RichieRichZ06

Nice write up and pictures Bill

redtopz

Thanks John and Rich . NASA does a great job on that magazine and there are a lot of good articles in each edition.

I missed the T-hill races last weekend, busy harvesting and working. But I have a bunch of events planned this month and next. Racing Supermiata at Buttonwillow in 2 weeks, then up to Sonoma for ST2 the following weekend. Actually I might try ST1 or ST3 that weekend depending on entries. Then down to Buttonwillow in Oct for the last West2 race of the year.

It's getting close to the time to decide what I will do next year already. I really wish Trans Am was on the West coast as I'd like to do that, but the events are too far away. Trans Am 2 would be my 1st choice for racing right now. Man I'd love to rip this car around the CA tracks with 20 more door to door.

folsomlarry

Congratulations on all you have accomplished this season Looks like you will be busy for at least another month.

redtopz

Thanks Larry! It's kind of weird having the "championship" race so early in the year. In a way it's more fun when it's the last race of the season.

Speaking of which, I was just looking at the SCCA Runoffs entry list at Daytona and they have 601 entries. 28 in GT2 and 13 in T1. GT2 is really becoming a popular class. I might have to do some of that again next year and I had Rick build my engine to meet the scca specs just in case.

RichieRichZ06

Trans Am would be awesome and I'm sure you would do well. The racing budget to compete for a year is probably 10-15 times what you're doing now, but it would be a blast.

redtopz

So will Abel step up the sponsorship?

Actually one reason TA2 looks so good is because it is relatively cheap (I think). They have cost limits in the rules on shocks ($800 max ea.), brakes ($500 max ea.), etc. I think you can find a used one in the range of a good ST2 corvette. TA2 tires are bias ply slicks and much cheaper than Hoosier A7/R7's (around $150 each). The engines are LS3's with dry sumps and they have the same quartermaster clutch I have in my vette. The cars look pretty bulletproof and easy to work on. The problem is that all the races are on the East Coast and South. Nothing west of Texas. I'm not sure what the entry fees are. Looks very popular and very competitive and fun.

folsomlarry

I agree with having the championship as the last race of the season. We just received another invite to the SVRA Historic National Championships at COTA in November. We actually thought about it, although our budget was shot after Monterey. Then I read they are running "East Coast Rules", which means we would be down at least 100hp on everyone, so that eliminated all thoughts of going.

Sounds like GT2 just keeps growing. Will the Runoffs be back on the West Coast next year? If they are then you need to get the new engine ready.

redtopz

Wow COTA in November would be cool if it's not raining! But it does take a lot of time and money to make an event that far away. Sounds like the Monterey event was huge.

Runoffs are at Mid Ohio next year and I might try to make it. I already have an engine in my car that will work. Synergy built a T1/GT2 legal engine for me earlier this year after I fried the bearings in my old one when my dry sump pulley walked out and threw the belt. As long as I don't screw up, I'm sure Rick's engine will last a long time.

redtopz

Well this season is a wrap. We had 8 ST2 racers at Buttonwillow for the WeST2 season finale. It was another hot weekend of racing. My engine was running a little hot on Sat so I pulled some tape off the front grills and the temps dropped about 15 degrees for Sunday. I qualified pole on Sat with a 1:48.1 lap on the 13CW configuration on 7 heat cycle scrubs. Came in first on Saturday in the race followed by Chuck in his C6 vette and John in his 996 porsche. Then we had a great BBQ and watched some videos of our bloopers.

Sunday I put on some sticker A7's for qualifying. It was mid-80's by the time we went on track already. I put down a 1:46.2 which beat my previous pb by a few tenths. But looking at my data, I did a 1:45.7 rolling lap which is where I wanted to be. Just didn't get it done at the start/finish line. I was too slow in the first corner of my first lap getting a feel for how much grip I had. Then the 2nd lap I was faster through that corner, but slower in the back half of the track.

Sunday was a tough race and cars started dropping like flies. We had 31 cars qualify on Saturday in our group and only 15 cars finished on Sunday. My car developed a nasty vibration midway through the race and I was tempted to come in each time around, but with 2 of my pursuers heading in with mechanical issues I had nobody pressing me from behind, so I decided to stay out for the win. Looking at my car today, I found both front outer tie rod ends slightly wobbly and my RF upper control arm bearings had some play between the dogbones and bearing. The LG bearings are still good, but the metal dogbones have worn down enough to create some slop. Both of these will be easy fixes. The AP Radi-Cal brakes were awesome again even in this heat. Consistent brakes all weekend long. The Sunday podium consisted of me, then Jim and Thorpe.

So, WeST2 was a great success this year and I expect it to continue to grow. Here are my results:

Willow Springs (Sat 1st place, Sun DNF power steering)
Buttonwillow (Sat 1st place, Sun DNF low oil pressure)
Cal Speedway (DNS, building new engine)
Sonoma (Sat 2nd place, Sun 1st place)
Laguna Seca (Fri 1st, Sat 1st, Sun 1st championship)
Thunderhill (DNS, busy harvesting)
Buttonwillow final (Sat 1st, Sun 1st)

Thanks again to my sponsors and friends who made this year possible!

TC Design, Synergy Motorsports, Essex Brakes, Abel Chevrolet, Hoosier Tires. The Hoosier A7's are awesome tires and perform better than the A6's for racing. They seem to handle heat cycles better and don't lose grip as fast as the A6's due to the new tread pattern being more like a slick.

DarkMastyr

Awesome results Bill

redtopz

Thanks! I found the actual cause of my vibration on track. I have 4 bent wheels out of 3 sets. I found a place in Fresno that can true them back to original condition. One of them was pretty bad and probably happened at Buttonwillow. The other three were not as bad and probably happened sometime before who knows when. Two sets are 10 years old and one set is 3-4 years old and I don't balance tires when they get mounted. Anyway, with this issue and lack of time I had to miss the Hooked on Corvettes

Here are two final vids for the year, Sat qual and race. Nothing too exciting. The start of the race I out-brake a super unlimited porsche into Turn 1 and take the lead for a lap until he motors past me on the 2nd lap.

redtopz

Also, here are 2 more pics of my front AP brakes after another weekend of racing and a couple test sessions on Friday.





Couple more pics. I've used 25% of the pad material so far over 2 race weekends. One was the championships with 3 races or basically 4 races since one was twice as long.

skxf430

Hey Bill,

I was looking at your older qualifying video at BRP and you had different shifting points compared with your video from last weekend. From Cotton Corners thru the bus stop, you were in 3rd gear, and now more recently you are using 4th gear. Did you change your gear ratios or differential?

Any affect to your times?

I saw your car out on track late Friday but I was already packing up to leave.

Peter

redtopz

Hi Peter, yes I am currently running my spare tranny which is a stock C5. My new tranny from RPM had a bad 3rd gear and had to be rebuilt (out of my pocket). The new tranny has taller gears like a ZR1 and closer ratios. But at Buttonwillow it made no real difference in lap times, just more shifting. I was actually a little faster last weekend despite the heat (at least for my fastest lap).

Robert R1

Nice job Bill.

Sucks you couldn't make it to thill. Was looking forward to getting passed and meeting up!

Ran the 5 mile for the first time and we used the bypass they installed recently that removes the back to back hairpins. What a cool layout. The back section flows so well. Very rhythmic.

redtopz

Hi Robert, yeah I was bummed to miss the HOC event! I was really looking forward to meeting all the other corvette track guys. It was bad timing being only a few days after our last WeST2 race weekend. I told Rich to let me know if you guys get back to T-hill later this Fall. I haven't been there in a year and I'd like to try the 5 mile again.

There's one last NASA Norcal event and it's next weekend at Sonoma. October in Sonoma is my favorite event of the year because I love the weather and I love the track and it brings closure to the racing year. I think I'm going to end the season by pulling the 60 mm restrictor out of my LS2 and racing in SU so I don't have to worry about dynos or scales. Just run for fun as fast as I can go.

Edit: on 2nd thought I'm going to save wear and tear on the vette and take the miata.

redtopz

I ended up taking the vette to Sonoma to run it without restrictors and at full power. It was fun, but I was having a terrible time trying to get the rear end to hook up coming out of corners. Part of it could have been the tires I was running which had been raced at Laguna Seca and Buttonwillow. But part of it also was either the diff or my rear alignment which I didn't check.

Halfway through the Saturday race my car felt like it stumbled in Turn 7 so I brought it in thinking maybe it was running low on fuel. Then Sunday in qualifying it snapped oversteered exiting T7 and I spun out. After that, the rear started making some nasty noises. Here are the vids from Sat race which I took with a Monoprice camera. It's a nice simple inexpensive camera, but for some reason it shut off after a few laps. Listen to that LS2 scream.



You can hear the nasty rear end sounds in the next vid.



After that I loaded the car and brought it home. I removed the diff today and found 3 missing teeth on the ring gear. The diff was full of OS Giken fluid and it actually looked clean. I have no idea why this thing broke so quickly. I wonder if I can find some stronger gear sets?



This is disappointing. Both my new tranny and new diff have broken within 6 months. My 5 year old quaife diff and C5 tranny are still going strong. Oh well, I guess I will stick with my trusty old setup for now.

RichieRichZ06

How did you break in the ring and pinion? The gear manufactures always suggest a progressive break in procedure and then fluid change. In a race car it's hard to do, but that might be part of the reason the gears failed. Without a few heat cycles and establishing a pattern between the ring and pinion, my guess is that it just took the hardening off and broke the tips of the gears. Do you remember what brand the gears were?

redtopz

I don't know why it broke. I did a test day to break in the OS Giken before racing with it and changed all the fluid. I had nothing unusual happen at Sonoma except one time it felt like the engine was stumbling in T7. The next day after spinning in T7, when I shifted to 4th the engine just revved like I missed the gear. But it probably just happened because the gear broke. I think this was a Motive 3.90 gear.

RichieRichZ06

Motiv is typically good, but we've seen issue sin the past with bad hardening. Rick went through 4-5 3.90 gear sets due to them continually coming apart in a few hundred miles. Hopefully it was just a bad set.