Went to Chuckwalla this weekend on both Sat and Sun with Speed Ventures. It was a weekend of ups and downs. I had tech issues that ended both days early. But I fought some of them off enough to get the result that I wanted. There were no competitions this weekend. Just went out to have fun and hang out with some friends.
I approached Saturday as a practice day. I wanted to get back in the flow of the track. And then Sunday, I hoped the first session could be my best chance of the weekend to go for a new personal best. The weather was around 60ºF in the AM and 80º in the PM.
Saturday started fine. Got in the groove, and on the second session of the day, I ran 1:53.7——within 0.1sec of my best. Was feeling good——having fun. Decided to swap some tires around for the 4th session, and——I had a broken stud—it broke inside the hub…..Ok, no big deal, I’ve had these before. So I jump in there and start trying to deal with it. The damn thing just would not come out. Steve from EAS was there and jumped in, and although I had a bunch of tools——torches, stud pullers, grinding tool trying to etch a notch into the stud——-we got it to budge just a tiny bit and then it locked into place. SO FRUSTRATING. I keep a spare hub in my trailer. So, I pulled the damn hub off there and put in the spare. I missed my last session of the day. So, I looked forward to Sunday, where I hoped in the first session with the cool air, I could make a run for a new best.
Sunday rolls around. I went out first session, and I rolled a new personal best: 1:53.2 on Pirelli scrubs——0.4 sec faster than my previous best. It wasn’t the prettiest driving, but it was enough. The first half of the track, I was driving a bit ham fisted, trying to push the car as hard as I could. Compared to my previous best, I lost a quarter second in that first half of the track. But I pulled it together for a decent second half of the track as I exited the Slide area (Turn 9). I tried again during my second session, but didn’t drive clean. On my third session, I ran into another tech problem—one I could not do anything about. On my first hot lap, I exited the Bowl and lost most of my power, and I could hear a screeching sound every time I pressed the gas pedal. I immediately exited the track. Came into the pits. Looked under the hood. Everything seemed fine. While standing outside the car I pressed the gas pedal and I could see the air intake hose completely collapsing flat when I pressed the gas. Ugh…..day over. This supercharger air intake is such a damn problem……I am now forced to focus on a fix.
On Sunday, before the first session, a dude came over and asked if he could pit behind me and follow me on track—-use me as a rabbit. He has a brand new Corvette race build. Beautiful build. The car weighs 3000lbs, 450whp, full aero and he had sticker A7’s. (Hehe this is not the first time people wanted to use me as a rabbit.) I said sure. So, he chased me and rolled his own new personal best of 1:52.2. Nice.
After looking at the data, I know I can drive a 1:52 on scrubs, and I’m pretty darn sure I could do a 1:51 on new tires. (I always like to have something to look forward to----a future goal.)
Here’s my fast lap:
The odd story of this particular weekend was the——butterflies. Oh man…….the butterflies were out in force……and every car would hit dozens of them in each session. The front of my car was trashed with yellow butterfly impacts. At the end of the weekend, my coolant radiator had dozens of butterflies stuck to it. I’ve never seen such a thing…..
I mentioned that Steve Lee was out there on Saturday. He had a good result with his E36 M3. It was his first time driving in the CW direction. He rolled a 2:00.20. We were looking at the results from the First round of Bimmer Challenge at Chuckwalla CW last month, and it turns out that his lap time would have won B3 Class by 0.06 sec. I think that’s an amazing result for a first time going that direction.
One other interesting note—my friend who has a similar E90 M3 as me——supercharged, JRZ, AP Racing, aero, etc, had never broken a stud before. But he attended Willow Springs with me a few weeks ago and Chuckwalla this weekend. He just started using 305 Pirelli scrubs and had them on at both events and———he broke his first stud on Sunday on the same corner as me——front driver-side……I just don’t think the 12mm studs can handle the strain of the high forces……I think I’m just gonna have to figure out the most practical way to get 14mm studs on the front hubs. I’m not worried about the rear. They can stay 12mm. The Rogue Engineering conversion kit is looking like the most realistic option at the moment.
Anyway, it was a good weekend overall. I had fun hanging out, had fun driving, had a good dinner with friends on Saturday night, got a new personal best....and fought off as many tech issues as I could. And it was nice to see 80ºF temps after the blizzard conditions in Denver last week!
