MotoDelta Motorsports

Autobahn race report:
July 22-23, 2006
MotoDelta/EuroEast Racing

You can't do it alone! This weekends race was a true test of that phrase. In our quest for the NASAProRacing Nationals we need to have a certain number of starts to get there and as luck would have it, it wasn't going to be easy.

I was speaking with another competitor after the weekend and he pretty much summed up the weekend. You can't put an upgraded engine, suspension, and tires on the car without expecting that the bit holding them all together isn't going to need some upgrading to. Truth.

Our transmission absolutely grenaded 3rd gear on the first lap of practice Saturday morning. What a drag! Worse yet, we needed to take the green flag and complete at least one racing lap this weekend to ensure our spot in the Nationals! So the car was packed up onto the trailer for the short (forunately) drive back to the shop to see what could be done. On the way home I made calls to some locals for parts and assistance and along with Jerry from EuroEast who was there in support, we rallyed the troops to see what could be done.

After pulling the engine and trans, we soon discovered that the 3rd gear syncros' had given up the good fight and disintegrated inside the transmission. Fortunately, KTL, jstein, StephanK and Jerry were all there to put the screws to this trans and bring it back to life, if only long enough to take the green.

We spent 7 hours pulling, rebuilding, and reinstalling (none of which would have went well without their help!) and got back to the track Sat night at 10PM. Wow... We sooned learned of a few more opportunities for points and decided that instead of waiting for the race, we'd try some practice and qualifying laps to warm up. The trans felt "okay" but did some worrisome things during qualifying so I settled for 2nd place on the grid and came in early. I did manage to catch the sound-control attention though. They also flagged me later and said I hit over 110 dB! WHAT? I wonder... I made som baffles that morning and decided to short-shift in the sound-measuring area.

Rather than tempt fate I stayed out of 3rd gear entirely for the warmup and first lap to ensure the point and then decided to go for it, knowing the trans was coming back out the next day anyway. It held up nicely for 6 laps while I battled it out with the Orr Autosport BMWM3 LW. We were very closely matched, I'd lose 4-5 lengths short-shifting by sound-control, and gain it back a few corners later. A nagging understeer issue dropped me back again on the rear straight, but a nice exit from the last corner put me within 5-6 feet by turn one.

I nearly had him in turn one after a bobbled exit gave me a slight run, but Chris Orr shut the door on me as I was motoring along the inside.. I had to lock 'em all up to keep from redecorating his rear bumper. Not cool, but that's racing. I was having so much fun, but was fustrated by the lack of front grip and slow/awkward shifting. Finally our patched together trans popped out of 4th and wouldn't shift on the back straight. Time to retire for the day. We didn't win the battle but we're still in the war for Nationals.

Many thanks to Jerry at EuroEast and all the Chicago GruppeB gang!

I've been told that the dyno checks in the NASAProRacing GTS series can be off by as much as 3%. As such I needed to add some weight to my racecar to be sure I'm not too close to the edge. It sucks and lacks precision, but what are you gonna do?

So I went to the local gun-range and bought 80# of spent ammo for $15. Here's what 25# in a pot looks like.

25# of shot resulted in about 20# of actual lead and 5# of crap. Here is 60# of ballast. The bricks are about 1.25" high, 9" long, and 4" wide.

...and yeah, the area was well ventilated and I didn't breathe near the pot or forms.

I recently upgraded my engine again and with the new bodywork my temps were climbing on the racecar. On a 90 degree day I was seeing 260 degrees in oil temp.

Obviously the front cooler doesn't do much sitting right against the bodywork and since I'm a cheap SOB I decided to make this on my own rather than buy it. It's fit for my mocal cooler.

Cost? $29.99 cheap HF sheet metal brake. $13.99 for the steel. $2.99 for the hi-temp silicone sealant. Plus 6 hours of my labor...

The victim (and this will the the second attack on the racecar with a sawsall this year...)

Cut out the section for the scoop.

Mockup of the sheet metal:

Tacked in the pieces for final fit: (The cross brace is "just because")

Sealed seams with silicone and primed once I finish welded it.

MCSCC ASR Race at Milwaukee Mile
May 29, 2006
Race Report:

I?ve often wondered what the NASCAR teams felt when setting up their cars for the occasional road-course races run every year. I suspect it is a fairly alien environment for them, as the racing dynamics are undoubtedly very different. The inverse is also true as MotoDelta/EuroEast racing found out last weekend.

The Milwaukee Mile is historic racetrack near downtown Milwaukee and is over 100 years old. It is located in the state fairgrounds and a much more urban location than we are used to. They have recently revived the infield course creating a ?Roval? (Road course and oval) that combines 4/5ths of the oval and then a rather straightforward course running the length of the infield. This was to be the scene of the weekend?s event.

Upon arriving at Milwaukee Mile you get a sense of the history there and can practically here the roar of the fans and the smell of the popcorn, hot dogs , and soda that are inevitably present at any oval track and state fair. The stands on the front straight reach up 5-6 stories above the track, though a quick glance at the cement walls encroaching on the asphalt seem to loom much larger in the eyes of this driver.

I suppose the typical feelings of a road-course driver when asked about oval-racing will include comments about turning BOTH directions, etc? However I believe that the consequences for failure in these oval courses may somewhat offset the rather predictable nature of the course.

This event was a one-day shootout for us with a lot of activity crammed in between the hours of 9-5. I was anxious to get some practice laps in to see how much the track was improved from last year. The oval to road-course transitions were fairly brutal then and unsettled the cars as they made these two turns. It turns out that turn 1 (entering the road course from the oval) was still pretty bad. Fortunately this is a lower speed corner (2nd gear) but your enthusiasm is still dampened somewhat because of the cement walls at the exit. The transition back onto the oval was much improved! Considering this is close to an 80MPH corner, keeping the car on the ground seems much more important. The grip levels for practice seemed somewhat low and neither I nor the probable pole-sitter were getting much heat in the tires.

I dropped tire pressures by 2 psi all the way around to try and get some more heat into them. This seemed to work as I qualified in 2nd place, with the only GT-1 car in front of me. Last year this car would lap me in any race longer than 25 minutes, with the new car I was only 0.7 seconds behind him! My qualifying time was 1.5 seconds faster than the existing ASR and GT-2 lap records. All our track times are available at http://cstreit.mylaps.com

Apparently the course still had a few guys nervous so attendance to the race was pretty light with only 7 cars starting. This looked to be a boring race. Race starts are on the front straight of the oval. I?m used to 3-4 lanes wide going into turn one at best. The oval gives you the possibility of 6 cars wide, funneling down into a 2 lane turn 1. Should get interesting quick!

The pole-sitter and I pulled out a bit after the green flag and while close, I had to relinquish the corner to him. By then end of the first lap he had 5-6 car lengths on me, and we had both pulled away a nice lead from the field. I decided that since this wasn?t a class battle, that I wouldn?t push too hard foe the overall win, no points in that. This was a good plan. (Translation, it won?t last long). The leader made a few small mistakes and came back into my view so I thought I?d take a run at him and see what panned out. I was gaining about half a car length per lap and with about 5 laps to go I started thinking I might be able to get him. However catching a guy is one thing, passing him is another.

So I was cranking down into the infield hairpin figuring on setting him up after the exit. Just about the time that plan firmed itself up in my mind, my windshield suddenly went translucent and the car started going ?trans-direction?. As it turns out the front-runner lost a fill-plug on the differential and soaked me good. James Bond would have been proud. At this point I decided to back out of it a bit as we had built up a lap lead on the 3rd place car and there was no point risking the car to a hidden oil-slick elsewhere.

I finished the race 2nd overall and first in the ASR class, as well as breaking the track record for ASR and GT-2 by over 4 seconds at the end of the day!