Congrats to
@xXDavidCXx for a great win at the Nebraska region event today.
http://live.nrscca.com/STH.php
After an exhausting 24 hour ordeal to get the car ready and 2.5 hours of sleep, I never expected the day to end like it did.
As some of you may know or remember, 2020 as a tough racing season for me as I struggled to adapt to my new car setup.
I was not faster with the setup and the why was hard to determine.
After a long and rather snowy winter here in Nebraska, I devised a plan based on the 2.0/2.2 Hz ideal ride frequency, backed up with some empirical suspension analysis data, tire pressures analysis, and the hunt for more front grip.
During the 24 hours of lemons in my garage, I even made a last minute decision to ditch the OEM front bar after my attempts to strip off the fixed bushings went south.
In my mind I decided that, while I took the big front bar off because it "was contributing to my understeer issue" the real truth was that the tire was being overloaded in braking and turning due to low tire pressure and low spring rate, and while the sway bar may have contributed to understeer, I believed I had already solved the problem, and that the front bar would not be an issue.
So, back on goes the front bar, 750 in/lb front springs and 1000 in/lb rear springs, more camber and, corner balance with my newly purchased scales. The good news is the suspension did not require any changes with a 49.7% cross, and I was not about to waste an hour chasing 12lbs to get to 50.0%
I left the race tires on the car at the end of the job and I drove to Lincoln like this so I didn't have to do more work at the track swapping tires. I was already exhausted enough.
In the morning, the outside temp was 34 degrees. Immediately I thought that I was going to ruin the tires like what I think happened late last year during my trip to Topeka's Heartland Park for a Mid West Divisional event. The overnight temps in KS dropped below freezing with the tires in the back of my car. Those RE71Rs were never the same, in a bad way.
Upon seeing the schedule I was relived to find out I was in heat-two, so at least I would race with slightly warmer temps, and the sun was out, too, but it was still a chilly morning with temps in the low 40s.
First-heat during my work assignment I helped with timing, but as the heat wore on, my cognitive abilities started to show signs of fatigue, missing cone calls and car numbers on the audit sheet. I was having a hard time keep up with the pace of the event.
Luckily I was able to get a 20 minute nap between heats, which I sorely needed.
I woke up to the announcer calling for workers, so I bolted up, and grabbed my second energy drink of the day, and got ready to race.
My first run I take it easy. I have no idea what the car would do. I changed so many variables, replaced a ton of bolts, maybe I missed something?
I did know it drove fine on the highway at 75mph on the way to the event, but there still was a shred of doubt that my modification decisions would end up in disaster.
After the first turn I realize that even though the tires were not scrubbed in at all, there was grip. Lots of grip!
I finish with a 46.0 seconds, and start to gain confidence that the car was not trying to kill me.
Run two, I take my neighbor for a ride-along and it's his second event ever.
We get in the car and I tell him I'm going full send.
I wish I would have turned the camera on for this run.
I was completely unprepared for what happened next.
As soon as we crossed the finish line, we both busted out giggling like girls at how ridiculous that run was, 43.6s. We continued to laugh and honestly, it was shocking how good the car was. My buddy got out of the car, and immediately had to take a knee, it was hilarious.
My heart was racing, and I felt such relief that after all the time I spent thinking, analyzing, deciding, shopping, waiting, and installing, was not wasted.
On my third run, I clean up my driving and take a different entrance to the "optional" slalom, and gain 1.2 seconds for a time of 42.478s. I would have won with that time, but we got 5 runs and I got a better 42.471s. I also coned away a 42.298s.
Being on the top of the leader board was humbling. Tim Miller, & Tim and Julie Heaton are great competitors and both made improvements to their setup over the winter.
I can't wait for the next racing weekend. And this time I'll be able to hit the test-n-tune and dial in the alignment.
In the mean time, I need to hit the alignment rack and see what my garage alignment is, and if I can find some more toe-out. I currently have the adjusters maxed and would like some rotation. I'll have to loose rear camber to get more rear toe-out, which will be fine.