a track car with driver's suit in 95 degree heat.

Hopefully we will have no more drama for the weekend. We have 3 practice sessions and then the timed runs. It would be nice to have an easy day to end the weekend. I don't look forward to cleaning up the Boxster though. That thing is filthy!


Bill P.