Pfadt Race Report from Nationals
09-21-2007, 02:30 PM
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Burning Brakes
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Pfadt Race Report from Nationals
Finally getting caught back up in the office and wanted to give the inside scoop on the goings on in the Pfadt camp at Mid-Ohio
We sent the car to Mid-Ohio directly from our display at Carlisle where it spent the weekend looking like a very shiny race car. Unfortunately on Saturday night of Carlisle the roof caved in literally. Our tent and the neighboring tent were blown down and landed on our display and the race car.
We made a couple of last minute changes to the Aero package on the car after Carlisle and packed it in the trailer for Mid-Ohio.
Things looked good on Thursday. We went out on some old Hoosiers and the car worked well. The temps were a little higher than in the past, but nothing to be alarmed at as we got the car up to speed.
We put the car on the Dyno to confirm the engine tune was correct in the thick Ohio air. The Car dynoed in right where we expected it based on our last sessions in UT. The Preatorian Racing Engine put down a comfortable 535 to the wheels. That meant our weight was in line with where we needed to be.
Friday: Things start slipping:
We put on our new BFG R1 tires to scrub them in and made a few laps. The car felt squirrelly but I attributed it to the fresh tires and cold track. Next up was qualifying for Friday’s race. In qualifying we were stuck in traffic most of the session and struggled to get a clean lap. 50+ cars is a lot of traffic on Mid-Ohio especially given the speed differential between some of the PT cars and the fastest SU/ST cars. I still managed to put down a 1.32.53 and be in reasonable grid position. The worst thing was the car was running hot and there was evidence of more temperature problems to come.
Friday’s race was gridded purely by qualifying time and mixed the SU, ST1 and ST2 cars together. That put quite a gap between the top qualifying ST1 car (Danny Popp) and myself in the 4th ST1 position.
The race itself was only about 4 laps, the victim of a crash in a previous race that ate up our allotted time. It turned out to work in our favor because I had a reasonable start was in Second behind Danny Popp and leading the viper of Tom Glenn in third. A few laps in I made a bobble in Turn 1 under pressure by Tom and he went by. I couldn’t challenge him for the position back because my car was starting to overheat and forced me to back off. I took the third place and decided that a bunch of changes were needed to get me in the game for Sunday.
Saturday: Let’s change everything!
We went out on another new set of BFGs to scrub them in in the morning warm-up. Same result as Friday, squirrelly car on a cold track. We decided to cut some air exhaust holes in our beautiful carbon hood to help the cooling issue before qualifying (the big scratch is compliments of the tent collapse at Carlisle). Ouch!
We decided to try a different strategy to avoid some of the traffic in qualifying. We gridded very early and were the first car on the track followed by Danny Popp. I intended to let him by while warming my tires and follow him to a couple of hot laps and then stay out to check the overheating progress once we hit traffic. Danny and I ran the warm-up lap relatively quickly and came out of the Carousel hot to cross the start/finish line flying. When I turned into Turn one under the bridge, I noticed the end of the grid still heading onto the track. I left turn one only to run into a pack of cars all over the track weaving and swerving to warm up their tires. I had come right into the back of the grid with most of the slower cars. Unsure where to find space I tried to back off and let some distance get between myself and the back of the pack, but for three laps I tried only to run back into slow cars after half a hot lap. Frustrated, I pulled into the pits to let the slower cars go and find room. The car stalled in the pits and boiled over immediately, so much for the holes in the hood. I got the car re-started and cooled a little and headed back out onto the track for a chance at a quick lap. I lucked into a hole in traffic and put down one relatively clean lap at a 1:30. and was working on another faster lap when I went off after the esses. The BFGs were turning out to be unforgiving of being overdriven, the rear had stepped out under braking and I ran out of talent without catching the car.
Bad to Worse.
To prepare for the Saturday race, we needed to make major revisions to the cooling and some adjustment to tame the rear end. The fans came out, and holes were enlarged in the splitter, I relocated the radiator and everything that was not necessary was removed from the front of the car to aid airflow. Luckily we had about 40lbs of excess weight we could shed and still be legal.
Gridded in second position for the race, I was feeling good about my qualifying time and the changes for improved cooling. They were going to grid us in class this time, so the ST1 cars would all be together. I was feeling like I could keep Danny and Tom in sight and challenge them as the race went on.
The start went well and I was near where I wanted to be, in front of Tom and behind Danny. That lasted for about 2 laps and I went into Turn 1 and had no power steering. I knew that would be the belt coming off and confirmed it by looking at the voltmeter reading 11 V or so. I backed off and pulled into the grass below Madness where I would be out of the way of the race. The car boiled over as I shut it off, but this time due to a lack of water pump rather then lack of cool air.
I was dejected. The DNF would put me near the back of the grid for Sunday’s National race and the car still had issues. Even if the car were perfect, the top cars like Popp, Glenn, Mixon, Mayer and Free would all be difficult to pass.
Saturday evening was spent fixing a hole in the radiator caused by Saturday’s hasty relocation and re-engineering the tensioner pulley to keep the belt tight at the 7000 rpm I was turning on both straights. Also in need of repair was the splitter assembly which had been weakened by the airflow inducing holes I cut in it attempting to solve cooling problems. It had dragged on the ground at about 150+ mph on the back straight in the couple of laps I made. Carbon fiber is cheap anyway.
More Troubles.
The JB Weld seemed to be holding in the cooling water come Sunday morning and a small sway-bar adjustment to gain a little more traction was made. We went out for warm-up with hopes of staying cool and turning a couple of hot laps. The end result was a tow from gravel pit and more damage to the splitter. I parked in the gravel for the second and final time of the weekend coming out of the Keyhole. It was a classic power on over-steer and it convinced me that I am not a fan of the BFGs. It should have been a no-brain to save and I still didn’t.
Redemption:
I was gridded 9th of the 10 cars for the main race. As I sat on grid my mind was filled with all of the last minute changes we had made to the car. I wasn’t sure how the car would perform or if it would even last the race. One of the last changes was that I mounted a set of used Hoosiers that Bob Meyer didn’t want any more. At least the radiator was holding water.
I needed to have a good start because if either Danny or Tom put traffic between us, I’d never see them again. I rolled around the track on the warm up lap at the end of the pack. The start would be one green flag for all SU & ST cars, with the ST cars about 10 car lengths back. The difficulty with that is it is nearly impossible to see the flag because of the downhill slope of the track. As we rounded the keyhole towards the sta4rt, I realized the SU cars were at the tower and the green flag was likely to drop at any second. I was in the outside row, and I scooted toward the middle to see around the wing of the RX7 ahead of me. Just as I could see the tower, the starter raised the green flag and I mashed down the throttle, splitting the field of ST1 cars.
I came into turn 7 within sight of Danny & Tom, in 3rd or 4th position. There was contact between Danny & Tom before Madness, but both drivers kept it together and raced on towards the esses. Pleased with my position, I settled in to see how the car was working and wait on a chance to challenge. I spent the first 2/3 of the race battling SU cars. A few laps into the race I started to get oil spray on the windshield and by the time I cleared the last of the SU cars into open track my visibility was greatly reduced and I couldn’t see well enough to drive at the limits of the car. Finally the car felt better, but in-line with the difficulties of the weekend, now the windshield was coated.
I came upon a Factory 5 car that had spun going into Thunder Alley and caught sight of Tom’s Viper not too far ahead. Unfortunately my visibility was impaired enough that I could not challenge. I took the checkered in 3rd place with mixed emotions. Happy to be on the podium, but disappointed that I couldn’t challenge for a higher finish.
Upon post race inspection the oil was coming out of the breather can due to an over-fill (and the giant holes we cut in the hood). In racing, it’s always the little things that get you.
A congrats again to everyone who made the trip to compete and special thanks to all those using our products. Our appearance at Nationals this year is the culmination of our first development year on our ST1 car. A lot of lessons were learned and we’ll be back!
-Aaron
We sent the car to Mid-Ohio directly from our display at Carlisle where it spent the weekend looking like a very shiny race car. Unfortunately on Saturday night of Carlisle the roof caved in literally. Our tent and the neighboring tent were blown down and landed on our display and the race car.
We made a couple of last minute changes to the Aero package on the car after Carlisle and packed it in the trailer for Mid-Ohio.
Things looked good on Thursday. We went out on some old Hoosiers and the car worked well. The temps were a little higher than in the past, but nothing to be alarmed at as we got the car up to speed.
We put the car on the Dyno to confirm the engine tune was correct in the thick Ohio air. The Car dynoed in right where we expected it based on our last sessions in UT. The Preatorian Racing Engine put down a comfortable 535 to the wheels. That meant our weight was in line with where we needed to be.
Friday: Things start slipping:
We put on our new BFG R1 tires to scrub them in and made a few laps. The car felt squirrelly but I attributed it to the fresh tires and cold track. Next up was qualifying for Friday’s race. In qualifying we were stuck in traffic most of the session and struggled to get a clean lap. 50+ cars is a lot of traffic on Mid-Ohio especially given the speed differential between some of the PT cars and the fastest SU/ST cars. I still managed to put down a 1.32.53 and be in reasonable grid position. The worst thing was the car was running hot and there was evidence of more temperature problems to come.
Friday’s race was gridded purely by qualifying time and mixed the SU, ST1 and ST2 cars together. That put quite a gap between the top qualifying ST1 car (Danny Popp) and myself in the 4th ST1 position.
The race itself was only about 4 laps, the victim of a crash in a previous race that ate up our allotted time. It turned out to work in our favor because I had a reasonable start was in Second behind Danny Popp and leading the viper of Tom Glenn in third. A few laps in I made a bobble in Turn 1 under pressure by Tom and he went by. I couldn’t challenge him for the position back because my car was starting to overheat and forced me to back off. I took the third place and decided that a bunch of changes were needed to get me in the game for Sunday.
Saturday: Let’s change everything!
We went out on another new set of BFGs to scrub them in in the morning warm-up. Same result as Friday, squirrelly car on a cold track. We decided to cut some air exhaust holes in our beautiful carbon hood to help the cooling issue before qualifying (the big scratch is compliments of the tent collapse at Carlisle). Ouch!
We decided to try a different strategy to avoid some of the traffic in qualifying. We gridded very early and were the first car on the track followed by Danny Popp. I intended to let him by while warming my tires and follow him to a couple of hot laps and then stay out to check the overheating progress once we hit traffic. Danny and I ran the warm-up lap relatively quickly and came out of the Carousel hot to cross the start/finish line flying. When I turned into Turn one under the bridge, I noticed the end of the grid still heading onto the track. I left turn one only to run into a pack of cars all over the track weaving and swerving to warm up their tires. I had come right into the back of the grid with most of the slower cars. Unsure where to find space I tried to back off and let some distance get between myself and the back of the pack, but for three laps I tried only to run back into slow cars after half a hot lap. Frustrated, I pulled into the pits to let the slower cars go and find room. The car stalled in the pits and boiled over immediately, so much for the holes in the hood. I got the car re-started and cooled a little and headed back out onto the track for a chance at a quick lap. I lucked into a hole in traffic and put down one relatively clean lap at a 1:30. and was working on another faster lap when I went off after the esses. The BFGs were turning out to be unforgiving of being overdriven, the rear had stepped out under braking and I ran out of talent without catching the car.
Bad to Worse.
To prepare for the Saturday race, we needed to make major revisions to the cooling and some adjustment to tame the rear end. The fans came out, and holes were enlarged in the splitter, I relocated the radiator and everything that was not necessary was removed from the front of the car to aid airflow. Luckily we had about 40lbs of excess weight we could shed and still be legal.
Gridded in second position for the race, I was feeling good about my qualifying time and the changes for improved cooling. They were going to grid us in class this time, so the ST1 cars would all be together. I was feeling like I could keep Danny and Tom in sight and challenge them as the race went on.
The start went well and I was near where I wanted to be, in front of Tom and behind Danny. That lasted for about 2 laps and I went into Turn 1 and had no power steering. I knew that would be the belt coming off and confirmed it by looking at the voltmeter reading 11 V or so. I backed off and pulled into the grass below Madness where I would be out of the way of the race. The car boiled over as I shut it off, but this time due to a lack of water pump rather then lack of cool air.
I was dejected. The DNF would put me near the back of the grid for Sunday’s National race and the car still had issues. Even if the car were perfect, the top cars like Popp, Glenn, Mixon, Mayer and Free would all be difficult to pass.
Saturday evening was spent fixing a hole in the radiator caused by Saturday’s hasty relocation and re-engineering the tensioner pulley to keep the belt tight at the 7000 rpm I was turning on both straights. Also in need of repair was the splitter assembly which had been weakened by the airflow inducing holes I cut in it attempting to solve cooling problems. It had dragged on the ground at about 150+ mph on the back straight in the couple of laps I made. Carbon fiber is cheap anyway.
More Troubles.
The JB Weld seemed to be holding in the cooling water come Sunday morning and a small sway-bar adjustment to gain a little more traction was made. We went out for warm-up with hopes of staying cool and turning a couple of hot laps. The end result was a tow from gravel pit and more damage to the splitter. I parked in the gravel for the second and final time of the weekend coming out of the Keyhole. It was a classic power on over-steer and it convinced me that I am not a fan of the BFGs. It should have been a no-brain to save and I still didn’t.
Redemption:
I was gridded 9th of the 10 cars for the main race. As I sat on grid my mind was filled with all of the last minute changes we had made to the car. I wasn’t sure how the car would perform or if it would even last the race. One of the last changes was that I mounted a set of used Hoosiers that Bob Meyer didn’t want any more. At least the radiator was holding water.
I needed to have a good start because if either Danny or Tom put traffic between us, I’d never see them again. I rolled around the track on the warm up lap at the end of the pack. The start would be one green flag for all SU & ST cars, with the ST cars about 10 car lengths back. The difficulty with that is it is nearly impossible to see the flag because of the downhill slope of the track. As we rounded the keyhole towards the sta4rt, I realized the SU cars were at the tower and the green flag was likely to drop at any second. I was in the outside row, and I scooted toward the middle to see around the wing of the RX7 ahead of me. Just as I could see the tower, the starter raised the green flag and I mashed down the throttle, splitting the field of ST1 cars.
I came into turn 7 within sight of Danny & Tom, in 3rd or 4th position. There was contact between Danny & Tom before Madness, but both drivers kept it together and raced on towards the esses. Pleased with my position, I settled in to see how the car was working and wait on a chance to challenge. I spent the first 2/3 of the race battling SU cars. A few laps into the race I started to get oil spray on the windshield and by the time I cleared the last of the SU cars into open track my visibility was greatly reduced and I couldn’t see well enough to drive at the limits of the car. Finally the car felt better, but in-line with the difficulties of the weekend, now the windshield was coated.
I came upon a Factory 5 car that had spun going into Thunder Alley and caught sight of Tom’s Viper not too far ahead. Unfortunately my visibility was impaired enough that I could not challenge. I took the checkered in 3rd place with mixed emotions. Happy to be on the podium, but disappointed that I couldn’t challenge for a higher finish.
Upon post race inspection the oil was coming out of the breather can due to an over-fill (and the giant holes we cut in the hood). In racing, it’s always the little things that get you.
A congrats again to everyone who made the trip to compete and special thanks to all those using our products. Our appearance at Nationals this year is the culmination of our first development year on our ST1 car. A lot of lessons were learned and we’ll be back!
-Aaron
09-21-2007, 08:00 PM
#5
Race Director
ST1 and SU are definitely classes that will take a few seasons for competitors to get the "bugs out" of the cars. You're running World Challenge type power plants, but without the budgets to freshing parts up every weekend. Good to see Aaron and Danny working through their problems this year without giving up.
The street guys don't realize how hard 500+hp is on equipment when you run lap after lap after lap, and keeping a car together isn't alway fun or easy. Hell, with my moving and children to contend with, I can't even get my 300hp ST2 car to stay together.
The street guys don't realize how hard 500+hp is on equipment when you run lap after lap after lap, and keeping a car together isn't alway fun or easy. Hell, with my moving and children to contend with, I can't even get my 300hp ST2 car to stay together.
09-21-2007, 08:39 PM
#6
Racer
Member Since: Mar 2006
Location: Duluth GA.
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Hey Aaron... heck of a start on sunday!!
you and Terry were around me before I could even put my foot down.
I got back around Terry, and started to close the gap to you....but then by lap 11 I realized I'd never get it done.
Nice meeting you and your car looked and ran GREAT!!!! I loved how you dealt w/ the overheating problem......cut big holes>>>>then cut even bigger ones!!!!
you and Terry were around me before I could even put my foot down.
I got back around Terry, and started to close the gap to you....but then by lap 11 I realized I'd never get it done.
Nice meeting you and your car looked and ran GREAT!!!! I loved how you dealt w/ the overheating problem......cut big holes>>>>then cut even bigger ones!!!!
