Splashing at the Rock
04-16-2007, 06:03 PM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
Splashing at the Rock
Just spent last weekend at "Low Rock Lake" in North Carolina. It is at the facility formerly known as Rockingham Raceway and currently known as North Carolina Speedway. We were there with NASA-SE for their April event. Turnout was about 80 cars with a lot fewer on Sunday. Saturday was great with sunny weather, tons of track time and decent track conditions. For some of us though it became a bit more expensive. ZO6Cool, in a 20,000 mile 2004 ZO6, was coming off the oval into the infield course (in a truly masterful and skillfull manner I might add) when he said he was smoking. At that point I noticed "0" oil pressure and advised him of that indication. People behind us smelled anti-freeze and saw lots of oil smoke. He did a great job getting off line and off the track. Good news was the car was not leaking any fluids, the bad news was the motor would not turnover. He did not over rev the engine in the downshift and was nowhere near redline prior to the event. Postmortem analysis did show rising oil levels and dropping coolant levels. Not sure what let go - timing chain, valve retainer, head gasket or something else. It did die without a whimper and is, for sure, a sick engine. Of course his plan is now an upgrade to a 402 or better. We were able to get it on his trailer and headed back to home without too much effort. Normally that chore is for Tom's Mustang or a Miata.
It was pretty easy to get clear track for all the runs. With the grit on the track it seemed pretty slippery all day. I am sure any in car video would show me correcting the slide with the wheel constantly. Putting power down was a problem for most of the high powered cars. There were quite a few offs - to include Toby in his Mercedes - but no real damage. We managed to finish first in class and second overall on Saturday in time trial. The catered food was excellent by the way!
Sunday was really, really wet and we awoke to beautiful Low Rock Lake in the infield. For those who spent time out west think "playa" when a 25 year storm hits. I put on some 12 heat cycle 275/40 NT01s on front and some really old 315/35 Sumitomo street tires on the rear since that was all I had at the track with any tread at all. I then asked my M3 student if he wanted to ride with me for the session. All I can say is I stayed on track all session (unlike some others I can mention), only went sideways bad out of T2 once (scared my student a bit that time - I, of course, was completely nonchalant about sliding sideways at 90 MPH into the wall) and was really happy I did not have a bottom feeder air cleaner. I did wonder just why I was on a banked oval watching water sheet down the track and driving through massive puddles in the infield whilst scaring the snot out of myself and one of my students though. Naturally, I continued till I saw the checkered flag for the session - no need to leave the track due to a little challenging conditions. Driving in a heavy rain is extremely educational. The track conditions literally change every lap and the amount of power I could put down also varied all over the board. I spent a lot of time floating on those wore out 315s. Since wet tracks are a sometimes event it is hard to justify a true set of "wets" waiting for the time trial event were they are really needed. I normally use a whatever street tires I have mounted. Unfortunately, those tires are normally as hard as a rock and worn near the wear bars. But the cars with treaded tires were having a great time except, just maybe, Trackaddict in his RX8 sitting in the sand at T3. In the end we were first in class again (I think) and in the top 5 for time trail on Sunday. We were also 25 seconds slower for our fastest lap on Sunday.
Overall it was a fun weekend at a track made pretty challenging by the conditions and the available equipment for the car. We put in a lot of miles and concentrated on getting the most out of the car we had at the track. Now we need to put in the Stage V trans from RPM and the suspension package from VBP....plus buy a few more tires, of course.
It was pretty easy to get clear track for all the runs. With the grit on the track it seemed pretty slippery all day. I am sure any in car video would show me correcting the slide with the wheel constantly. Putting power down was a problem for most of the high powered cars. There were quite a few offs - to include Toby in his Mercedes - but no real damage. We managed to finish first in class and second overall on Saturday in time trial. The catered food was excellent by the way!
Sunday was really, really wet and we awoke to beautiful Low Rock Lake in the infield. For those who spent time out west think "playa" when a 25 year storm hits. I put on some 12 heat cycle 275/40 NT01s on front and some really old 315/35 Sumitomo street tires on the rear since that was all I had at the track with any tread at all. I then asked my M3 student if he wanted to ride with me for the session. All I can say is I stayed on track all session (unlike some others I can mention), only went sideways bad out of T2 once (scared my student a bit that time - I, of course, was completely nonchalant about sliding sideways at 90 MPH into the wall) and was really happy I did not have a bottom feeder air cleaner. I did wonder just why I was on a banked oval watching water sheet down the track and driving through massive puddles in the infield whilst scaring the snot out of myself and one of my students though. Naturally, I continued till I saw the checkered flag for the session - no need to leave the track due to a little challenging conditions. Driving in a heavy rain is extremely educational. The track conditions literally change every lap and the amount of power I could put down also varied all over the board. I spent a lot of time floating on those wore out 315s. Since wet tracks are a sometimes event it is hard to justify a true set of "wets" waiting for the time trial event were they are really needed. I normally use a whatever street tires I have mounted. Unfortunately, those tires are normally as hard as a rock and worn near the wear bars. But the cars with treaded tires were having a great time except, just maybe, Trackaddict in his RX8 sitting in the sand at T3. In the end we were first in class again (I think) and in the top 5 for time trail on Sunday. We were also 25 seconds slower for our fastest lap on Sunday.
Overall it was a fun weekend at a track made pretty challenging by the conditions and the available equipment for the car. We put in a lot of miles and concentrated on getting the most out of the car we had at the track. Now we need to put in the Stage V trans from RPM and the suspension package from VBP....plus buy a few more tires, of course.
Bummed beyond words. Glad you survived the monsoon.
04-16-2007, 09:01 PM
#3
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
