Daytona Setup Day

We got to the track and got our rigs parked and headed off to tech as there was no tracktime today. There are 169 cars to go through tech and it took hours. We still have to report to tech again in the morning before we take the track at 11:30. We got our pitlane assignments and ended up first hot pit in pitlane. Could be good or bad as we cannot get a pitlane speed penalty coming in but it could be a curse as we need to watch any pace car postion as it takes 40 seconds to get out. We have to be out of pitlane before the pace car with the field in tow crosses start/finish or we get held up to let the field by and going down 1 lap. It should take some crafty strategy... I finally got some time to browse around late in the day and found Martin of FChat (Cavellino Motors) working diligently on the graphics for his cars. I also made it by the pit garage of the only 360 entered in the Rolex 24. More tomorrow!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Well, what a day. Everything that could go wrong did. It started out with some ride height changes and shock setting changes and quickly deterioated from there. Settings made in pit lane under the pressure of 45 minute sessions and shared pit space led to some mistakes and set backs. We were able to stay in the top 20 and then lost 4th gear in the last session, 1 hour before qualifying. No time to get that box replaced so we had to go out and qualify with no 4th gear. Needless to say, we will take the grid with a good look of the competition in front of us. We think we have the chassis platform back under control but are still guessing on a chassis pitch issue. Hopefully , an additional 50 PSI in the front shock canisters will give us the front end support under hard braking we were missing. We have 1 more 45 minute practice in the morning and we take the green flag at 2:30. Both drivers will need to get some seat time during that practice so I hope the setup is close... I guess we'll see...

You know you're having a bad day when the driver is working on the car...
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Race day arrives, and I am nervous! We spent last night changing the gearbox, making the final ride height changes and shock settings. The warm-up in the morning confirmed we had finally got it right and we were ready for the race. I finalized my fuel strategy and think we can make it on one stop for fuel, 4 tires and a driver change. My fuel capacity would only last 1 hour, 5 minutes but I needed 1 hour 15 minutes so I was counting on some yellow laps to push us along. We got those laps during the first part of the race and again in the "fuel window" at 1 hour. When everyone else dove in for their stop, I told my driver to stay out and let me know the status of the incident in the "bus stop" that had caused this caution. After a few laps under caution, he let me know when the crashed car was being loaded on the flatbed and the tire wall was being repaired and then I knew I had 2 more laps under yellow to get our stop done. We came in nearly 10 minutes after everyone else and extended our fuel window out the second half of the race closer to the end. It would be close unless we got another caution! We got that caution at around the 2 hour mark and I now knew we could finish with the fuel we had. At the last of the race, we were running some of the fastest laps of the race in the low 2:02 range and were making passes every lap. As the race came to the last 5 minutes, the cars began to pit for the "splash and go" stops and for many that pushed the envelope, the deadening feeling of that gurgle and bog as the motor had used the last of it's fuel. We were pushing and pushing hard as others began to try and conserve the fuel they had left. We had qualified 40th the day before because of the broken gearbox and today, it was starting to look like our luck had changed. As the checkered flag came out for the finish of the Daytona 200, we crossed the line in the top 10 of 88 entries. I guess the "Racing Gods" were looking down on us today...

We finished just .2 seconds behind our friend Martin (Cavallino Motors) in their #88 Porsche Carrera. Talk about a great time! We had a lot of our members there including Nick (NRGMotorsportsINC) and Rob Whitener (Eclipse185) They had some misfortune from their car and I have the video leading up to the incident as the car spun right in front of us in the "bus stop". We all had a great time! FChat represents!
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks David! We had a good event in the end...