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Well. The season is almost upon us. I thought I'd capture some of the exciting things that are going to happen this year and full you guys in on my first full year campaigning my s2000 in E Production for the SCCA Majors events.
I've owned the car for a year now but haven't spent much time with it. I'm currently living in Bangalore India and trying to plan the season from 9300 miles away. Lots of people on the s2ki forum have been very helpful while I've tried to get things started.
This season son starts on 2-may with 24 hours of travel time from BLR to Detroit and an über ride to Milford. I'll pick up my motor home and then head to Jackson to get the car out of the trailer and up onto the stand.
Ive got a long list of things to get done, regular maintanence and fluid changes. Full brake job. Install the new fender flares. Install an oil coller and remove the stock oil heat exchanger. After that I need to get the alignment and scales done. I'll also be getting the aim mxs data system and plx fm-6 installed. New rear axles from insane and a freshly built diff from Houseman auto sports. assumin all that goes we will get to Blackhawk to test on the Friday.
May 6th and 7th will be the scca us majors tour at Blackhawk farms raceway. 8 e production cars so it should be a good race.
Sinday nifgt ill gead back back to Michigan to put the newengine and the freshly rebuilt Houseman gearbox. Then head to slow motion motorsports for and dyno tune and fab the customn exhaust for the hytech header.
Then head to Pittsburgh international for the majors race on the 13th and 14th then head back to Michigan to drop my stuff off and then fly back to Bangalore on the 16th.
Last week I arrived back in the states on tuesday and set off to work. the results are below, plus some unseen stuff of putting the wheel studs, wheel bearings and new shafts from insane into the car. I got the new fender flares, ap2 bumper and the aim dash installed. a lot of work for 2 days, and didn't end up pulling into blackhawk until late friday night. My paddock spot was horrible as it was just the place where the motorhome got stuck!
Practice 1 - i just went out see if i could still drive. It was ok, i'm not sure what i did for times, but the goal was to make sure nothing fell off the car and bed the brakes
Q1 - got a little more comfortable and did a 1:19.7, about 4 seconds off the pace of the pole time. not bad for a stock engine with a 130k miles on it.
Race 1 - it was an interesting race, i ended up 7th i think, a few people smashed into each other, and there was a full course yellow to pull an rx7 out of the woods at the turn onto the front straight. Wasn't able to match my 1:19.7 but the tires were starting to go. about 3/4 of the way through i hear a pop and something fell off the car. Inspection after the race found that the sway bar arm popped off the end of the bar. the spacer was gone, so off to blain's farm and fleet to try and find something. 1.25" pipe coupler ground to fit. works perfect and car back together
Q 2 - this was nothing more a session to heat cycle the new set of hoosiers. i have switched to the s100 slick at 235 on the front and 265 on the rear.
Race 2 - i put a really old set of hoosiers on and it was a mistake, i knew it was going to be bad when i was warming them up and there was no grip what soever and they were sliding like mad. I dropped back at the start as i knew it wasn't going to turn into 1. after about 5 laps, they started to come back, but it was too late to do anything. Another EP car and a HP car got into each other right in front of me, i saw it coming and came out unscathed.
this week with the engine change and trans change hasn't gone very smooth. other than being the worst car on the planet to change a gearbox and engine i went to bolt the flywheel up today and the bolts are too long to work with my new custom spec flywheel. parts are on the way, but won't be here until thursday.
Video was working as i need a cable to go from the smarty cam to the dash...i could have gotten it to work, but didn't bother.
Well. It's been a tough week. Finally got the new engine and trans in and I'm at the dyno in Ohio. 180 miles from pirc. Hopefully I'm tuned and at the track this afternoon.
7 cars entered for e production. Should be a good weekend if I can figure out how to drive it. First time I've been to Pitt so we'll see how it goes!
Right now, no. I'm back in India and not looking to fly back to the states until 6-July. I think I'll head to Thompson Speedway in connecticut for the 14/15th Majors event.
But anyways, a late posting of how the weekend at PIRC went...to sum it up, what a complete and total train wreck, but the car is in one piece...except for the engine.
Now the rest of the story. I got the engine put in and it made great power even with the horrible exhaust I've got on it and an intake we think is choking the system a little bit. In the first session I went out and had never been to pirc. On lap 5 or 6 I was just felling things out and pushing a little bit. Then bad things happened. 100% driver error. I missed and upshift. Went from 3 to 2 instead of 4. Data showed over rev to 10670 It seemed ok and finished the session The first race was ok but I threw the win away when I ran it out of gas. Or so I thought. I think was starting to tighten up. I went out in the morning practice session. Seemed like some blow by but it was cold and the f22calways puts a lot through te catch can. About 3/4 of the way through the out lap i revved to 7500 and rumbled went bang and stopped. I blew two holes in the block. Right side at #1 cyclinder and left side at #2. $6k went poof. I was supposed to have a relaxing couple days ofnthe trip but took the blown new engine out and put the tried and true f20c back in with 130k miles and finish the season. Pick up a new engine for next year. I'm going to either run Thompson speedway major or the regional at mid Ohio. I'm not sure. Runoffs might be out, I'm not sure.
not just not gotten out of bed! It was a long trip for two of the poorest showings i've had in a race car for almost 10 years! Was never on pace at Blackhawk (which is ok, because i absolutely hate that place), and then my mistake. hopefully the rest of the season picks up gets better.
I'll be flying back to the states on July 6th. Some family things means i've had to shift around the schedule. I won't be racing in the mid-west. I'm going to pack all my crap up and head out to Thompson Speedway in Connecticut. I'll leave on the 13th and hopefully get in early enough to do a couple test sessions. The race is the SCCA Majors, July 15/16. I saw there is one other S2000 registered in STU (Greg Goss) and I know that Joe Boruch has said he will also be there in EP with me.
If you're in the area let me know. I don't have any crew coming out (at least it doesn't look like it) so I've got a few spaces and probably food...and beer.
04-15-2017, 02:09 PM
#8 E Production SCCA race blog
