04-24-2023, 03:27 PM
Three race weekends flew by!
VIR is a blur, but my goal was a podium and a new PB (previous best being 2:14.1 set in October). Long story short, I matched my PB a bunch of times but I'm still not pleased with my performance. I'm a good 2 seconds off the front 3 guys and I want to be faster. The car is still over weight with me in it by 50 lbs at best with an empty tank, so I need to lose weight personally. I finished 4th and 3rd or something like that after a crash out and some contact by other folks in the field.
I had a grinding noise all weekend that I thought was my rear brakes. It was not. More on that later.
Replaced the rear pads because they had some really weird wear and I thought they were making a noise. Threw a new steering rack in the car to stop the leaks, and headed to Summit Point. Saturday warm up was fine, but the noise was still there. I checked the wheel bearings and everything felt tight. I let someone do parade laps at lunch in the car and it came back with a very wobbly rear wheel which ended my weekend.
I got the car home sunday night and immediately set to work on disassembling the rear bearings as I only had 3 days before I had to leave for WGI. The rear driver wheel bearing was completely destroyed and came out in pieces. The balls went everywhere and the race/cage was destroyed. It was so bad that the axle ground itself down on the trailing arm and wore away some of the wheel speed sensor. I got the parts in Wednesday and worked all night to get it together. Had to source some wheel speed sensors locally after I damaged one pulling the bearing out. I got it all together and headed to WGI.
Friday was a test and tune and I helped one of my new Northeast Spec3 rookies work out the kinks in a car new to him. I jumped in his car to set some laps as a baseline to prove to him what was possible and gave him something to work towards. The track record for Spec3 is a 2:13 set by Charles Ford, so that is always my goal. After my first session, I came back in to find one of my tires completed delaminated or had a belt separate as it was swollen and bulging on one side. That's my fault for running tires from 2016. I swapped it out for some equally hard and crappy, but newer 2019 tires and kept working my times down. I got down to the low 2:17s before calling it an early day and visiting from distilleries with Rachel, Lemon the dog, and Rachel's friends.
Saturday warm up was good and I turned a 2:16, and then in qualifying I turned a lower 2:16, all with bald left side tires with a million heat cycles. Then the rain came in and the lightning caused the track to be shut down long enough for them to cancel the races for the day. Sunday would be a double points race day. I swapped my tires side to side so I could have the two tires with life on them on the outside for most turns. We started the race and I quickly passed the ST6 cars ahead and worked my way through some of the Spec E46s as I came through turn 9 to see a car parked right on the racing line facing me (the yellow flag didn't come out in time for me to see it before turn in) and I just barely avoided balling up both of our cars. I then set out to churn some more laps and got down into the 2:15s to tie my personal best. I took the win in my class of 2.
The second race was postponed due to weather again and then the track was standing water. I love a rain race, but the rookie didn't bring rain tires, so he couldn't go out. 1 car doesn't make a class, and going into a race with no one to race against is poor sportsmanship as you're just someone in the way at that point. I packed up early and waiting for the race to end to make sure the SE46s had a clean race and I didn't need to DQ anyone. Then I headed home.
Next up is Hyperfest at VIR in mid May followed up NASA NE at NJMP with another Spec3 rookie (or 2!) doing comp school and running their first races with us the first weekend of June.
To do list before then:
New wheel bearings up front
New brake pads up front
Mount new tires and rotate the old
New brake calipers on the rear
![[Image: KlL2qe1.png]](https://imgur.com/KlL2qe1.png)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRTb9xVlLs
VIR is a blur, but my goal was a podium and a new PB (previous best being 2:14.1 set in October). Long story short, I matched my PB a bunch of times but I'm still not pleased with my performance. I'm a good 2 seconds off the front 3 guys and I want to be faster. The car is still over weight with me in it by 50 lbs at best with an empty tank, so I need to lose weight personally. I finished 4th and 3rd or something like that after a crash out and some contact by other folks in the field.
I had a grinding noise all weekend that I thought was my rear brakes. It was not. More on that later.
Replaced the rear pads because they had some really weird wear and I thought they were making a noise. Threw a new steering rack in the car to stop the leaks, and headed to Summit Point. Saturday warm up was fine, but the noise was still there. I checked the wheel bearings and everything felt tight. I let someone do parade laps at lunch in the car and it came back with a very wobbly rear wheel which ended my weekend.
I got the car home sunday night and immediately set to work on disassembling the rear bearings as I only had 3 days before I had to leave for WGI. The rear driver wheel bearing was completely destroyed and came out in pieces. The balls went everywhere and the race/cage was destroyed. It was so bad that the axle ground itself down on the trailing arm and wore away some of the wheel speed sensor. I got the parts in Wednesday and worked all night to get it together. Had to source some wheel speed sensors locally after I damaged one pulling the bearing out. I got it all together and headed to WGI.
Friday was a test and tune and I helped one of my new Northeast Spec3 rookies work out the kinks in a car new to him. I jumped in his car to set some laps as a baseline to prove to him what was possible and gave him something to work towards. The track record for Spec3 is a 2:13 set by Charles Ford, so that is always my goal. After my first session, I came back in to find one of my tires completed delaminated or had a belt separate as it was swollen and bulging on one side. That's my fault for running tires from 2016. I swapped it out for some equally hard and crappy, but newer 2019 tires and kept working my times down. I got down to the low 2:17s before calling it an early day and visiting from distilleries with Rachel, Lemon the dog, and Rachel's friends.
Saturday warm up was good and I turned a 2:16, and then in qualifying I turned a lower 2:16, all with bald left side tires with a million heat cycles. Then the rain came in and the lightning caused the track to be shut down long enough for them to cancel the races for the day. Sunday would be a double points race day. I swapped my tires side to side so I could have the two tires with life on them on the outside for most turns. We started the race and I quickly passed the ST6 cars ahead and worked my way through some of the Spec E46s as I came through turn 9 to see a car parked right on the racing line facing me (the yellow flag didn't come out in time for me to see it before turn in) and I just barely avoided balling up both of our cars. I then set out to churn some more laps and got down into the 2:15s to tie my personal best. I took the win in my class of 2.
The second race was postponed due to weather again and then the track was standing water. I love a rain race, but the rookie didn't bring rain tires, so he couldn't go out. 1 car doesn't make a class, and going into a race with no one to race against is poor sportsmanship as you're just someone in the way at that point. I packed up early and waiting for the race to end to make sure the SE46s had a clean race and I didn't need to DQ anyone. Then I headed home.
Next up is Hyperfest at VIR in mid May followed up NASA NE at NJMP with another Spec3 rookie (or 2!) doing comp school and running their first races with us the first weekend of June.
To do list before then:
New wheel bearings up front
New brake pads up front
Mount new tires and rotate the old
New brake calipers on the rear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWRTb9xVlLs
Current:
2011 F150 Platinum | 1995 BMW 325i | 1983 BMW 320i | The MMoped | 2008 BMW 128i
Past:
1996 Toyota Tacoma: | 1992 Mazda Miata | 2002 BMW 325i |
2003 Toyota Tacoma | 1995 Miata M Edition | 1997 Subaru Outback |
1992 Mazda Miata | 1990 BMW 325i | 2007 Toyota 4Runner |
1995 Ford Windstar | 1987 BMW 325i | 1987 BMW 325 | 1990 BMW 325i Vert |
2018 VW GTI | 1990 Mazda Miata | 1989 BMW 325i Vert | 2015 Fiesta ST | 1983 BMW 320i parts car
2011 F150 Platinum | 1995 BMW 325i | 1983 BMW 320i | The MMoped | 2008 BMW 128i
Past:
1996 Toyota Tacoma: | 1992 Mazda Miata | 2002 BMW 325i |
2003 Toyota Tacoma | 1995 Miata M Edition | 1997 Subaru Outback |
1992 Mazda Miata | 1990 BMW 325i | 2007 Toyota 4Runner |
1995 Ford Windstar | 1987 BMW 325i | 1987 BMW 325 | 1990 BMW 325i Vert |
2018 VW GTI | 1990 Mazda Miata | 1989 BMW 325i Vert | 2015 Fiesta ST | 1983 BMW 320i parts car