Race report: Star Mazda at Portland
My daughter brought me a letter she found among her Grandmother's things. I wrote it about 15 years ago following a race in Portland--I believe they had asked me to explain the whole racing thing to them.
At the time I wrote it, I was sorting out a new Formula Mazda. I think I had three races on it before this double-race weekend. Unlike a new passenger car, a new race car is sort of a blank canvas, requiring a certain amount of trial and error to sort things out. For example, in the account that follows, I mention some issues with the fuel cell. The problem with the car running out of gas plagued me for most of the season, in spite of lots of work and head scratching. Eventually I figured out the source of the problem wasn't the fuel cell at all (after spending a bunch of money to replace it) but rather the fuel pump (a $50 part). The problem shifting into second gear in hard right turns never sorted itself out, in spite of lots and lots of effort to locate and fix the problem. In hindsight I speculate that the car wasn't rigid enough to handle the stress of high-G corners, and the ensuing flex in the long linkage back to the transmission created alignment problems. Or I could be full of shit.
Heres's the letter:
At the time I wrote it, I was sorting out a new Formula Mazda. I think I had three races on it before this double-race weekend. Unlike a new passenger car, a new race car is sort of a blank canvas, requiring a certain amount of trial and error to sort things out. For example, in the account that follows, I mention some issues with the fuel cell. The problem with the car running out of gas plagued me for most of the season, in spite of lots of work and head scratching. Eventually I figured out the source of the problem wasn't the fuel cell at all (after spending a bunch of money to replace it) but rather the fuel pump (a $50 part). The problem shifting into second gear in hard right turns never sorted itself out, in spite of lots and lots of effort to locate and fix the problem. In hindsight I speculate that the car wasn't rigid enough to handle the stress of high-G corners, and the ensuing flex in the long linkage back to the transmission created alignment problems. Or I could be full of shit.
Heres's the letter:
Saturday, August 19, 2000
Dear Bunny and Joel,
I'm writing this from the
racetrack, Portland International Raceway to be specific. It's Saturday and I
just finished lunch.
Enclosed with this letter you
should find a large picture of me in my Formula Mazda at this track last
weekend. This is the third weekend in a row I've raced this particular car, and
had troubles all three weekends.
This is a new car this year, and
all new racecars need a certain amount of time and energy getting them
"sorted out." I think I've had a bit more than my share of sorting
out woes so far. Ever since the car was
new, it's had a problem sucking fuel out of the tank. A race car doesn't have
fuel tank like a normal car; it has a fuel cell, which is a special tank full
of foam. The foam keeps the fuel from sloshing around in the tank and from
sloshing out if the tank is ruptured in an accident. Unfortunately, the company
who made my fuel cell used some bad foam, and it dissolved into little pieces,
which plugged up the fuel inlets. As a result, the car would start running out
of gas in a race, even though the tank was full. Finally last weekend it got so
bad I could only run about 4 laps before it started "running out of
gas" and I had to retire from the race. However, it’s repaired now and
seems like the fix is good. No more problems there.
The red car I'm behind is pretty quick, but in one fast section--turns 7 and 8--he's quite a bit slower, braking way early and entering the turn much slower than I do. Until I can get around him, he's holding me back. In the distance I can see Aaron and Park leaving the two of us in the dust. Unless I can get around this red car I won't have a chance of catching them. For one thing, when two cars run closely together, they go faster than they would alone, because of slipstreaming. And Aaron and Park are really close together, getting what we call a tow. They'll be able to go so fast together that I'll never catch them alone.
Instead, I'm having trouble
shifting the car into second gear. The gearboxes on these cars aren't like on a
street car; they don't have any synchronizers. They are designed to be shifted
very fast, without using the clutch. However, mine keeps mis-shifting and it's
costing me a lot of time on each lap. We keep trying different things to fix
it, but so far no good fix.
The format here this weekend is two
races, one each on Saturday and Sunday. In the morning each day we qualify,
which determines our starting position in the race later. This morning, even
with my shifting problems, I qualified 2°d, just .16 seconds slower than the
"pole sitter" (i.e. the person with the fastest lap). His name is Aaron,
and he's been racing these Mazdas longer than me, so he's a bit faster. He's
not the fastest guy I race against, but he's the fastest guy here this weekend
(a lot of people didn’t come for this race). So in the race I'll try to hold on
to second, not miss too many shifts, not make any mistakes, and who knows,
maybe I can get around him. If I can stay really close to him perhaps he'll get
nervous and make a mistake, letting me get by.
The races this weekend are only 20
minutes long, which doesn’t 't give you any time to make up for a mistake. If
you get a bad start, or spin, you’re pretty much done right there. But if you
drive too conservatively, you won't be fast. So it's a tough mental challenge
to decide how aggressive to be, how hard to attack, and how much to hold back.
Last weekend I had a good start,
made up several places, but on the first turn on the first lap somebody tapped
me and I spun. He didn't do any damage, but it put be back to last place. It
didn’t matter, since the fuel problem ended my race early, but even if it
hadn't I would have had a hard time catching up after the spin.
Qualifying was at 9:35 this morning
and the race isn't until 3pm, so I have a lot of dead time between sessions.
There isn’t much to do on the car, so I mess around and try to relax. The
racecar has a data collection system, which lets me look at data like speed,
RPM, throttle position, lateral acceleration, etc for each spot on the race
track, lap by lap. Then I down load the data from the racecar to my laptop computer
and look at confusing graphs which theoretically will tell me how to drive
faster. Mostly they just confuse me...
I should be home painting this
weekend, but after the fiasco of last weekend I felt I really needed to do this
race to see if the car was working better. There's a couple of important races
coming up that I'm skipping in order to get this house done soon. However,
there's a pro race in Virginia the middle of September that I'm supposed to
drive. That race is in a BMW M3, which belongs to a friend of mine-Mike
Helton-and is an endurance race. The format is that the race lasts 4 hours and
requires 3 drivers. The races are televised but I don't know when they show
them or on what channel. I did one in March in Phoenix (with another car and owner)
but never did see the coverage. If I find out, I’ll let you know.
 |
| Cutting the chicane at PIR, pre-GoPro camera on hoop. |
Endurance racing is almost exactly
opposite of what I'm doing this weekend. Whereas in these 20 minute sprint
races you have to go flat out the whole time, in an endurance race you have to
pace your car, so you don't use it up too quickly. Plus, you absolutely can't
break the car or hit anybody or anything, because trying to fix things in the
pits really puts you behind. It's a real strategy thing. Plus we do these pit
stops for refueling, which look kinda like the Indy 500, with guys leaping out
from behind the wall to change tires and dump in fuel. Pretty impressive, but
from the driver's perspective the hard thing is getting one driver out of the
car and the next one in quickly. We wear a lot of belts to hold us in place,
and it takes time to adjust them, and the seat, for the next driver. Plus you
have to hook up the radio in the car to your helmet so you can talk to your
crew. In my race in March the radio quit right away so I had no way to find out
if they wanted me to come in and pit. I
just drove and drove until the low fuel light came on, then I went into the
pits. In that race, I drove for 2 hours (out of 3 total) then turned the car
over to the owner for the last hour. Unfortunately he went out and and got hit
pretty hard by a Corvette and that put us way behind. So we had started dead
last (because of a penalty (the owner's fault that the car was overweight and
he should have known it) got the car up to 14th, then we changed over and
stayed about 15th for the rest of the race.
Well, we're going to pull the
gearbox apart (not nearly as difficult as it sounds: on a Formula Mazda the
gearbox is the rear-most thing on the car and you just pop off the back and
pull out all the innards). Perhaps we can find something that's not quite right
and is causing the mis-shifting problems. I'll put away my laptop and go help.
1:30 pm : Well, we think we found
the problem. A thingamagigy that hooks up to the whatchamacallits was a bit too
long, so we took it out and ground it down.
NEWSFLASH: IT'S RAINING: THIS CAN
CAUSE PROBLEMS.
NEWSFLASH: 1:35PM IT STOPS RAINING.
4:00 pm: Gearbox is back together.
Everything is crazy right now. The outfit that takes care of my car, Flat Out
Racing, takes care of about 14 cars altogether. About 10 are here this weekend.
Two of the cars managed to run into each other, destroying each ones nose. A
team of mechanics are swarming over both cars, replacing radiators, brake
ducts, body work, etc. They need to be done by the 4pm race for their class. I
think they will make it.
 |
| Back straight at PIR |
The sky is cloudy, but I don’t
think it will rain anymore. I don't have rain tires; if it rains hard I'll have
to hang it up. But a little rain won't be enough to use rain tires for, so I can
still go out on my slicks. Slick is the operative word, too, because if the
track gets wet it will be slick on slicks. Even on rain tires it would be
pretty bad, but the rain tires only really help if there's standing water on
the track. Otherwise you're better off with regular, untreaded tires. You just have
to drive very differently, looking for the areas on the pavement where the
track has some grip.
I mentioned Flat Out Racing. This
is a company near Portland that manages race cars. They keep my car for me,
bring it to the races, provide crew on-site, and fix anything that goes wrong.
I have to pay them, but their rates are quite reasonable and it means I can
just show up and drive.
Some race weekends I run two cars:
my Formula Mazda and my BMW. The only way I can do that is if someone is taking
care of one of the two cars; otherwise I spend all my time working on the two
cars and not focusing on driving. I'm racing the BMW less and less now, for a
variety of reasons, so it's nice to have these guys working on the Mazda. I
learn a lot from them about how to set the car up and how to fix stuff on it,
so some day in the next year maybe I'll be able to do it myself.
2:30 pm: Time to get changed and
get the car out to the grid for the start of the race. I put on my suit and we
move the car out to the grid. This is where the cars line up in their starting
order before the prior race finishes. I get all buckled in, which leaves me
unable to move much except my arms and feet. We warm up the car and I drive it
over to the grid, where the workers direct me to the 2"d spot. Aaron is on
my right; when we go out he'll be on the right, or inside spot and I'll be
beside him.
2:55 pm: Five minute warning. The
grid workers blow whistles and hold up five fingers, to tell us we have five
minutes before we go out. By this time usually it's quiet; most of the engines
that were warming up are shut down, the race group that was out on the track is
finished. Mike, the owner of Flat Out Racing, is my crew guy for this race. He
has a radio with a headset tuned to the frequency of the radio in my car. If necessary,
he can alert me to situations on the track I might not be able to see.
Unfortunately, the car is so loud when I'm racing that I can't hear much of
what is said to me over the radio. But it can be helpful.
2:59 pm: The grid marshal blows his
whistle and holds up one finger. One minute to go. I start the engine and hold
up one finger to acknowledge the signal. Mike, my crew guy, has to leave the
grid now. He'll stand over in the hot pits in case I need to come in for some
problem. Engines roar and I take deep breaths.
3:00 pm: The grid marshal points to
Aaron, and he starts out onto the track. I follow. If I don't leave right when
it's my turn, I'll have to start at the end of the pack. As we head out on the
track, a "splitter" points to each car in turn and to either the
right or the left, to show them where they need to go. Aaron goes to the right
and I go to the left. He'll have the advantage at the start, since as the pole-sitter
he is on the inside for the first turn.
As we go out, we're following a
pace car who will lead us around the track for the warm up lap.
We all get into single file and
begin madly zigzagging our cars back and forth down the track. Warming up the
brakes and tires. Cold tires on a racecar don't work when they're cold, so we
have to get them warmed up. Same thing for the brakes. If the tires aren't
warmed up, when the green flag drops for the start and I hit the first turn,
the car is liable to spin.
As we reach the last turn, we form
back up in pairs behind the pace car. We turn onto the straight, headed for the
start finish line. The pace car pulls off, and until the starter waves the
green flag it's up to Aaron as pole sitter to control the speed of the race
group. If we go too fast, or if the pack isn't neatly ordered by twos, or if
somebody is screwing up, the starter won't show the green flag and we'll have
to make another lap before the start. We pull out and start to speed up.
I'm watching the flagger out of one
eye and Aaron out of the other. I'm not allowed to get in front of him until
the green flag. Suddenly the flag goes and I nail the throttle. Aaron has
hesitated a second and that lets me get ahead. However, the car behind me, a
red Formula Continental, has "jumped" the start by a hair and is able
to pull even with me, on the inside, and gets in front of me at the first turn.
I stay tight on him-it's important not to crash on the first lap-but coming
back out on the straight I miss a shift (same old problem!) and Aaron and
another Formula Continental driven by a dentist named Park, get by. Rats! I'm
in fourth, not where I want to be.
 |
| You look where you want to go, not where the car is pointing. |
The red car I'm behind is pretty quick, but in one fast section--turns 7 and 8--he's quite a bit slower, braking way early and entering the turn much slower than I do. Until I can get around him, he's holding me back. In the distance I can see Aaron and Park leaving the two of us in the dust. Unless I can get around this red car I won't have a chance of catching them. For one thing, when two cars run closely together, they go faster than they would alone, because of slipstreaming. And Aaron and Park are really close together, getting what we call a tow. They'll be able to go so fast together that I'll never catch them alone.
I'm able to get really close to the
red car, and as a result I can "draft" him to pass him on the back
straight. I miss my shift again though coming out onto the front straight and
takes advantage of my momentary pause and gets back in front. Now I'm determined
to make sure I don't miss anymore shifts. I use a little different technique
and the car starts shifting correctly. I'm encouraged by this. I make another
run at the red car, getting around him on the back straight again. This time
I'm in the lead going into turns 7 and 8, where I know I'm much faster than he is.
I carry a lot of speed through the turn (I go in at about 96 mph and come out
at about 99 mph). Now he's far enough behind me that he can't draft me on the
front straight. Great! I'm up to third position, the car is running well, now I
need somehow to catch up to Aaron and Park to have a chance at improving my
spot.
Next lap I come down to turns 7 and
8 and I see waving yellow flags, a cloud of dust, and there's Aaron and Park on
the side of the track. Somehow they've taken themselves out of the race. I need
to get slowed down, through the accident without hitting anything, and back up
to full speed before the car behind me catches up. I do it. Hey! Now I'm in the
lead. All I have to do is not mess up and not get caught. Sometimes when you're
in the lead it's easy to screw up. I've done it myself, the first time I led a
race. This time, however, I keep it together and take the checkered flag after
the 20 minutes are up. I've not only won my class, I've won the race overall!
It's a sweet feeling, and I get a souvenir checker flag and get to take a
victory lap, clutching the flag so it won't fly away at 80 mph, about as fast
as I can go hanging on to this flag.
5:00 pm: Aaron is running another
race today, running in a different class. Unfortunately, his nose cone was
destroyed in his accident. He needs one so I lend him mine for his race,
admonishing him to bring it back safely, since I'll need it tomorrow. Aaron bas to go home tonight, so tomorrow he's
lending his car to another driver for the Formula Mazda race. He has a good
race, but has a big off on the last lap, narrowly missing the tire wall. Luckily,
my nose cone is unharmed, so I'll be fine tomorrow. The Flat Out guys have
replacement parts, so Aaron's car will be ready on Sunday, too.
6:30 pm: Racing over, the Oregon
region of the SCCA throws a big party to celebrate the season-this is their
final race of the year. They crank up a blues band and put out tons of beer and
fried chicken. I eat, drink a beer, chat with some friends, then head back to
the motel.
8:30 pm: Three Advil and half an
hour in the hot tub and I'm feeling fine. The Advil are a regular part of my
racing; I get leg cramps after a stint in the car.
Sunday, 8 am: Up at 7, quick light
breakfast, check out of the motel, and off to the track. I qualify for today's
race at l O am, then the race is at 4 pm. Aaron has gone home; James Shaiman is
borrowing his car for today's race. James is pretty quick, but I think I can
beat him. I'm more worried about Park the Dentist in his super fast Formula
Continental. We add fuel to the car and take out a little bit of rear wing
angle, to see if that will make the car a bit faster.
10 am: on grid for qualifying. I'm
first in line. Off we go, and I'm happy. The change to the rear wing makes the
car faster through the twisty bits. I'm able to shift a bit better into 2°d
gear now. Still missing the occasional shift. I find a empty spot in traffic
and start running hot laps. I'm watching the Pi dashboard display to see my lap
times. I want something faster than a 1:11. First lap, hmnn, 1:11.06, not bad.
Next lap, darn, slower: 1:11.30, then 1:11.40 rats! I'm getting slower. 1:11.36
and I'm catching up to some slower cars. I slow way down, throw away one lap to
get a clear run. Ok, next lap will be the flyer. I get a good shot at the start
finish line where the timing equipment is to start my hot lap, then really pour
it on. I have to get through 7 and 8 really fast-just touch the brakes, go back
to power, turn in, the car's really moving. I have to be super smooth here to
make sure I don't go off, I'm going pretty quick to mow the grass here. I get another
good run onto the straight and as I pass the timing light I see 1:11.09, not
bad, let's try for better. This time I go a little hotter into the first tum,
plus keep the speed up again through 7 and 8. Yeah! 1:10.73, dropped almost
half a second. That's a keeper. I suspect I won 't get any faster, and want to
save my tires for the race, so I radio my crew that I'm coming in, I've hit my
dinger.
Back in the paddock and the results
are out: my 10.73 was good for the pole. James is second with a 1:10.9; just 2
tenths slower. The two FC cars are 3rd and 4th.
I change, eat lunch, kill time,
waiting for the race. About 2pm we fuel the car. We have to decide how much gas
to put in. Too little and you'll run out; too much and you're carrying extra
weight that slows you down. The car gets weighed on the official scales
whenever it comes off the track after qualifying or a race, and it has to weigh
at least 1350 lbs with me and all my gear in it. I have 70 lbs of lead as
ballast to make that weight even with the car empty of fuel. But in the last
week my weight has gone up, since the extra steel was welded into the roll
hoop. Now we're not completely sure what it weighs. We do have a scale, but
since it's not the official one it could give us a different reading. These
things happen. The Flat Out guys calculate how much fuel I'll need for the 20
minute race and put it in. Later, back at the shop, we can change the ballast
around so the car is close to the minimum weight again.
Race time: I whip up to pre-grid in
my honored position on the 1 chalked in a box on the grid. I've only been a
pole sitter once before, back in April in a different car. This is the first
time in an SCCA race. After the usual stuff, the marshal points me out and I
snap down my visor, coax the car down into 151 gear (really 2°d for this race)
and drive out onto the track behind the pace car.
I've got to get these tires plenty
hot before the green flag, so I violently throw the car from side to side all
the way around the race track during the 50 mph pace lap, riding the brakes so
they'll heat up, too. As we round the last tum we form back up in twos, James
beside me on the left, the two FCs behind me. As the pole sitter I get to set
the speed for the start. The FCs have more horsepower than the Mazdas, and they
can out drag me down the straight if they get an equal start. So it's my job to
screw them over if l can. I hold back on the speed initially then gun it hard,
hoping to catch them off balance a bit. The starter throws the flag, but I
didn't get nearly as good as start as the other top three cars. Park's blue FC
immediately passes me on the inside just seconds after the green flag. Darn! I
should have moved way over to the right to block him, but I never thought he'd
be able to come up that fast. He must have jumped the start a bit (they almost never
call it if someone does, unless they're super blatant about it).
Somehow James and Jim, the other FC
car get around me, too, before turn 1. Jeez! I had the pole and now I'm in 4th
before the first turn! How humiliating. And now I'm stuck behind this same old
red FC car, which will slow me down but be hard to pass. I tuck in close behind
him and, we complete the first lap and get out onto the front straight, I draft
him, pop out to the right, and get around him. Fortunately, James and Park
haven't gotten too far ahead yet, so I work on reeling them in. I close up with
James in the other Mazda and get him also on the front straight.
He stays close behind me, though,
as I chase after Park. A few laps of driving absolutely flat out and I get up
behind Park. Then coming out onto the front straight I miss a shift into
2"d gear. Ugh! I can't stand this problem. It won't go away! That's just
what the doctor ordered for James, and in a flash he's past me. A lap later I
catch up with him again and get a good tow up the front straight. Not to be
caught again, James moves to the right, to have the inside for the first turn.
It's legal to move once, but not twice. Two moves is blocking. Ok, I can't pass
him on the right, I'll pass him on the left. If I can get far enough past him
I'll "own" the turn and he be obliged to yield, even if he is on the
inside. If not, I'II just tuck in behind him when we turn. But the pass works,
I know I can carry a lot of speed into the turn, and James elects not to fight
me for it, and I'm around him again. Now I have to catch Park again. I'm still
not sure how I'm going to pass him; he's fast everywhere and has gobs of
horsepower. I'll just have to stay right on his butt to get a good tow when he goes
down the straights so he can't leave me behind. Maybe he'll make a mistake.
Maybe I'll just get 2"d place. Then, suddenly after a few laps we are
approaching slower cars which we will lap. Park gets behind them and seems to
be having trouble getting around. I stick my nose inside on tum 3 but he slams
the door. As we come around the turn leading onto the back straight he slows so
much I think I might hit him. I jump over to the outside and suddenly I'm past.
Later I found out his clutch started slipping and he eventually retired early.
Now I'm in the lead but I've got
James in the other Mazda right on my butt. By now my tires have checked out
completely. Racing tires are good for a certain number of heat cycles; that i
s, cycles of going from cold to racing temperature and back again. This is the
5th cycle on these tires, and about half way through the race they're done. Now
they have significantly less grip then before, so I can't corner as hard or
brake as hard. James, however, is on fresh tires, so if l'm not lucky he can
catch me. I'll have to adjust my driving style to the conditions. Instead of
getting the maximum speed through the comers, I slow down a bit more and
concentrate on exit speed. I can see in my brief glances in the mirrors that
it's working; James is catching me in the corners but I'm leaving him on the
straights. This is good, because it's on the straights that passes happen on
this particular track. After a few laps I draw away from James and can see that
he's not going to try for a pass anymore. He is probably happy with 2nd and is
following about 7 or 8 car lengths back. A few laps to go. Suddenly on the back
straight the car stumbles in 4th gear. Jeez, don't tell me it's running out of
fuel again! We fixed that problem. But it feels just like it did when the foam
was clogging the fuel cell pickups. In an instant James is by me, leaving me
frustrated with an engine that won't accelerate. Then after a couple of
seconds, it starts going again and I'm off. No problems on the very long front
straight, which is weird, then again in the same place on the back straight.
This is going to kill me. Can I even hold on to 2"d place? Somewhere back
there are some fast cars, and my lap times have moved up into the 12s. How many
laps to go? I have no idea, but I know it must be close. The fuel problem gets
worse and worse. I radio in that I'm having problems, but of course nothing can
be done. Fortunately I see the starter holding out his hand in the "last
lap" sign, and I make it around to the checker, finishing 2"d overall
and 2°d in class. How aggravating, though, when I had the race well in hand.
All I had to do was motor around and I would have had the win, until I had this
problem. Oh, well.
Back in the impound I talk with
Mike about it. He thinks perhaps the crew didn't put in enough fuel, trying to
shave as much weight as possible. I gently tell Mike I'd rather be a few pounds
heavy (which is not really noticeable) than to run out of gas. Later, back in
the pits, we pump the cell dry to see how much fuel was remaining. A gallon and
a half. Well, that should have been enough, but why was it running dry? One
theory was that we used the wrong pickup in the cell, allowing the fuel to move
away from the pickup on hard right hand turns. So why then only on the back
straight and not on the front straight, which follows a hard right hander? No
way of knowing. I leave Mike with a request to try to figure it out and to fix
the gearbox for once and all. We can always run a little extra fuel; but not
being able to shift into 2nd sometimes is a real bother.
All in all, not a bad weekend. I
pack up my stuff and make the 4 hour drive back home. This is the last race in
the Mazda for me for some time; there are a few more races this fall but I
don't think I can make any. Well, perhaps one in Las Vegas-a pro race. I'll to
check it out. Now my focus turns to the Motorola cup race next month in
Virginia. Driving Mike's BMW there will be nothing like racing the Mazda; it
will feel like a bus after the light, fast, responsive single-seater. But the
skills that Jet me go fast in the Mazda will make be fast in the BMW as well,
so I'm confident I'II do ok in that race.
Well, that's my weekend. Hope yours
was good, too. Love, John
