After my disappointing results at the Lincoln National Tour two weeks ago, I dropped the car off at LG Motorsports in Dallas for a dyno tune. I picked up the car yesterday on the way to Bytheville, Arkansas for the National Tour race this weekend, and am pleased (well this is good and bad, I guess) that we were actually down on power on Lincoln....not just going crazy and making excuses. We were giving up 25 peak HP at the wheels and lots of "area under the curve" especially at high RPM which is exactly how it felt on track. The silver lining is that I was still able to manage a 5th place finish with the poor setup and low power so there is much room for improvement.
Ali and I met my parents at the Arkansas Aeroplex today and I had some setup and car development plans for the car before we hit the test n' tune track. Based on my read on the car balance/performance the past two events, I decided to take a step back and "reset" the car's base setup and make an effort to reduce weight. My basic philosophy was the If I increased power from the dyno tune, reduced weight and improved the power-on oversteer, I would improve my pace. Sounds logical, right? I started off by installing an 11.5lb Braille batter in the rear of the car. This is a 19lb improvement over the stock battery which I had mounted in the factory position. I then removed the subframe connectors and went to a softer rear ARB. I got to take a few runs on the test n' tune car afterwards and the car felt great with 28psi in the Goodyear Eagle RS tires. Transient balance was good and the car would rotate under the brake progressively and it was a monster power-on. Hopefully this translates into improved pace for the National Tour which starts tomorrow. We are running 2nd heat so wish us luck!
I brought some of Licoln Airpark's infamous tire pickup (I hate the term OPR and will never use it) with me back to San Angelo. I cleaned my race tires up last night to prep for the Blytheville National Tour and after about an hour with my heat gun, I had this pile to show for my efforts:
Solid couple of pounds off my race tires. Even if it doesn't affect grip, at least I cut some weight......
Necesito Mas Rapdio....I need more fast. Well, the 2012 Spring Nationals are in the books. My results from the weekend were disappointing, but as always, I still had a blast racing with Ali, Lane and my parents. We had a great field of fast Solo drivers and racecars for the Lincoln National tour aka "Spring Nationals" aka "The Central States Championship." Whatever you call it, it was a great event with fast, flowing courses and it was a good barometer for Solo Nationals pace.....which tells me that I need more fast!
Ali and I rolled into Lincoln Saturday afternoon after staying overnight in Oklahoma City (San Angelo to Lincoln is a long tow!). The Spring Nationals was a full four day event with a ProSolo on Friday/Saturday and National Tour on Sunday/Monday. I did not have enough vacation to run both, so my Dad and I chose to run the Tour only as practice for Solo Nationals. We unloaded and setup the paddock quickly before heading to the EVO Test n' Tune which was a a separate course from the SCCA TNT. The setup was great and we got a lot of valuable seat time in the car. My Dad and I each ran 10-15 runs with our Goodyear Eagle RS tires. Sam Strano (10-time National Champ and builder of our ESP Camaro) was gracious enough to give us some feedback on the car and our driving. He seemed to be pleased with my overall driving and pace (we were running identical laps around the TNT course), but said I needed to look ahead more which is something that I have been trying to improve on.....but still need some work. Getting better in this area should help me gain valuable time on long, visually confusing National style courses by linking different sections of the course better. He enjoyed taking some laps in his old car and said the diff, setup, and tires felt good, but that the motor felt down on power from what he remembered. I was feeling the same thing unfortunately....our LS1 engine did not seem to be pulling quite as hard from before the ring/pinion failure back in March.
After some "seat time" laps, Lane and I did a pressure study on the tires. We had been running high pressures (42 Front / 40 Rear) in our Goodyear Eagle RS tires based on some feedback from SoCal Solo drivers. This setup gave really good initial response and good transient response/balance, but seemed to give up some ultimate grip. We decided to try a higher mechanical grip setup and run much lower pressures. We kept dropping pressures until we settled around 28psi front and rear for both my Camaro and his Corvette. Dropping to 28psi yielded higher lateral and longitudinal grip at the sacrifice of gain (more handwheel angle required to make same corners) and initial response. It was getting dark and we ran out of air, so we did not have a chance to re-run our base setup of 42/40. We will need to do a more exhaustive study before finalizing our tire pressures with the Goodyears but for now, we are running in the 28psi range. We are also learning that the Goodyear tire likes heat so we will be tracking tire temps during our future testing/racing and using heat blankets to try and keep the tires in their best operating range.
I started Day 1 of the Tour on my tires from the Texas National Tour (so 12 total runs and two heat cycles). We had a solid field of 18 cars in ESP including most of the trophy winners from the 2011 Solo Nats. By Day's end, I was in P4 out of the 18 cars with a 62.135s run. This put me about 2s behind 2011 Champion Mark Madarash but only 0.2s out of 2nd place. The car still seemed down on power (seemed more like a stock LS1 than our modified/tuned LS1) and I was struggling with power-on oversteer on corner exit. I know that seems contradictory, but I struggled putting power down and then it wasn't pulling down the autocross-sized straights. I had switched to a stiffer rear bar for this event to help the car rotate on entry which it did at the sacrifice of corner exit performance. For Day 2, I decided to run the same setup (except for a new air filter) but switched to fresh tires. In hindsight, I should have switched back to the softer rear bar. I think that would have helped me gain more time on course from the new tires. I clocked a 66.804s run on my 2nd try which I could not best on my 3rd run. Unfortunately, a DSP BMW spun near the finish and took out the timing system for about 30 minutes between our 2nd and 3rd runs. Given how the Goodyears like heat, this did not help my 3rd run performance. My 66.8 dropped me back to 5th place and about 0.5s out of the final podium spot.
BMW Tangled in the Timing Wires
Overall, I finished in the trophies in the 2nd largest field at the Spring Nationals with a car I felt was under-performing. I know our ESP Camaro and it's Goodyear tires have much more potential than I showed in Lincoln so I will be working hard to correct this. The setup changes I have made to the car have been the wrong direction I think, so I will be focusing on weight reduction and having the engine output checked/increased. On the way home from Lincoln, Ali and I dropped the car off at LG Motorsport in Plano, TX for a dyno tune. As long as they don't find any issues mechanically, we will be picking up the car on the way to Blytheville, Arkansas for the next SCCA Solo National Tour (June 10th - 11th) on the schedule.
Ali and I arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska today for the 2012 SCCA Solo Spring Nationals. This event is becoming the largest National Tour and Pro Solo event of the year behind the Solo Nationals and Pro Finale in September. There are 370 entries for the National Tour event which takes place on Sunday and Monday of this weekend. My Dad and I are competing in E Street Prepared class which currently sits at 17 entries making it the second largest class of the event. Big horsepower and wide tires....what's not to like?
After getting settled in this afternoon, my Dad and I run a test and tune event with Junior Johnson and Sam Strano which was put on by the Evolution Performance Driving School. My pace relative to multi-time National Champions in my car was good, but the pace of the car overall was slower than expected. However, Lane Borg, my Dad and I spent a few hours and over 30 runs on our Goodyear Eagle RS tires and we able to make some solid improvement to the ESP Camaro's pace. Test n' tune courses can be deceiving so we won't really know where we stack up until tomorrow's first runs.
I competed in the 3rd race of the West Texas Karting Association's club schedule at Rimrock Raceway this past Saturday night. Here is a quick summary because I am tired:
1) Drove to Dallas Friday night for Ali's sister's college graduation (Congrats Kim)
2) Went to Kim's graduation Saturday morning
3) Flew to Midland (cheap Southwest flight)
4) Joe and Stuart picked me up at the airport Saturday afternoon
5) Realized I forgot to pack my driving suit so I had to borrow a motorcycle jacket from somebody (Thanks Mike!) and wear my Polo jeans from the graduation ceremony
6) Raced against 7 shifter karts and one twin-engine Yamaha at Rimrock Raceway
7) Won Heat 1 after drawing pole (pill pick for starting position)
8) Finished P3 in the 2nd heat after starting DFL
9) Started P2 on the grid for the 12 lap feature
10) Damaged my bumper while trying to pass Stuart who started on Pole
11) Passed Stuart for the lead on Lap 2
12) Won the feature by a few kart lengths
13) Packed up and got home around 2AM Sunday morning
14) Slept until Noon and unloaded the trailer with the guys
I had a blast racing with the Midland crew and am looking forward to running more races with the WTKA. Here is onboard video of the feature race:
I am selling my 2004 Mazdaspeed MX-5. It currently has 46,575 miles. This is a low-mileage, very clean car that I have only used as a daily driver. This car is a blast to drive and I have enjoyed it, but it is time to get a more practical hatchback. I usually get about 26mpg combined and between 28 and 30mpg with all highway driving. This MX-5 features a 1.8L turbocharged engine that it is estimated to produce 200 wheel horsepower with the modifications listed below. It has a 6-speed manual transmission. I recently put Kumho All-Season tires on it which have less than 1,000 miles.
I am the 2nd owner and have owned this car since it had 22,000 miles. The first owner modified the car with the following bolt-on parts:
Modifications:
Boss Frog Double Max Miata Roll Bar
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Intake Upgrade Kit
GFB Blow-Off Valve
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Midpipe and Exhaust Upgrade
Flyin' Miata Mazdaspeed MX-5 Intercooler Upgrade Kit
A-Pillar Mounted Boost Guage
Price: $11,900 ($1,800 under KBB so priced to sell!)
This car would make a great daily driver, autocrosser, or track day toy...or all three. Please contact Dave Ogburn at (DOgburn at gmail dot com) for questions. I can provide more information, a VIN number, and more photos upon request. These are photos taken of my car in November 2011 (still this clean). Thanks.
I'm a little tardy on this post but wanted to give a recap of my first karting day of 2012. Joe, Stuart and I went to Midland back on April 6th for a practice day in our shifter karts. It was our first time driving the karts since the final SWRC race of 2011 last October. In summary, it was a very productive day. I started the day on heavily worn tires from the SWRC finale but made some rear stiffness changes to improve the balance which allowed me to lower my personal best at Rimrock to a 34.5sec (0.3sec improvement). First, I made switched to a stiffer axle, then I narrowed the rear track, and finally I added a rear torsion bar in the full soft position to improve rear grip and overall side bite. Until this, I was chasing a loose kart and knew there was time to be gained with improved balance.
After a few sessions, we decided to have a time attack lap time battle. We each got three flying laps around the regular long course and 6 laps around the short course (see video below). I switched so a less worn set of MG yellows which has significantly more grip than the previous set I was running. With the newer tires, I dropped my personal best down to a 34.05sec lap so in total I improved 0.7s from my previous personal best. I was the fastest of the group around the long track, but Joe clipped me by 0.07sec around the long course so we split the win. There is no official record, but I have heard through the grapevine that the track record at Rimrock Raceway is in the 33s. Running the elusive 33sec lap is our goal and Joe, Stuart, and I will be racing hard to see who can be the first to the 33s!
Here is some onboard video from our lap time battle:
February 12th - Kart testing at Rimrock Raceway in Midland, TX
February 26th - Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup Autocross # 1 in Dallas, TX
Marth 17th - TX National Tour Test n' Tune in College Station, TX
March 18-19th - SCCA Texas Nation Tour Event in College Station, TX
March 25th - Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup Autocross # 2 in Dallas, TX
April 6th - Kart testing in Midland, TX
May 19th - WTKA Race # 3 in Midland, TX
May 26th - Lincoln National Tour Test n' Tune in Lincoln, NE
May 27 - 28th - Lincoln National Tour (Central States Championship) in Lincoln, NE
June 10-11th: SCCA Blytheville National Tour (Southern States Championship) in Blytheville, AR
June 23rd - WTKA Race # 4 in Midland, TX
July 22nd - Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup Autocross # 6 in Dallas, TX
July 28th - WTKA Race # 5 in Midland, TX
September 4th - 7th - 2012 SCCA Solo Nationals in Lincoln, NE
September 22nd - WTKA Race # 7 in Midland, TX
October 14th - Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup Autocross # 8 in Dallas, TX
October 28th - WTKA Race # 8 in Midland, TX
November 10th - 11th - Equipe Rapide Challenge Cup Autocross # 9 & 10 in Dallas, TX
On the karting side, I learned a lot and had fun racing my shifter kart in the Southwest Regional Cup but travelling for 5 regional kart races was tough on my vacation from work and my wallet. I decided to get back to basics (cheap, easy fun) with karting this year and run local events with the West Texas Karting Association in Midland, TX. My focus for 2012 is the National SCCA events in the Camaro, but I do not want to give up wheel-to-wheel racing so running only local club races in the kart allows me to do both. Stuart, Joe, and I can travel up to Midland and back to San Angelo in one day which makes the racing travel much easier. I am looking forward to my 5 WTKA race events during the Summer/Fall.
In every issue of Grassroots Motorsports magazine, they feature the "pit bike of the month." About a year ago, I submitted our trusty Honda XR70 pit bike to the magazine and to my surprise, we were featured in the June 2012 issue. Now, our pit bike will be recognized Nationwide at all our races!
eKartingNews.com released their latest Stock Moto Driver Rankings for 2012. Their National ranking system only evaluates Regional and National races so I am relying on points from my 2011 SWRC races. Race points are eligible in the ranking for one calendar year, but my last few races were good enough to keep me in the Top 40 in National Points. I'm currently ranked in the 38th position.
See below for links to the full article and full Driver Ranking list:
