Welcome

We came better prepared to race in 2007, having two R6 motors built.  All thoughts were of running half a season on one, then putting motor #2 in for the balance of the season.  That theory all changed on June 8th.  We had just crossed the finish line of the feature race at Stateline Speedway, when the motor let out a "Bang!"  Our first thoughts, "Here we go again..."

Motor #2 was now our only power source for the remainder of 2007.

 
Due mostly to the design of the small track at Hartford Speedway, it was pretty much a rough track to race at.  Physical contact was the norm, and damage to the car came in all levels.  For most of the season we held our own, and avoided major damage.  I only recall two times where the damage was significant enough where we couldn't finish the race.  We listened to rumors all season that they were going to move the backstretch wall back, giving us a bigger track on which to race, with corners that were not quite so sharp.  But they remained just that, rumors.  I guess we will know more as the 2008 season begins.

Jackson Speedway on the other hand was a much faster track to race on, and with slightly shallower corners, pileups were less common.  The season started out real well there, but as time went on, and the points race heated up, it turned into a demolition derby.  As the season wore on we found ourselves more and more in a position where we could not avoid getting caught up in things.  This resulted in a cluster of DNF's at the end of the season.

We have really enjoyed racing at Stateline Speedway over the last few years, but circumstances behind the demise of our first motor this year resulted in us making the hard decision not to return for the remainder of 2007.  We are hoping to have our oiling problems solved in 2008 so we can return without fear of engine failure.

Our trip to The Rumble In Fort Wayne went pretty much as we had predicted.  We quickly learned a lot about what we didn't know about this type of venue.

We joined the Erwin's at their shop in Butler Thursday afternoon, and followed them on down to Fort Wayne.  We arrived at the auditorium around 3 in the PM to begin the process of loading in.  We want to here extend a special "Thank You" to Jerry Monroe and Jason Holibaugh for saving us a pit space.  After a few seconds to settle in, the practice sessions started.  After donning my fire suit, I was notified that I had already been called to the track, and if I wanted to practice this round, I had to get up there NOW!!!  Not till after I returned from the session did I learn that we hadn't even had the time to bolt the wing on.  We were fortunate that it stayed with the car!

I was well aware that my brake bias may not have been set correctly, heck we were just guessing about everything anyway.  But our turn on the track showed us just how far out it was.  I was motioned to the side by the safety crew before exiting the track.  He looked at my rear brake for a minute, then pulled the pin on his fire extinguisher.  The right rear of my car still has a white slime of residue on it.

When I entered the track for practice session #2 later that night, I discovered another problem.  I didn't have any brakes...  It took a good three pumps just to get it to slow the car down.  Well, at least we cured the problem of over heating the brakes!  We also confirmed that we still had a major push in the car, a fault that would plague us all weekend.

Friday morning saw us hit the track at 9:45 in the AM, for the first practice session of the day.  The brakes were fixed, but we quickly learned that the adjustments we made to the car were for naught.  The track had gotten real sticky since our last visit.  The push had gone away, but the left front wouldn't stay on the ground.  In fact we had trouble keeping the left rear on the ground too!  The changes we made before the qualifying session didn't help either.  We qualified with a respectable 9.182, but that placed us 41st out of 57 cars. 

Our 9th place starting position in the heat race pretty much meant we weren't going to qualify for the feature.  With the front end bobbing in the air, I had all I could do to keep the car under me for most of the race anyway.  What I put in the book was, "Car wants to gallop".  We decided we needed more right rear spring.  The consi proved that decision was a good one.  The left front stayed a lot closer to the ground, and the car did turn better, but it was still a long way away from fast.

Saturday morning we changed the left rear spring to a heavier version to bring the wedge back in line.  Then we took some stagger out and moved the rear panhard back up to where we started.  Presto, the car didn't do wheelies anymore...but it wouldn't turn either...  Back to square one.   I removed the rear sway bar for the qualifying session.  We qualified better than Friday, coming in at 8.861.  But everyone else was faster too, so we still placed 41st.  We also discovered that our changes made the car want to bicycle real easily.  Since I have no desire to join the Hell Drivers stunt team, we needed to find a cure.

Putting the rear sway bar back on, and taking out some wedge helped in the heat race.  So on a whim I did some cranking.  I added four turns to the right front coil, and 8 to the right rear.  I also preloaded the rear sway bar as much as I could.  This gave the car a decent tilt to the left.  The consi proved that we are going in the right direction.  The car was stable, and the push was gone.  We actually got into the battle a bit, working up to 4th place.  A bout with the big tire in turn #3 ended that little run, putting us to the back again, but with it all said and done, we are happy with our performance.

A special thank you goes out to our main sponsor this year, Erwin Motorsports.  Thank you Tom & Cheryl!!

http://www.erwinmotorsports.com/

I want to also thank Rodney Stealy of Concept Chassis for his help with this car.  Thank you!!

http://www.conceptchassis.com/

Bill

Photo credits:

Supercharged Photos - http://www.superchargedphotos.com/