Shiny Side Down, Down, Down

Shiny Side Down, Down, Down, (Part 1)

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By the time my girlfriend / crew chief (girlchief?) and I arrived at Pacific Raceways Saturday morning, the paved spots were long gone. With my “race-trained” eyes, I saw that my friend and Honda Civic racer, Jeff Peneck had a paddock spot all to himself, so I went and mooched some of his pavement. This ended up working fine for both of us – he and the Honda guys had someone to tease and I had a little pavement.

Once the fugly gold 318i was unloaded and warming up, I noticed a little coolant had pooled on the floor of the cockpit by the foot pedals. Since coolant is only slightly less slick than oil, this is undesirable. The last thing I wanted was my foot slipping off the brake on the way into a turn! My girlfriend wiped it up, and I decided to take it easy for my morning practice session and keep half an eye on the floor.

Group 2 was the first session of the morning, and while precipitation had stopped, the track was still damp and slippery. In a way this can be more dangerous than rain – rain makes the lack of adhesion obvious. I tip-toed around the track for the first few laps, trying to get a feel for the slick corners. Once I had a vague idea where the limit of adhesion was, I pushed traction a little more in safer corners that had plenty of visibility and run-off space. This way, if the car got more sideways then I expected, there was time and space to catch it and plenty of space for the other drivers to avoid me. I also kept a close eye on the floor of the cockpit, but didn't see any sign of more coolant. When the practice session was over, Jeff Peneck’s Honda had to be towed in. Jokes regarding non-Bavarian cars aside, it appeared that a part of his ignition system had died. He spoke with some of the other Honda racers, and pin-pointed the problem to the impulse generator of his distributor. After a quick run into Covington, he found a replacement part and was able to get the car on the track for Group 2 qualifying without missing any track time. Yet another successful race weekend fix!

I checked my cockpit and found that there was a touch of new coolant, but not enough to see where it was coming from. I chatted with the always-helpful Ron Newell of Strictly BMW, and he suggested that I clamp off the heater core hoses with vice grips. Then, also on his suggestion, I taped a big wad of cloth shop towels around the heater core and where the heater hoses entered the firewall. This way, even if the clamps hadn't completely sealed the system, any dribbles of coolant would be soaked up by the cloth. I kept my fingers crossed that it would at least hold until Sunday afternoon. “Elegant fix” and “race car” usually don’t belong in the same sentence.

The Novice Closed Wheel session was up next. I went out, but kept things very dialed back, as the track was almost as slippery as it had been in my first session. Unfortunately, one of the other BMW racers had pushed traction a little prematurely. I came around 5a on my second lap to find a squished looking bimmer on its side, pointing the wrong way. It looked like its rear-end had stepped out in the damp and the driver had run out of time and space trying to get the car pointed straight again. The driver was fine, but this curtailed our practice session.

The track dried out for the uneventful afternoon practice and qualifying sessions, so I had a chance to dial myself in mentally and physically. I was able to pull a 1:51.8 for Group 2 qualifying, which is as fast as I could expect to go. Next up was the novice race, my 10^th novice race; my goal for this race was to play around a bit several of the corners and keep the car whole and running for the Group 2 race on Sunday.

When we received the green flag for Saturday afternoon's race, I pushed up a few places and settled in for an uneventful race as the cars quickly spread out. On my second lap, however, I came up the hill through Turn 7 to find another car inverted. Through the cloud of dust, it appeared that the rear axel of the car was missing. A novice renting a tube frame, purpose-built, NASCAR-style 500 horsepower monster had found out why this is probably not the best car to learn to race in. The car is not forgiving and it's very, very fast. I later heard that the driver had been late into pre-grid for his first race. With cold tires, cold brakes and a cold brain he had rushed to catch up with the pack. Of course, in a car like that, "rushing to catch up" isn't really necessary. With a car that fast and heavy, it's lucky that the driver didn't hit anyone or injure himself.

Once they pulled the ground pounder off the track, the race was uneventful. The faster cars pulled well ahead, not to be seen again for the duration of the race. Well behind me a first generation RX7 and an ugly brown Ford Fiesta duked it out – it was fun to watch these two very different cars swap places, but there was no danger of them catching me.

Since the results of the race weren't important, I experimented with different ways to get through some of the turns, including the critical banked left-hander, Turn 8. I really worked to step the back end of the car out on entry to this corner. When I could get the car to rotate effectively, I was able to floor the gas right after the turn in point for the corner, and keep it floored all the way through. Several times, however, this led to a rotational moment which took at little work to catch. I heard after the race that the announcer had commented on my “playing around”. Getting the car this sideways is not quick, but at least I was able to give the spectators a good show. I felt fine experimenting like this in Turn 8, as there is tons of run-off space and I had plenty of space between me and the other drivers.

I also had a small off in Turn 3b, a tight left hander. I was experimenting to see how close to the corner I could move my braking zone, without unsettling my car. I managed, however, to lock up my front wheels. In a big cloud of rubber-smoke I went straight off the track at about thirty miles per hour. Dust went everywhere, and the car was rattled around a bit by the unpaved ground, but no harm was done. My mistake here was one of brain fade – you have to back off the brake pedal when you lock up the brakes, otherwise the car just won't turn. This is counterintuitive when your corner entry is already too fast. I got right back on track after losing about 3 or 4 seconds, but without losing my position.

The checkered flag waved a few laps later. I placed 8th of 16 cars – respectable. While I planned on continuing to race in the Novice Closed Wheel class the following year, or at least until they kicked me out, I'd found that the novice races had become a little dull. They didn't need the greater skill and strategy required of my Group 2 races.

The car was running well, for a race car at the end of a long season. The transmission output shaft seal was dribbling transmission fluid. The differential cover leaked. The bottom of the shifter scraped the driveshaft while shifting from 3rd to 4th. But there was no sign of coolant in the driver-side foot well and the wheels appeared to be solidly attached to the car – always a good thing. The car was tired, and clearly needed a winter’s worth of work, but it looked like it would still carry me through the following day’s racing. As I drove back up I405 Saturday evening, I mentally prepared myself for the last race of the year on Sunday afternoon.

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