« Summer Schedule | Home | Car Maintenance and Woodburn Raceways »
Learning a Lesson or Two
By Emily | July 13, 2008
Chris and I knew going into this adventure that we had a lot to learn. Super Comp is a class that we knew little about. But from everything we had researched we knew it was the right class for us to start out in. Although Chris has pretty extensive automotive knowledge, my knowledge of the topic is much more general. And by general I mean I can find the steering wheel, pedals and radio knob in most, but not all cars. With all of this in mind, Chris and I knew that we didn’t know what we were getting into, but were willing to take the leap anyway. Friday proved to be one of those days where all of our unlearned lessons came to a head.
After a 4:30am wake up call on Friday, Chris and I headed out for a test and tune at Bremerton. We were both quite eager for this outing after our test and tune at Pacific Raceways only a week and half before. We had our goals in mind and were feeling quite comfortable with the car. Bremerton Raceways is an hour and half drive with trailer, mostly because we cannot take the ferry. We made it to the track at about 8:15am and as we drove down the narrow two lane road to the track we began to realize that there were no other cars. At most test and tunes, as well as races, there is a long line up outside the track gates before they open up for the day. We pulled up to closed gates and looked at each other with confusion. Simultaneous we pulled our BlackBerry’s (otherwise known and our “CrackBerry’s” for our disgusting addiction to them) and looked up the Bremerton website. I had added these test and tunes to my calendar in February and was fairly confident that we had the right date. As a chronic double-checker, I was astounded by my lack of preparation. Chris had checked the date on the website the day before, but not the time. After some handheld electronic research, we found out that Friday test and tunes are from 4-9pm, unlike the 9-5pm on Saturdays. I must have entered the event wrong on my calendar. WHOOPS. Lesson number one for the day.
In the light of this set back, Chris and I decided that we had already put in so much time and effort that we didn’t want to head back home without racing. However, the first obstacle would be to get the 30 foot trailer out of this dead end. The solution: Emily walking behind the trailer with a walkie-talkie for a mile and a half as Chris backed the trailer up until we were able to turn around at a construction site. Now headed in the right direction (forward, that is) we set out to kill six and half hours. So, we headed to a local diner and had breakfast, again. Neither one of us very hungry, so it proved to be fruitless. But as we were leaving, a woman and her daughter asked if we were the owners of the huge trailer outside. With panic in our hearts, fearing that we had hit something or vice versa, or even worse the trailer had been stolen, we confirmed that it was our trailer. They simply wanted to take a few pictures of the car for a family member who was stationed in Iraq. He had apparently been quite a racing addict and spent most of his free time at the track in Bremerton before he was deployed. After the photo session, we locked the trailer back up and headed to a nearby (or so we thought) park to waste some more time. After a good half an hour of wandering around narrow roads along the Puget Sound, we finally find a park and walked around for a while. We finally concluded that a movie would be a great way to kill a couple of hours.
We headed back to Bremerton and found a theater that had a convenient showing of Hancock. After quite a skillful maneuver with the trailer, we managed to take up half of the parking lot. After the movie we decided to walk down a couple of blocks and try and find a bite to eat. We found a great sushi/teriyaki restaurant that might have been the highlight of our trip to Bremerton. Finally, it was approaching a reasonable time to head to the track and hop in line. The gates opened promptly at 3pm and we headed inside. Bremerton, unlike many other tracks, does their technical inspection as you enter the track. This is fine for all of the street cars, but it is a royal pain in the behind for anyone that runs a non-street-legal car. We have about 30 seconds to fill out the tech card from the cashier station to the tech station. We then have to open up the trailer and escort the inspector through a crowded and fully loaded trailer as he attempts to look at all of the SFI dates. We have finally gotten a hang of it and have everything prepared ahead of time to speed up the process. However, not everyone is as clever as the Williams clan and tend to clog up the tech lanes. We finally find a place to pit and set out to get ready to race.
One of the largest problems I have encountered so far has been getting strapped in to the car in a timely manner. We usually head to the staging lanes and wait until a lane or two ahead of us runs to get strapped in. But lately, we have been at test and tunes where all of the car with slicks require no restraints. Therefore, I am the only person that takes five minutes to strap in and end up holding up the cars, not to mention stressing myself out beyond belief. So, on Friday we decided that there were few enough people at the track that we could strap in at the pit and be fine. Thank goodness we did because the starter seemed to take a liking to us and held all other cars the moment we hopped in the staging lanes. We were able to get a total of six runs in on Friday night and never waited more than four or five minutes in the staging lanes. This was quite a pleasant surprise considering the unwelcome treatment we received from the starters at Pacific Raceways.
Now, a little number talk for those of you who pay attention to those all important stats.
Our first run was a solid run and marked our first run under our index (8.90). We had yet to be able to break the barrier and we finally managed to do it! In fact, all six runs that we ran on Friday were under 8.90. Try as we might, we couldn’t get over our index. Run one and two were in the middle 8.80’s and great passes.
Our third run was a doosey. Everything was fine until I left the line and the car launched harder than I have ever felt it leave before. Then instead of shifting at mid-track, it hit the rev. limiter and stuck in first gear all the way down the track. The car ran a 130mph quarter mile, but to me it felt like a stroll in the park. I should have reached down and put it in second gear, but I was so nervous that I had broken the car that I didn’t take the time to diagnose the problem. Chris and I had a quick conversation on our handy-dandy radio and concluded that some person (who will remain unnamed) forgot to turn on the CO2 bottle. Therefore the car did not set the throttle stop, which lowers my RPM shortly off the starting line from 5400 to 4800. Then at mid-track (at a time in which we have set on the car) the car shifts to second and picks up speed and RPM. Interestingly enough, none of this happens without the CO2. Another important lesson learned.
After the fourth run we started to few drops of oil on the rear end of the car and our pit area. Chris and I both panicked, knowing that the car has a mandatory diaper that holds twice the amount of oil in the car (and therefore could not overflow). Where could the oil be coming from and would Chris and I be able to diagnose and fix the problem? We went through all of the pieces of the car and realized that we hadn’t emptied the puke tank in ages. This tank is designed to catch anything that comes out of the engine (i.e. water, oil, shrapnel from engine damage). Sure enough, we opened it up and it was full. After draining 
it, the problem was fixed! Whew, tragedy averted and lesson learned!
Runs five and six were just about as good as we could have asked for. We were using our calculations and plotting our next run with ease. In fact, our final run was a 8.899, just one thousandth off of our index. What more could you ask for??
This was by far the most successful experience we have had in car since we purchased it. Everything went so smoothly (once we were at the track) and more importantly, we knew what we were doing. We were able to use the equations that Jack and Jenna had offered us and actually calculate what our set up needed to be. We adjusted to the track and the weather and were able to see how far a change in the throttle stop or the dead stall could take us in terms of ET on the track. It was such a great learning experience and gave us the confidence to really be able to be competitive in this class. On Friday we set a goal to enter our first race before the end of the year. Chris and I are both dead set on not entering a race until we feel comfortable and confident in the class. We don’t want to make fools out of ourselves at a race, but mostly we want to put in the hard work before we throw ourselves into a competition setting. Winning is not a priority for us, but being competitive and knowledgeable in Super Comp is. I’ll be sure to keep you all up to date on when we enter our first race.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Topics: Racing | No Comments »