Summit Point April 21, 2024

I really didn’t set out to earn my “Dan Carmichael” MERIT Badge in racing. Not sure I have yet. Somewhere in the late 90’s I observed an elderly gentleman take delivery at the Mid Ohio Runoffs of a spanking new Ralt Formula Atlantic. The Ralt was the fastest car in SCCA’s hierarchy of racers. Old guy; best and fastest ride. Very interesting and I was captivated. I watched as he put his decals on the car and kept an eye on his progress all week. Dan was fast and won his Runoffs. He was 80 years old, and I as a 57 year old, now maybe with a race career goal that I should be still racing after reaching age 80.

I didn’t think much about it for the next 20 + race seasons. As my race events decline with the years, I began to consider getting the MERIT Badge. My 80th birthday came and went without much resolve. I threatened to retire from racing a few times, but a few events conspired to keep me coming back. Among the annoying happenings were: a crash in the rear quarter while braking for T5, a fuel cell leak and lengthy wait for a replacement, Appalachian Tire not providing much needed new tires to a late season event (last year), and my “OFF” at T3 exit where the rough terrain necessitated a delay getting into Langbein’s repair queue. It is now almost 3 years beyond that 80 milestone, and I am still waiting to get a decent race weekend before hanging up my Nomex.

This Spring race at Summit Point was a disappointment. I had made sure that new race tires would be available. The car had been treated to lots of new stuff including a new fuel cell, new race harness (belts), newly required FIA approved rain light, and a new fire bottle. I would meet up with Mark Walthew at the track Friday afternoon where I would discover that all paddock spaces except one were taken up with the hoard of Miatas. None of the designated spaces for us open wheel cars was available. Since I had landed in a GTPinto (Yes, there are still Pintos in the world!! Come on you mighty car crushers, let’s find them!) I was forced to move. DC Region had sent a slick spreadsheet chart the day before showing where all were required to paddock. They should have included a footnote saying ”April Fool”.

Being an early run group (P3), we had lots to do Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. First order of business was the “Annual” car inspection. Take your drivers gear over to the tech shed and be told that the SCCA patch on the suit has been superceded and get a new one. Return to your paddock spot and push the car over for look. Car was OK, but I can’t get a tech sticker until I go throuth registration which is in a building on the way out of the track. We go and get a plastic wrist band. We go back to the tech shed and wait in line to show our arm band. We get the tech sticker for the car.

We take the wheels off our cars and start to pack up. We will have to get the new tires mounted in the morning, as the tire vendor had closed operations hours ago. Doing my usual test fire of the engine, it is VERY reluctant to start as the battery seems “flat”. It took some doing to get the slightly bigger Braille backup battery into the available space. We stop to eat before making it to the motel. It is about 8:30 and quite chilly. I discover that I had (despite a multi page packing list) , I had forgotten to bring my billfold and credit card. AH, the joys of this racing hobby! I would have to impose on Mark to run a tab for my race gas, motel bill and truck gas. I had my checkbook, so the tire purchase was covered.

Race weekend begins on a chilly, damp Saturday morning on new (At LAST!) race tires that need to be scuffed in and with a very rusty driver. On the third lap, went wide in the now dreaded T3. Tires were not getting up to temperature and were “stones”. Best lap was a very unsatisfactory 1:25.5. Car was a slug (driver also), and the data system was not displaying information (too much rustling around with the wiring while replacing the battery). However, the ECU was displaying a Lambda/Oxygen sensor error code. Also, the padding on an upper frame rail was in the way of my accelerator leg (likely due to the slightly larger fuel cell installed.), so I removed it after the session. Not having a spare Lambda sensor, I would hope the gremlin would go away.

Google informs that when the Lambda sensor fails the result is power loss, less acceleration, rough idle, poor starting. Yep.

At the start of the afternoon race, I could just watch as the pack drove away into turn one. They were totally out of sight range by turn 10. Turning laps consistently in the 1:24 range was NO FUN, but I trudged on. With the padding gone on the upper frame rail, I am rubbing by shin hard every time I move my foot from the gas to the brake. Very unpleasant and I drew blood. I should have put some padding back on, but I was totally bummed out for the Sunday race.

Sunday morning race. Car was slower still. Ran 7 laps of 18 in the 1:26+ range before throwing in the towel. Hardly a result to remember for my final race. I may have to do another “final” race.

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Postscript

Was able to find a contact at Honda Racing (HRC which replaced HPD) and ordered a replacement Lambda sensor. About $320. Despite dozens and dozens of YouTube posts, it turns out there is no definitive way to test a Lambda to see if it is good. Installed the new sensor and WALLAH the engine seemed to run MUCH better! Am I kidding myself? Will have to wait for a track test. UNwallah. The Lambda failure code popped up on the dash. The Honda manual suggested checking wiring. After much touching and feeling of connectors and wiring, subsequent tests yielded NO ERROR code. Maybe?? I’ll be repeating the test fairly often.