Re: OT: My 2024 BCHMR Day 2 (for all my devoted followers).

On 2024-08-12 10:16, Alan wrote:

Well, it was great to get back on track.

I said there'd be a follow up post and here it is!
Sunday morning dawned (very, very thankfully) under cooler temperatures, cloudy skies and even a very small amount of rain. The high for the day was forecast to be down from too high to something that was at least bearable. That having been said, it still ended up a day where hydration was key. I think I drank 2-2.5 litres of water.
I arrive at the track at about 8am with very little to do, and as we were going to be the first group out for warm-up, and as it was going to be a track just damp enough to need rain tires, but which would dry out quickly enough that you'd then destroy your rain tires...
...I just decided to give the warm-up a pass. I'd learned all I needed to learn about the track (where the new bumps were, where the organizers had added penalty cones for track limits violations, etc), and about the car (I need to add some rear brake bias.
So I thought I'd have nothing more to do than to add a little nitrogen to my tires (American Racers tend to leak a little—especially the highly cantilevered rear tires, and so need refilling at least once when the day begins), give the brake bias knob a couple of turns to "more rear", and unpack for the day.
But then I noticed a 6" diameter puddle of oil right below the Van Diemen's combined bell-housing/oil tank/oil overflow tank. What's more from the colour and odor, it could be gearbox oil.
I was all set to start looking at the bottom of the car for any indication of where the oil was coming from when my shared crewman, Tom, noticed the faint trail of oil from the sight glass of the overflow tank. Since I started running the car in 2018, I'd never seen any indication that the overflow tank was full, but it certainly was now (after we'd changed the engine oil and as all racers do: added enough to make sure that some would end up in the overflow tank).
No problem! (Are we sensing a theme, here? 😉). I'll just find a catch pan (my own having been accidentally left at the shop, take out the small drain plug, and seal it all back up!
Only no one had one close handy either. But Erle had what appeared to be an aluminum tray for baked goods (muffins or maybe cinnamon buns) that might do the job. It was certainly short enough to fit beneath the drain hole with the car only up on short stands.
I took out the drain plug, and out came the oil, and... ...that catch tank was pretty big. I started to get concerned that we might be overflowing the available vessel, but...
No problem!
...the flow started to slow as it got higher and higher in the tray, and I thought I was in the clear...
...when it became apparent that there was a hole in the tray a little more than half way up. And now I had a 3 feet in diameter puddle of oil in my paddock space. Lots of oil absorbents later, it was gone.
Let's get to the racing.
First race of the day, as the day before, the grid was set from the fastest laps done in the race before that. Warm-up was just that; not a qualifying session. So the FC was on pole and I was gridded next to him. This time, when the flag dropped, Chris had clearly learned a lot from watching me drive (his best lap this race was nearly 2 seconds faster than his best from Saturday), and there was no way I was going to be able to keep pace with him. And John, in the Mallock sports racer with a 2 litre tuned Vauxhall engine was going to be my fight, and it ended up being a fair fight. He could pull away for a while, but only by using his brakes to the point where they'd overheat and he'd have to moderate his pace.
So the finish was: 1. Chris in the FC; 2. John in the sports racer 37 seconds back; 3. me in the Van Diemen less than a second behind John.
Still a pretty good result for running on 2 year old tires.
The next race (race 5 of the event) at the egging-on of my crew, I pulled the restrictor to see if it might be possible to run with the FC and beat the Mallock. It wasn't—possible to run with the FC; he still had about a 12% horsepower advantage as well as downforce and Hoosier tires. The Mallock had problems and so didn't factor.
What WAS cool, though, is that there was an original Lotus 41 Formula 2 car from the late 1960s that was being driven by Doug (not that Doug; another Doug) who normally drove a Dodge Viper. It had much more rubber than mine and while the engine was a 1.6 litre mill, it was a Cosworth FVA engine with WAY more horsepower than any Formula F; Ford or Honda.
The Cosworth FVA was a "proof of concept" engine designed to show Ford what Cosworth could do before they built the famous Ford-Cosworth DFV. It makes something on the order of 200-225hp.
The only saving grace was that this was Doug's first time running the car—his first time in any open wheel racer, so it was taking him a while to come to grips with it. This led to us having a super-fun dice with him leading off the start, me passing him for 2nd place, then him passing me again as he got better and better in the car. Our regular on-track photographer, Brent Martin...
(shameless plug: martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com)
...was at turn 3 and he must have got dozens of shots of the two cars, separate by at least 30 years, going through nose to tail.
In the end, Doug got the better of the battle, but it was so much fun to be a part of (and I wasn't bright enough to have had my GoPro mounted for the race!), and we finished:
1. FC; 2. Lotus 41 F2; 3. Me VD RF98-2 FF only 1.2 seconds behind Doug.
And for the last race... ...well... ...I was already gassed. It might not have been as hot as Saturday, but it was hot enough.
I simply decided to relax, and ease off to play with Erle Archer in his 1979 Tiga. I left the restrictor pulled, but I played games with myself by going through corners in one gear too high, or not using all the throttle down the straight...
...and in the end...
...because this was the race for which you get a plaque as the "Abbotsford Trophy" winner in FF...
...I backed off coming off turn 9 to let a legal FF take the checkered flag.
As the race played out, Erle was leading as we started the final lap, but he left the door too wide open to pass up entering turn 2, and I felt I needed to get past him once more for the fun of it. Then I left the door open in turn 3, and he didn't pass.
So I did the only thing that seemed right.
All-in-all, a great weekend of racing just for fun; no points. We saw some people and cars that don't normally come out, including Ross Bentley...
(shameless plug: speedsecrets.com)
...an alumnus of racing with the SCCBC who went on to drive (occasionally) in IndyCar, and who has become a highly sought-after driving coach.
Now, there are three weekends left in the season, and I hope to make all three. I think I can win all 9 of the races, but I suspect that with the points lower (because there will probably be fewer FF drivers out), I don't think that I can win the club championship.
Still, there are some folks who didn't make it out to the "Historics" that I'd still like to see on the track.
Cheers!