Last season Recap

[D Walker]

So I am just not online that much anymore, so I have not had time to do any race reports for last season. So here is a brief report from each weekend.

Started the 2012 World Challenge Season at Miller Motorsport Park after missing the St Pete opener. Had JD Mobley, a factory VW driver in the #98 car and Tommy Boileau in the #97 car. GR-8 (Jimmy) came out to help crew. Cold as hell. Tire temps very important throughout the weekend. The format was a 25 minute race, a 10 minute "break" to re-grid- and for us to refuel- and then another 25 minute race. We were the only car in the feild that had to refuel, and the other teams were not happy about it. JD finished 4th and 5th, but we were DQ'ed because of a ride height violation. On a last lap pass on Shea Holbrook JD left the racing surface and into the dirt, which knocked our already very low exhaust down a little further and we failed ride height by 1/4".
The following day race 3 was a standard 50 minute race. JD lost the gearbox on the 2nd lap and just came in. Tommy had some alignment issues and was just basically out making laps.

Mosport, Toronto Canada. Two rookie drivers in the car, Martin and Steve. The guys did well. The engine in the #97 car developed a problem in the second race on Saturday, so we substituted a local racers car for one of ours for the final race on Sunday. It was a thrash to get it ready, but we made the last race with time to spare. Mosport is a fast, dangerous track and we were very happy to come through without issue.

In between Mosport and Mid-Ohio we did some club races, took a couple of wins and things were great until the #08 car was crashed at Pueblo. This was an aggravation as we needed the car for Mid-Ohio, but nothign could be done. For Mid-Ohio we had Carl Rydquist in the car, a professional driver from Sweden, with a terrific history in Europe. The first practice was rough, with the gearbox shattering third gear which required a complete change of gearbox and diff. Long night and busy morning to get on track on time. The car was hooked up, recording 1.8G in the corners and running very well. The first pair of races were all bad though, with a fuel issue sidelining the car after a couple of laps and causing us have no results for both races. Another long night of troubleshooting and we felt we had tracked down the issue. However all the cranking trying to start the engine killed the starter, meaning we had to roll start the car.
Rain and more rain for the third race on Sunday, and we set up for rain and mounted up the rain tires. A serious series of delays had us sitting idling for extended periods of time. Things were literally changing and being changed again every few moments. We do not run fans, so the engine got hot. We had to push start the car on grid, and for some reason the official at pit out held us for the parade lap. The car hit 270degrees coolant temp before the engine just gave up. Just a rough day. Wet, cold, and with a blown engine. Salt was added when the sun came out less than an hour after our race.

Next up was the season ender at Sears Point. An engine we aquired from another racer to replace the melted Mid-Ohio engine let go after 20 laps in practice at High Plains. The Monday before the race weekend. We had to be in California on Wednesday. A bad start. We loaded up the trailer with every RX-8 engine part we had and headed to Sonoma Tuesday morning at 6:30am. Arrived at Sears Point 3:30 AM Wednesday morning. SCCA Pro parked us around noon, and we set up and immediately pulled the blown engine and put in the only spare we had, which was out of the crashed car. It lasted two laps. Crap.
In the pit I tore down all of the engines we had. Not enough good parts left to assemble an engine. Looking bad. No rotary shops in the area had anything in stock, no dealer had anything in stock. Too late to overnight anything in. Getting desperate. A fellow competitor driving a Honda Fit in B-Spec told us that Worldspeed, a Pro Formula Mazda team, was located at the track and might have a spare engine. Gave me the guys cellphone number. A couple hours later we were tearing down a $25,000 Formula Mazda engine to scavenge whatever parts we needed. Built one engine from parts of four engines. In the parking lot. At Sears Point, with a crowd watching. Dropped the engine in the car and fired it up one hour before grid. Engine ran fine but the exhaust brackets broke, and that was the end of our season.

Long tough season for us. Lots of hardship at the end, but the guys who helped- Collin, Jacob, and Jimmy did a tremendous job keeping the cars running and doing the best they could with what they had to work with.
Lots of great times too, and I am already looking forward to the 2013 season!

[boosted12a]

can u post pictures

[D Walker]

Sure, and video too when I have a few minutes

[MSP SuperStreet]

Damn what a challenging season. Competitive racing is sure not for the faint-of-heart. But being part of the racing scene can be addicting. Those small victories just to get the car to the grid and finishing the race can keep you looking forward to that next race and a potential top three finish. Glad to hear you're planning for the 2013 Season. Have you got your cars already lined-up? Hoping tag along on the crew this year.