Watching the sun set
at WGI
This is my story of the zone 1 club race. If you've been following along this far, you know how hard I worked preparing for this event. Preparation started back in May, making some improvements to car, performing necessary maintenance, and basically spending way too much time and money on my 'hobby'.
Since I arrived at WGI Tuesday evening, and drove the track Wednesday and Thursday, the start of the race event was unusually easy. Normally I arrive late the night before the event. The morning of the event is a mad dash to register, unload the car, set up the paddock spot, prepare the car, attend the driver meeting, and oh yeah, be ready to race too. This event was a lot nicer. I was one of the first people to register, I submitted my log book to scrutineering, and that was it for club race prep. I rotated my tires, looked the car car over, fueled it, and washed the windows. I also moved the RV from the garage area to my assigned club race spot, a nice site close to the garage, with electric hook ups. Very nice. That evening, I gave the track chalk talk to about 25 people, sat through the club race orientation meeting, then basically relaxed. I didn't even leave the track for dinner. Instead I BBQ'ed with some friends, John Kuitwaard, who would be making his first race, and John Ragals, who was helping John and me.
Watching the sun set
at WGI
Since I was all registered, I woke up late on Friday, around 7:00 AM, had some coffee and cereal, got dressed, and went over to the driver meeting. After the meeting, I said hello to all my race friends, then changed into my race gear, and drove to the grid. There were a lot of people on my race group, about 60. Once we got onto the track, and took the green flag, it was mayhem for quite a while. There were cars everywhere, and traffic was unbelieveable - three wide into turn 1, passing in the middle of the bus stop, and every where else on the track. After two laps I followed a silver 911 onto the front straight. I was a little faster, so I was trying to figure out where to pass. The 911 pulled out to pass a car, and I stuck myself onto his bumper. We drafted past that car, and I didn't think I could pass the silver 911. My plan was to stick to his bumper down the front straight to let him know I was there, hang back a little going into T1, get a good run at him going into T2, the esses, then pass on the back straight. No need for that plan. I was pressing the 911 going into the braking zone, and he waited too long to brake, locked the rear wheels and spun off the track backwards into the gravel. OK, clear track, time to go about turning a good time. I think I did one, then the checkered flag came out. Wow, three whole laps! Later, at timing and scoring, I saw that I did a 2:22.2. Not great, but OK considering the amount of track time. It was good enough for 14th place out of 51 cars. I went back to the RV, fueled the car, checked the tire pressures, and relaxed.
I weighed the car before the next session. With me in it, the weights
were
840 878
795 701
Total weight is 3214.
With me out of the car, the weight was 3042. That's 44 lbs over the
minimum of 2998. A gallon of fuel weighs about 8 lbs, so that's about 5
gallons extra, should be good for about 40 miles.
For session two, we were gridded according to lap times from the previous session. I lined up early to get onto the grid, then I realized that I forgot to put on my run group sticker. I ran back to my RV, grabbed the sticker and put it on while I was on line to grid. After that, I had some time to relax on the grid. On the track, traffic was much better. I was behind a green 911, an F class car that I have raced before. I followed for a lap or two, then motored by on the back straight. My car was working pretty good. It was a little loose, but not too bad. My strong parts of the track are the Esses (I can fly up the hill) the bus stop, and high speed left and the last right corner. My weak parts of the track are turn 1, the outer loop, and the toe of the boot. I'm OK on the other sections, neither good nor bad. I was working on my bad parts, but I have to be careful in T1. It's tempting to try to carry a lot of speed there, because it's the most important corner on the track. The problem is that the track slopes steeply downhill at the end of the straight. That really hurts braking. I also slid off the track there on Wednesday and got stuck in the gravel. So I made sure to brake early and I concentrate on getting on the power early. That's probably not the fastest way to make the corner, but it's not terrible and I know I won't go off there. Anyway, I pushed hard after I passed the 911, and the rest of the session was uneventful. The car was running a little warm, but it was a hot day.
Here I am in the paddock.
The "FREE CALL" sign is actually the side of John's motorhome!
When the run ended I changed into shorts, as I was done until after lunch. When I walked to timing and scoring I was happy to see that I went two seconds a lap faster, 2:20.5 compared to 2:22.2 before. However, everyone else went faster too, and I moved from 14th on the grid back to 25th. How can you go two seconds faster, and lose 11 grid positions?? Very strange, but that's racing.
After lunch I got ready for the third session. I have a new radio system and I wanted to test it that session. I also wanted tire temps taken. The third session would be the perfect time to do both. John Ragals was my crew chief for the session, so I gave him the radio and headset. In the car I strapped in, turned on the radio and did some quick checks. The radio was working well, and I could clearly hear John. I told him that I would come in after the third or fourth lap. On the track, I was gridded in front of another 944 turbo S. I wanted to keep that car behind me. I took it easy on the warm up lap and gave myself plenty of room before the car in front of me. When the track went green I tried to push. However, something was different. Before, there were cones marking the turn in and apex for each corner. They were left over from the driver ed before. I don't care if the cones are there or not, but the difference was a little surprising, and it was throwing my lines off. Also, it was hotter than before, and the tires weren't gripping well. I had originally put some distance between the 944 TS behind be, but my poor driving was causing the car to catch me. After pressing for two laps I called in to John to tell him that I was coming in this lap. I came into the pits hot and John was waiting for me with pyrometer and tire pressure gauge. Here are the numbers:
170 208 195
163 146 140
35 40
35 39
134 146 146
149 142 137
35 39.5
35 39
The first pressure number is cold, the second is hot. Temps look good, a little strange on the RR, but not bad.
While I was waiting for John to get the tire temps, I noticed my temperature gauge was going up and up. It hit the top white line, then the warning light came on. What's going on? John finished getting the data, the session ended, so I slowly drove back to my paddock space. I kept expecting the engine temp to drop down, but it didn't. I turned the heat on full blast, hoping to help cool the engine down, but no heat was coming out. This is not good. Back in the paddock I turned the engine off and opened the hood. The coolant expansion tank was full. I opened the coolant bleed valve, and lots of air came out. Make that lots and lots and lots of air, like nothing but air. Later, when the engine cooled, it was very low on coolant. I had a sinking feeling that either the water pump was broken or the head gasket was gone. I added about a gallon of water, then bled the system with George B's help. I was satisfied that all the air was out. Would it help?
Up next were the practice starts and fun race. On the way to the paddock the car was running cool and I felt better. Then, on the grid the temp gauge went to the middle. No cause for alarm, but it should have been on the lower line. I was not feeling confident about the engine. Group 4 was on track, and it was taking a very long time. I was all ready to go, strapped in and all, but with my helmet off. It was very hot in the car but a nice breeze was blowing in, and it wasn't too bad. In fact I almost fell asleep in the car. When I heard that the group 4 fun race ended I put on my helmet and got ready. At the 2 minute mark I started the car and payed careful attention to the temp gauge. Then we were off, through the grid, past the splitter, and onto the track. The temp gauge moved to the middle of the range. I'm on the outside of the track, and I had to come to a dead stop as we went up the esses. Why was pace car moving so slow? It's a 3+ mile track. The pace car better pick up the pace or I'll have to make a dinner stop! Finally the pace car moved faster, and I was able to accelerate and heat the tires and brakes. There were about 50 cars lined up and we were all moving and weaving. The temp gauge moved to the upper white line and sat there. As long as it doesn't go any higher I should be ok. Finally we come up out of the boot, moved though the off camber and approach the high speed left. We are going so slow that I'm down in first gear. Around the last corner and we are now on the front straight. I see the starter and there it is, green flag. I hit redline in first, shift to second, and get on the power. People are passing me as I hit redline in second and go for third. I have a hard time finding third and more people pass me. Into turn 1 and cars are four wide. I stay on my line and zoom toward the esses. More traffic, forget about a line, just stay on position. More cars pass me up the hill and my car seems down on power. I tell you, it's hard to race and watch the temp gauge at the same time! We race around the bus stop, and I start to move right when I see a car is already there. So again, I just stay in my position. We go down to the toe of the boot, and the first practice start is over. My temp gauge is at the top of the range, but not over heated. We go around to the front straight again. I'm back down into first gear, the green comes out and I take off. I make sure to do good shifts, but people are passing me left and right. The car is definately down on power, and the temp gauge is now above the top white line, and into the danger zone. At the top of the esses the temp light comes on. No good. I stay out of everyone's way, and I wave them past me so I can pit.
Back in the paddock it's the same as before. No heat from the engine, coolant reservoir full. Engine over heating. I bleed lots of air. I suspect the head gasket is burned out. When the engine cools I pull the spark plugs looking for coolant, but they look great. I suspect the headgasket is leaking and it's allowing combustion gas to enter the water jacket, pressurizing it, pushing the coolant out, and over heating the engine. Later, I put the plugs back in, bled the system again, then drove around the paddock. Withing five minutes the temp gauge was at the top. No good and there is no way I can race like that.
So I put the car on the trailer, had a nice dinner at the RV with a bunch of friends, drank my fair share of beer, and went home the next day. What a bummer!!! My first DNS at a race. All that time, work, money and effort! I never even got to put on the sticky tires and the new wheels! I'm pretty sure that I could get down into the 2:17 - 2:18 range. That would not be fast enough to win, but I would be right in the middle of the battle. Not going to happen.
I was very disappointed in the amount of track time I had. I did 3 green laps my first session, 4 my second, and 2 my third (I missed two laps getting tire temps). Add one lap of yellow flag and one cool down lap, and that's 5 laps per session. I can think of two reasons for the short session. The most important reason is that cars were going off track, breaking, etc. and otherwise slowing things down. But, the WGI flaggers were very slow to get cars off and on the track. When a run would end it would take a long time to get the last car off. No cars were allowed on until a course check was done. A lot of time was wasted changing run groups.
WGI is the most professional track I have ever driven on. They did an outstanding job of getting cars on and off the grid. There were lots of workers directing traffic and they were superb. That makes it a lot easier for a driver to get on and off the track. The flaggers, grid workers, and everyone else were really great, and I can't say enough good things about them.
Zone 1 did a great job. There were an unbelievable amount of cars entered. The timing sheets for my group required two pages! I've never seen that before. I have to thank everyone involved with putting on the race.
I spoke to John Crosby, PCA National Steward for the event, about my car. John also races a 944 TS, and he told me that he changes his head gasket each year. I said "you burn up a head gasket a year?" He told me that he doesn't wait for it to go, he changes it as a maintenance item. I find it hard to believe that a stock engine running stock boost requires that, but I changed my head gasket about two years ago, after it failed at Summit Point in June of '99. Right now the car is in the garage and I don't even want to look at it. Maybe I should send the head out to get examined this time.
Comments welcome!
Barry