Summit Point – July 25, 2020

Here it is late July and the intense Summer Heat is upon us. I usually don’t subject my aging body to such abuse, but 2020 is a “once in a lifetime” pandemic ordeal. There has been no racing, or much of anything this year while everyone Worldwide stays home and hides out from the virus. So, no schools, no sporting or entertain events, no travel, no shopping, no haircuts, no restaurants, no tennis leagues, no racing. Boredom rules. Perhaps prematurely, things are beginning to start up again.

My race performance at the end of last season (October) was rather mediocre and I set about resetting the car’s suspension and gearing. I modified the Flag alignment system that came with the now departed Piper car to work with the Crossle. After much consideration, new gearing was selected. Once a replacement ECU was secured from Honda, I would be ready for 2020 which could be my last season before retiring from racing.

Honda is working on an improved ECU, but it has been delayed, so I had no other option but to buy one of the old design units for $1350. My others have lasted 2 to 3 years before going wonky. I hope the newly acquired one lasts until my retirement. It should. I did move the ECU location with the goal of getting it some additional cooling. I don’t think that effort was productive.

Race administration was chaotic. The race rules was greatly expanded and generally ignored by the track and SCCA. Paddock was a mess. Mark Walthew and I waited for a Friday race student to pack up and leave so we could use a designated paddock space for formula cars. The “kid” for NJ finally departed at 10 PM after his day was completed at 5 PM. A heavy downpour at 6 PM made our wait more uncomfortable. No dinner for us.

Let’s talk racing.

Saturday morning qualifying. Despite the long layoff, I wasn’t feeling RUSTY. In fact, the car felt great. Session ended early as Doug Fisher’s Zink blew out it oil reservoir tank in Turn 6 and made further laps impossible. I was pleasantly surprised to see a 1:21 on my 5^th and final lap. There is definite improvement over last season. I was about a half of a second off the Wayne Nicolette time. I was seeing an issue with the AIM data system/dash as it was flashing ALL of the 4 warning lights except when the engine was rev’ed hard. Perhaps a loose connection somewhere? I took the body pieces off and checked all the AIM connections. (I hope the EV04 data system is not joining the ECU in going flakey.)

Saturday Race 1: Qualified third in CF and started beside Wayne on the second row. Joe Marcinski was behind Wayne and showing significant speed improvement having lost 80 or so pounds of driver weight. We three ran together for a while with Joe leading and Wayne and I swapping places at times. On lap 7, Wayne took the inside at T1 and I pulled back inside him going into T3. He backed off but not before a “love pat” to the right rear tire. (I’ve got good video). A couple of laps later, I mess up the downshifts into T1 and have a small off losing 7 or so seconds. Of the 15 lap race, I turn consistent 1:21 to 1:22.2 for 11 of those laps. No bad. With Wayne/Joe out of my sights for the last half of the race, I am feeling the heat and discomfort and wishing to see the checker flag. I finished third in CF with a 1:21.7 and a 1:20.0 split time. The EVo4 is still flashing me. I had packed two of the cooling packs (they turn to solid at about 50 degrees) around the ECU and stuffed the other two in my driver’s suit. I am not sure they helped, but the AIM logger was seeing 118 degrees.

Post-race I got sent to the Steward to be asked about the contact with Wayne. I told them we were close but I really didn’t have contact. Wayne told them the same. It wasn’t until I saw my video that I came to realize that there was contact. Obviously, it wasn’t a big deal.

Sunday Race 2: We would go off before the lunch break and the arrival of 100+ temperatures. Wayne had the pole and I followed Joe towards T1. As I closed, he protected to the inside. My downshifts were distracted and sloppy and I lost a bit of space. On lap 2 as I closed in on Joe, he suddenly slowed in T7 and headed to the pits. I was now in second place! On lap5 and without any real need to, I hung a left rear wheel off the exit to T4 and did a nice half spin to the inside of the turn (at the same spot that many years ago I ended up upside down in the rain). I blew the 8 second advantage over Mark and Chuck Van Nostrand who were having quite a battle. It took me 7 laps to catch back up and pass them. That push kept me motivated and I didn’t notice the awful heat so much.

About two laps from the end of the race I noticed Doug Fishers car closing. I had to turn up the wick some to keep him at bay. My 16th lap at 1:20.59 was my best. I would say “COOL”, but it wasn’t.