Rob Lay the man to beat in T3 at the Runoffs?

Tough first qualifying day. Good news is the cooling problem is fixed. Hit 212 max today. I'm having more trouble than I thought getting use to these new remote reservoir shocks. I'm not experienced with them, so really clueless which way to go adjusting them. The car also handles completely different and I haven't adapted yet.

So my time was way off the pace today and ended up 11th of 20. The top 3 guys are in a class of their own, but that's another story within itself. I'm really competing with the next tier of cars. I've beat everyone in that group all year, so time for me to get where I should. Moving up to 5-6th by Friday would be great and still put me in a position to capitalize on mistakes of the leaders.

We ran into another issue today that we've already figured out for tomorrow. There is a rule in our class against throwing a Check Engine Light. Problem is with this late model cars made for the street that throwing a CEL while racing is easy to do. I threw a CEL in qualifying today and was one of the cars randomly tech'd (2 hour ordeal), so my qualifying time today was removed. I didn't run well anyway, so it isn't devastating. However, the cold front is moving in now and we have rain, so hopefully track doesn't slow down too much for next sessions or I'm really in trouble.

 

CEL was Random Misfire (300), which is real common with these cars. November 1st the rule changes, but this week we're still under it. Dumb to have this rule racing basically street cars with sensitive computers.

2 months ago they let our RX8 get a comp radiator, nothing else though. However, stock one may have worked better, I never overheated before.

The 2.5 is great, good variation of turns, I especially like the slow decreasing radius ones.

 

I improved 7 tenths off yesterday, but most people dropped that much time or more in the cold air we had today. I've actually lost some places combined. Car handled the worse yet today, so disappointed we're not making daily improvements. Between my lack of experience with these adjustable shocks and only one session a day I'm really not in a great position. Also found out everyone ahead of me is running the A6 Hoosiers while I'm running the R6's. The A6's evidently are faster in this cooler weather. Will see now if I can switch my R6 order to A6's, but I doubt they have extras here.

All a learning experience, just really disappointed I've been one of the fastest all year and come to the biggest race slower. Shouldn't have rebuilt everything or bought remote shocks, spending money to go slower isn't fun.

 

Not catching any breaks. One thing after another. Trying to take care of the variable misfire CEL we put in new plugs, coils, and cam sensor along with inspecting the high end port (a rotary thing) for today. We gained power up to 7k RPM, but power is way down (20 or more HP) above 7k and the rotary is up there most of the time. Looks like we finally got the setup decent and I was driving very good. I hadn't noticed anything with the power and came around on what driving wise was a great lap and the time showed 2:02.5. My first guess was these 3 cycle Hoosiers had given up on me. Coming in we looked at the data and my top speeds on all straights were 1-4 mph slower than my 2:00.8, yet my cornering and exit speeds were all higher (driving better). I just spent a couple hours analyzing the data and that's when we figured we were going from 5400 (lowest RPM's anywhere on track) to 6800 RPM's (right before high end port opens) 1-2 tenths of a second faster today, but 7000 (where port opens) to 8500 3-5 tenths slower. So theory right now is changing out other parts has given us more power, but the adjustment/timing on the high end port when we inspected got just a little off and is costing us significant power.

My setup is good, my driving is good, low end engine power is good, and I landed a set of the faster A6's. If we can resolve the high end power issue then I think things will go well in last qualifying tomorrow. Never dreamed I would be having this many problems. Lesson learned to not make significant changes right before Runoffs without testing.

Everyone is picking up time, I think a 59 flat is possible if all comes together.

 

Took off 3-tenths, but most everyone took off half to full second in these perfect conditions. Have the handling and my driving worked out, but top end is still down 3-4 mph in all straights. It is actually more significant than just 3-4 because my cornering/exit speed is 2-4 mph higher. I should carry most of that down the straight and should be 1-3 at least higher on top end. So if I can do a 2:00.5 without my top end, then I think under 59 is there for me. We're still suspecting the port valve, which comes on at 6,250 (not 7,000), but we might also change the fuel pump. My crew chief is a 30 year master Mazda mechanic, so I'm in good hands, but we're struggling to find the silver bullet. On a street car a few mph would never be noticed, but it is costing me a BUNCH this week. Wasn't going to do warmup tomorrow morning, but might to see if we can fix this before the race. If we don't resolve, then I'll be about stuck in this position during the race as they'll pass on the straights. If I do resolve and I can get down to 59's, then I might get a hard charger award.

 

Thanks everyone for the support, it has been more than a tough week. Too many changes before the big show without any testing. Took me all week to get up to speed on the new suspension, but I'm sure there is still plenty of time to gain as I learn the setup next season. The past two days the issue was down on power through top end. Today with 3 hours left before our race we found an issue with the fuel pump that would have prevented us from finishing more than half the laps. Buddy came through working his butt off and got the fix in plenty of time for the race. Within a couple corners of the start I had dropped back to 15th after qualifying 13th. So first couple laps were just getting back where I started. I was then several lengths back of the train of 6th to 12th place cars. I kept my head down and got the most I could from the car. I really didn't make any major mistakes, just a couple two wheels off on exits that really are no impact as you just stay in the throttle. My fastest laps where at the end reeling in Wiley, but ran out of laps. Never long enough when chasing, but too long when being chased. So after a tough week qualifying 13th, I'm happy with at least 8th. They have top 6 in impound, so who knows how many or if any will be DQ'd.

A few FC users out. Stephen (stephenofkanza) stopped by with his wife and took the great pictures posted below. Michael Johnson (future F1 driver!) was there and syc'd me up on grid. Colin Cohen was there too supporting the only Audi entrant.
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Hello Ed,

Lessons learned all the way around. Sorry I missed you. 800 participants, next year I'll post where I'm located as a few others missed me too. My $500 open car trailer was between the $300k Scotty White 18 wheeler and the $500k Jeff Robbins Renegade by the back straight chicane. You would need a magnifine glass to see me in-between.

Speed TV schedule has been set. Nothing like being respected enough by Speed to be shown on Tuesday during the day.

Tuesday, 11/28
12 p.m. Eastern
Touring 3

 

Now that your sister has so graciously deleted all the porn off the Dish Network memory, there is plenty of space for me to record it.

 

Hmm, why do we take drunk photos again? Yes! ...for future humiliation.
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