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Team WTF?! Runs its First SCCA National Race |
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Written by Pinecone
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Sunday, 09 April 2006 |
Team WTF?! ran the Summit Point National event this weekend in true Team WTF?! style. Bottom line - handling problems, power problems, rain, miserable, but a great race!
The Team WTF?! Spec Racer Ford had the worst of times and the best of times at the Summit Point SCCA National race. The weekend started in true WTF?! fashion with a return from Vegas on Thursday to a dead computer which took up valuable sleeping time in the evening and morning. That was followed by finding and losing things, forgetting the cell phone… All of which conspired to arriving at the track at about 10:30 versus the planned 7:30.
Of course, the Friday morning rain prompted the purchase of a brand new set of rain tires, which were used for an entire single session before the track dried out. The dry sessions found the car suffering from the evil handling mentioned in the race report from VIR. The first session was bad, the second session was SCARY in left hand turns, especially Turn 3. After consultations and checking things out, the right rear toe link bracket on the chassis was found to have ovaled holes (probably a result of the crash), causing a toe change under braking, cornering and acceleration loads. Think about it, high speed into Turn 3 where the braking is in a slight left turn and the right rear wheel toes OUT. This was fixed and things were looking up. The last session of the day proved the fix and things were set for qualifying.
Saturday dawned with the predicated rain, so at least the new rain tires would get used. The first qualifying session started out nicely, but then there were power problems. The car would not produce ANY power above about 1/3 throttle. Below that point it ran fine, just the slightest bit above and no power. After coming in everyone figured it was a damp computer, but suggested trying a few more laps to see if it would clear up. A couple of partial power laps later and it did start working properly but a couple of laps at full power later, it suddenly came back. We parked the car, but ended up in 20th out of 34 cars.
Between sessions the computer was dried and a drip shield was installed to try to keep water off of the computer. Everyone was confident that the problem was solved. But this IS Team WTF?! The predicted dry afternoon did not show up, so we went back out in the wet. On Lap Two there was no power at high throttle openings. Brought the car in under a lucky black flag for a car off in a very bad spot. They changed the throttle position sensor and guess what, same problem. So parked it again. Final qualifying spot was 26th out of 34.
Sunday came with sunshine but no heat. It was VERY cold. Overnight the crew changed the spark plugs and wires. Ran the hardship practice and all was well. Of course it could just be that it was dry. 
On to the race… The SCCA instituted new rules this year on starts to keep the field together before the green flag and it worked. We got a GREAT start with room up the middle and passed a bunch of cars by Turn 1. Had a nice race going with a couple of other cars, until one of them broke free, so it was just two of us having fun. A couple of incidents in the front got some of the front runners shuffled to the back, but only one of them came back up through the field. About Lap 12 of 23, the other car went wide in Turn 3, through the gravel and tossed the alternator belt. Team WTF?! would pick up another place, given time. It turned out he now had handling problems so, zip, a nice pass and then some time circulating alone. Did manage to lap two other cars, and stay out of trouble to the finish. Also kept up with one of the normally faster guys out of the Hagerman stable of cars.
Final results found the Team WTF?! SRF in 15th out of the 34 starters, with only 2 cars not finishing the race. Overall a very nice time, and Team WTF?! cames home from the first National race mid field. Fastest race lap for Team WTF?! Was 1:27.5, which is only about .5 seconds off the best effort last year, and considering the lack of usable practice time, not a bad start to the year at Summit.
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