Every August we skip the NASA Northeast event at Lime Rock Park (because the car cannot pass the sound restrictions) and head to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to run with NASA Great Lakes during their August event.  Due to our poor performance this year, I was reluctant to go due to the cost and time commitment.  However, Mid-Ohio is my favorite track and we wanted to do testing for our trip to NASA Nationals which return to Mid-Ohio next year.

Unknown to me, this event was also billed as the NASA Great Lakes Super Touring Spectacular.  It drew the largest field of Super Touring 1 / 2 and Super Unlimited entries in NASA Great Lakes history.  The event had a typical 3 day format with 1 day of testing and 2 days of practice / qualify / racing.  We used the “club” course configuration for Friday and Saturday (it has a chicane before the keyhole turn) and the “pro” course for Sunday.

We continued to struggle with the handling of the car on Friday.  We made a number of changes and finally got it much better.  At dinner that night, we decided to take another big swing at the car for Saturday’s race.

That final change improved the car to the point of breaking the track record in final practice.  We qualified on pole and were over 4 seconds / lap faster than the next fastest car.  4 laps into the race, it suddenly started raining hard, and I had to pull off the track.  I ended up finishing 2nd in class, because 1 SU car stayed out in the rain but still broke the track record (since 2006) with a 1:29.413 on the club course.

We qualified on pole for the Sunday race also.  This time it stayed dry, and we went flag to flag for the victory.  No track record this time (although we had the pace) because I flat spotted my right front badly on the second lap and had to limp the car home for the win.  My fastest race lap was still a respectable 1:28.884.

Next event will be NASA Northeast’s Thunder at The Glen from Watkins Glen in October.

NASA Northeast’s Pocono Grand Slam is the annual “long course” race catering to high horsepower cars. By coincidence, it was our first race with the new Butler & MacMaster 421ci 18 degree aluminum SBC race motor, so we were excited to try it out. While we had 1 pole, 1 win, and set a new personal best and (unofficial) track record, the weekend ended on a sour note.

Friday was the traditional test day where we ran multiple practice runs on the North Course.  We worked through a number of small bugs, but the main problem was front-end grip.  The car had a tremendous amount of understeer, and we quickly found a radically different chassis setup was needed due to the motor being significantly lighter affecting nose weight.  We ended the day with some 0:53 second laps – not great but better than we started.

Saturday was the first of two race days.  Saturday’s events used the double infield road course.  We were quick out of the box, and qualified on pole position with a personal best and track record time of 1:32.364 – an average speed of over 128 MPH! We were several seconds faster than anyone else, so I took it easy in the race and took the win.  Click here for the in-car video of the race.

We had high hopes for Sunday’s single infield race.  Over the course of Saturday we continued to get a handle on the setup for the new car, and it was starting to respond.  High-speed grip and balance was good with still a significant amount of low-speed understeer.  Those hopes quickly faded during the first practice.

We discovered an aerodynamic bug during the second lap of the first practice.  We reached a top speed of around 190MPH at the end of the long pond straight when the hook buckled, got air under it, and suddenly it ripped off.  It happened very suddenly (my first thought was the motor exploded) and caused significant body damage to the car.  As the hood came off, it ripped up the cowl, hit the windshield, tore a hole in the roof, broke the rear decklid, and struck the rear wing breaking it. Our day was again done.

The weekend ended on a bad note.  Some progress was made, the new motor is strong, we got a pole, a win, and a track record, but also collected the 5th DNS for this year.

Next event is with the NASA Great Lakes region at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in August.

The 2010 racing season has been rough.  We’ve had 4 DNS results in as many races.  After turning half a lap in practice before loading up and heading home at the New Jersey Motorsports Park event in May, we’re ready for a fresh start.

Some lessons were learned and some things have changed.  We know more about the pitfalls of rebuilding a previously reliable car.  We’ve added new steps to the pre-race checkout procedure to make sure the car is 100% ready to go at the shop.  We’ve also finally received and installed the new motor.

The custom Butler & MacMaster built 421ci V8 motor will make its debut at the NASA Northeast Pocono Grand Slam July 16-18.

This new 18 degree motor produces 700bhp from 6300 thru 7400 RPM and produces more then 590 lb/ft of torque down low due to its large displacement.  While the displacement increased, the motor is in the same SBC form factor as the other motors, and is 80lbs lighter due to its all aluminum construction.  The first 3 columns of the dyno sheet above tell the story.

The new motor hopefully will provide a new start to the season for us.

Lets hope so!  See everyone at Pocono next weekend!

2010 ITFAIS Racing NASA Race Car

The 2010 ITFAIS Racing Dodge Charger Super Unlimited NASA racecar was released today and is ready for the first NASA race at New Jersey Motorsports Park on April 17.

There aren’t major changes for this first 2010 release.  The major change will come mid-season with the installation of a new Butler & MacMaster V8 power plant that will sport significant horsepower and torque improvements.

After the 2009 season, the car needed significant maintenance.  After 3 seasons of running, we decided to do a complete rebuild of the car.  The car was taken apart down to the tube chassis which was then stripped.  John Coy of Mach-1 Performance then made some chassis changes and the frame was inspected and magna-fluxed for defects.  It was then powder coated and the assembly started.

The car was built with all new or rebuilt parts — every bolt, nut, and major component was either replaced or completely rebuilt.  Along the way, some improvements were made:

• 2010 Dodge Charger Body with better front aerodynamics and larger wheel well clearance
• 70″ Grant-Am GT carbon fiber rear wing
• Better front brake ducting / cooling
• Interior refinements to eliminate weight and improve visibility

The major change will come in June and will debut at the July Pocono Long race.  The current 23 degree 358ci V8 motor will be replaced with an 18 degree 421ci all aluminum motor from Butler & MacMaster.  This motor will keep a small block form factor with the extra displacement created by a larger bore and stroke.  The aluminum package will further decrease front nose weight while the 18 degree design will increase power but maintain a 8000 RPM package for longer life and fewer rebuilds.  The design goal of the motor is to produce well over 700bhp with torque numbers in the high-600’s under 8000 RPM while removing 80 lbs of weight.

I can’t wait for the first event at NJMP to test the rebuilt car and start a new season!

Here is the 2010 ITFAIS Racing schedule.

The final weekend of the season was a typical 3 day format, with practice all day on Friday and qualifying and racing on Saturday and Sunday.  Weather was a factor with Friday dry, Saturday semi-dry, and Sunday almost a total washout.

Friday went well and the car was handling great from the beginning of practice.  After a few minor adjustments, we were running 1:24’s without pushing too hard.  We skipped most of the afternoon practice sessions to keep time off of the motor and to keep the car safe.

I qualified on pole for Saturday’s race.  The race started well, but I made a mistake and drove off of the track after a few laps.  I re-entered and started driving back through the field.  Unfortunately, the race went full course caution soon after my mistake and never restarted due to the extended clean-up efforts in turn 1 plus rain.  My fast lap in the race was a 1:24.444 and I finished 2nd in class, 5th overall.  Click here for full results and the first few laps of video is here.

Heavy rain moved in Saturday night and continued throughout the day Sunday.  We’ve rarely run the car in the rain but we brought rain tires because we had to run both races to secure the championship.  In the morning, we bolted on Hoosier rain tires, unhooked the sway bars, and took the compression out of the shocks.  In addition, we mounted 2 brake blowers on the roll cage to blow on the windshield to keep fog down and Rain-X’d the hell out of the windshield.  We qualified 14th overall, but raced well in the rain and set the 5th fastest time of the entire field and finished 1st in class, 10th overall.  The car was a real handful with a locked rearend, no traction control, no ABS, no windshield wipers, and rain flying around the cockpit since it isn’t sealed for rain.  Check out the video here.

The season ended with me leading the overall drivers points as well as the Super Unlimited class points.

We’ll see everyone next season!!

Friday was pretty much a rain out.  We got 2 sessions in on a green and cold track.  I don’t think anyone broke 2:02.000 and then it really rained.  That ended that.

Saturday started with a fog delay, and then turned mostly cloudy and cold with some wind.  We still had a Pocono North setup on the car, but changed gears (for speed) and trimmed out the back wing (for speed).  Practice was on a mostly damp and green track in the cold.  Qualifying was better — we finally built up to some speed — and then a front wheel bearing broke and fused itself to the hub.  Thanks to the Mach-1 crew and Jeff Canil’s spare parts, the car was ready just in time to race.  I actually got fitted for one of Entropy Racing’s SSR’s to reclass as SU and race if the car wasn’t ready (for points).

I won the Saturday race in class and overall.  This was mostly due to mechanical problems with two of my competitors and some staying out of trouble.  My teammate, Mike Cohen blew a motor.  Joey Scarallo had some issue going into the boot and I passed him.  He came back up to speed, but didn’t have enough time (or speed) to catch and pass me.  The car was extremely areo loose due to the trimmed out rear wing — you can see it try to break loose in the esses a few times.  My fastest lap was a 1:57.278 in the race and the video can be found here.

The Sunday race was a mess.  The start was waived off and never went green.  Turn 1 had a double yellow flag immediately, but I still was passed by half the field all the way into the esses. The race restarts and I get caught behind a mega ST-1 car that is all over the track.  That car ended up crashing right in front of me.  The race ends under black flag with me in 2nd overall and in class.  It was the weirdest time I’ve ever had on the track.  Video is here.

Next and final race is at New Jersey Motorsport Park’s Thunderbolt Raceway Halloween weekend.  I go into the race leading both the class and Northeast drivers points.

We fought front brake problems the first day, with a soft or non-existent brake pedal. We bled the brakes after every run to help, but a bad seal in the master cylinder proved an annoyance all day. The car was also extremely loose all day requiring adjustments from our normal setup. This was caused by us running Hoosier R75 compound on the front and R100 in the back due to tire supply problems. In addition, the engine felt down on horsepower. After the race weekend we found a miscalibrated timing pointer which caused us to set the timing about 7 degrees late. Other than those items, it was a pretty uneventful weekend, and I find myself “points racing” now more than ever.

Both races were won overall by a Speed World Challenge ST-1 car. I won my class both races and started on pole for the Sunday race.

My best laptime during the Saturday race was a 0:53.864. Full results can be found here.

My best laptime during the Sunday race was a 0:52.935 which is a NASA track record for the Super Unlimited class.  Full results can be found here.

Video of the Sunday race can be found here.

I am currently #1 in NASA Northeast overall driver points, and #1 in the Super Unlimited class.

Next race weekend is at Watkins Glen International in early October.

Both races occurred on incredibly hot midwestern August days with the temperature exceeding 90 degrees. It was over 130 degrees inside the car by the end of the race, so hydration and heat fatigue were important factors each race.

Both races were fairly uneventful from my standpoint. Mike started on pole for the Saturday race with me in second. We both caught lap traffic quickly and Mike’s lead varied depending on how either one of us was getting thru traffic and where we caught the slow cars. We were both caught in a hornet’s nest of GTS cars when Mike was spun-out by a GTS3 car 2/3rd of the way through the race. I drove by and he didn’t have time to catch up and pass me again. My fast race lap was a 1:29.906 and the full race results are available here.

The Sunday race was all about pacing myself and not getting into trouble. We knew from practice and qualifying there were no cars close to our speed. The strategy was to run just fast enough to qualify on pole and win the race while staying out of trouble and minimizing wear on the car. That’s exactly what we did and the strategy worked. My fast lap of the race was a 1:29.866 and the full race results are available here.

In-car video of the Saturday race is available on the Videos page.

I also want to thank the NASA Great Lakes / Midwest region for another great event and their hospitality.

Next event is a return to Pocono North on Labor Day Weekend.

The weather both days was ideal. Saturday started with the usual practice session, and I ended up qualifying on the pole for the double infield race with a lap of 1:33.968 — breaking the track record! In the race, I was passed at the start by my teammate, Mike Cohen. I then overdrove the entrance to the south course trying to catch him and had to take the escape road. I re-entered 4th place in class, and raced my way back up to a 2nd place finish. Click here for Saturday’s race results. Mike holds the race race track record with a 1:34.135.

The Sunday single infield race was even more interesting. I started second behind Mike and he left me at the start. I ended up doing battle with a red ARCA stock car with 800hp. We exchanged the lead several times, including once when I had an offtrack excursion while passing lap traffic entering devil’s elbow. Mike exited the race due to mechanical problems, leaving the stock car and I to battle for the class and overall win. I end up passing the stock car going into the infield and then take it 3 wide to lock him behind lap traffic and drove away for the win. Click here for Sunday’s race results. My best lap was a 1.25:485, missing the race track record by .046 seconds!

In-car video from both races is on the Videos page.

The weekend turned out pretty good after all. I was competitive, the car is in 1 piece, and I kept my lead in the NASA Northeast championship.

Next stop is the Mid Ohio Sports Car course in August.