Went up with the SRF for an SCCA event at Blackhawk Farms. What a great facility. Very pretty track area, new buildings, new ownership and a great turnout. Learned a lot this weekend about fuel for the SRF, and really, how it affects handling on the car. Tom finished 6th in the Saturday and Sunday sprints out of 10. This if the first time the car has been on the track since the right front corner was rebuilt. There are still some issues to work out, but, the car came back in relatively one piece. Tom entered a 1 hour Enduro race on Sunday. The rules were you had to make one 5 minute mandatory stop. You could do whatever on that stop, but you had only 5 minutes. We thought about sending him out light on fuel to make some time, but then were told you had to be in full Nomex and helmet to re-fuel, so, we went out with 7 gallons for a one hour race. I figured it would take 6.875 gallons to run the race. We have a 7 gallon tank, so, we took a chance. At the 56 minute mark, Tom came by in 1st place with an 8 second lead. When he got back to the start finish line, he pulled off leading me to believe he ran out of fuel. When I got to the car, smoke was billowing out of the car as was Tom. No fire, just smoke. Figured brake fluid or something.... As we are standing there, the 2nd place car comes by and get's the checkered 
We pull the rear clip, and find that the half shaft bearing on the left side had given way, spun Tom in turn 5 and by the time he got around to the start finish, the grease was coming out of the boot coating the hot rotor and causing one heck of a smoke show. It was a re-built part by a SCCA vendor in Indy, so we will be sending that back to them for repair for this weekends race at Gateway (maybe).
So, one lap short of a checkered flag....but we learned a lot again and we are getting comfortable with minor changes. Now on to the major one's.
- We are chewing up the left front tire - our scales show equal weight left to right on the front, but the track scales showed the left front significantly lighter than the right front.
- The Left rear is heating up much more than the rest causing a significant rise in tire pressure (10 - 12 lbs). This was a mostly right turning track, so this may be normal.
- We have a toe out of 1/16" in the front and a toe in of 1/32" in the rear. To me, to make the car rotate, we need to be opposite. Thoughts?
Learning more and more, but not sure I can keep doing these long distance hauls getting to the track at 3am the night before practice and getting home at 2am. Fun weekend. I took some pics with my phone, but most are crap, will try and post a few of the good ones later.
We pull the rear clip, and find that the half shaft bearing on the left side had given way, spun Tom in turn 5 and by the time he got around to the start finish, the grease was coming out of the boot coating the hot rotor and causing one heck of a smoke show. It was a re-built part by a SCCA vendor in Indy, so we will be sending that back to them for repair for this weekends race at Gateway (maybe).So, one lap short of a checkered flag....but we learned a lot again and we are getting comfortable with minor changes. Now on to the major one's.
- We are chewing up the left front tire - our scales show equal weight left to right on the front, but the track scales showed the left front significantly lighter than the right front.
- The Left rear is heating up much more than the rest causing a significant rise in tire pressure (10 - 12 lbs). This was a mostly right turning track, so this may be normal.
- We have a toe out of 1/16" in the front and a toe in of 1/32" in the rear. To me, to make the car rotate, we need to be opposite. Thoughts?
Learning more and more, but not sure I can keep doing these long distance hauls getting to the track at 3am the night before practice and getting home at 2am. Fun weekend. I took some pics with my phone, but most are crap, will try and post a few of the good ones later.
