Had a bit of a scare on the first run, the hood wasn’t fastened by 2 zeus fasteners so at around 100 it started lifting and buckling. Unwilling to have it fly off just during time runs, I lifted and coasted through the traps. Considering I had lost the brakes at this track in my last race there, it was a little unnerving to have a new problem on my first run back. But after we got past that, we were back in the saddle.

We are trying to figure out what is going on with the transmission these days. It doesn’t leak anymore, but instead we have shifting problems. It appears that we are hitting the rev-limiter on every 1-2 shift. It didn’t used to do this, but has been doing it since the first run of the season. Not sure what is going on – but definitely considering getting the trans temp hooked up to the racepak so we can see if there is any correlation. We are theorizing that it could be something related to pressure – perhaps the pump.

Nah, it doesn’t need to be so glum. Here is the real deal.

We had pretty good lights all day (between .030 and .070) and we had super consistent 60′ times (between 1.52 and 1.53). We also were able to get the Racepak to record a full pass. So that data will be interesting to look at. One bummer was that we had some shifting problems. I watched the tach get up to 7200 on a 1-2 shift during time trials. That cause for pause. We put some new weights in the governor and on the next pass it shifted pretty low (so low that I didn’t get a chance to look down and see where it was). Anyway, we struggled with that.

For first round, faced an amazingly fast car, 9.37 was the dial-in. Compared to our 11.09, it was as if we were tied to a tree. I was getting close the finish line and didn’t think my opponent was going to get there so I let off the gas and … whoops, he went by me. Scrubbed too much off and gave up the win. Turns out we were both safe by .05 and the MOV was the same as the difference in reaction (0.02) which equates to 4 feet. My competitor was able to win the whole race so it was just his day. But I sure would enjoy winning a few more rounds so that my friends and family that join us are able to have some fun cheering us on.

I’ll blog about more of my experience with the Racepak as we get more into analyzing the data.

I did some tweaking of our wiring and got a switch and wiring hooked up. Once we get the unit installed we’ll have power for it. Decided to wire it to the network on the car that has power to the switch 100% of the time. The other network only has power when the main toggle is switched and that network is only for use while running the engine. We want to be able to power this even with the engine off so we can hook up the computer and what not.

I’m very excited to get it setup and hooked into the MSD. Then we might tackle the driveshaft sensor and the location of the unit.

Looking forward to having it on to see what is really going on with the main components of the car. Should be illuminating.

Also worth noting is that it cost roughly half of what it originally cost to back-half the car. Wow. But then again, that WAS 20 years ago.

I’ll try to post pictures and other information about the process as we go through installing the hardware on our car.  Feels like this kind of stuff puts in the realm of nascar or some of the top sportsman/modified classes.  What we do with the data will probably more accurately put us in that category because almost anyone can collect data – its understanding it, wading through it and learning something.  In software engineering we call this “data mining”.  Learning something from the data that isn’t inherently visible without knowing how to structure and query the data.

Competition Car Data Logging – Simon McBeath

Analysis Techniques for Race Car Data Acquisition – Jorge Segers

Competition Car Data Logging Manual – Graham Templeton

OUTLAW Warrior Class
Round 1: Raced a red/white 65 GTO – he had 10.99 dial, we had 11.01.  Basically a heads up race. Both had reactions within a tenth so it was close, but we pushed him out, he broke out by .002. Great race. I was so really nervous.

Round 2: Raced a great friend, Steve Dress. Awesome run for both of us – we had a 0.001 (crazy) light and I was able to let off and lead him across the line – he ran an 11.60 on an 11.60 dial. Another great round.

Round 3: Racing Wayne Aamold, current Warrior Points leader and Warrior Champion for several years since we have been gone, but we came out on top. We had a 0.003 reaction and I was able to lead him across at half throttle.

Round 4: Final Round! Similar reaction times, but he was dialed a 10.05, ran past me like I was tied to a tree. I smashed the brakes (locked them up and skidded sideways, scary) trying to scrub off some ET but broke out by 0.013 and an MOV of 6 feet. Not a bad way to lose the final, but was hoping for the big win.

THEN, we also decided early in the day to run trophy class for several reasons, 1) keeping things warm, 2) getting me more practice on the tree, 3) getting me more practice at the top end game.

Mason Dixon Trophy Class
Round 1: Opponent Red Light. Good practice for me on the tree, and great for the car because we run in the right lane, and then race Steve in the same lane 13 minutes later in Round 2 Warrior.

Round 2: Opponent had car trouble, sputtered out of the gate. I didn’t even look back because we needed a good full pass. Our car sputtered a little at 1-2 shift and that gave me pause. Our reaction was a 0.014.

Round 3: Bye run! The good light from the previous run earned us a free pass.

Round 4: Opponent Red Light! Another freebie. And a new record for this engine combo. We ran a 10.96 and the car was HOT!

Round 5: Opponent has a reputation as a sand-bagger. He led me across the finish line. I couldn’t have dumped him because he scrubbed enough off and was safe .01, only thing I could have done was a better light (0.080).

SUMMARY: They gave out REAL Wally’s (the NHRA Oscar Award) at this race – if I could have gotten a win in Trophy, I would have had it. I saw it when I went upstairs to get my runner up trophy (http://twitpic.com/mz79e) 13 runs total on the day. 4 time trials and 9 eliminations. We were 7 for 9 in eliminations. None of the Outlaw wins were “gimme’s” we worked hard for each of those victories. Great teamwork between Dad and I. I don’t see how anyone can race without a crew chief like him to keep tabs on things … there is just too much going on.

We REDEFINED hot lapping. We had 4 runs occur between 7:21 and 7:54. The most ridiculous one was when we went from losing final round of Outlaws (7:36) to racing round 4 of trophy (7:41) The car held up great, although we have an oil leak at the valve covers that I will be investigating before we run again.

Also, we burned through 7 gallons of gas (must be a record, and an expensive one at $8 / gallon

This was the first time this combination of heads/short block have seen the 10s – feels great to be back in the 10′s.

Haven’t decided if we are going to attend the race next weekend. If we do, it will be the last race of the year for us (they currently have a rain date scheduled for Nov 1 – http://outlawpontiacdragseries.com/$b_s001.shtml)