924Board.org

[924RACR]

Wow, what a wild, crazy weekend!!! Epic battle! Ben-Hur Chariot Race replay! Photo finish! We had it all!

Came into the weekend with a new setup - 3 degrees camber all around, trying to make the car stick even more, get that cornering speed up. Practice/Qual session we completely rocked, pulled out a 1:20.23 to take ITB pole - by nearly half a second over the 2nd place #66 Bimmer of Doug Spencer. Back on our pace!!!

Turns out Doug's tires were going away, all used up; we got a great jump on the start, sticking an F Prod Triumph Spitfire in-between us (in spite of him out-qualifying us both). After pulling one or two quick laps off the bat, we let the Spitfire back in front, as Doug had already fallen back practically out of site. We ended up going nearly has fast as our Qualifying pace, with a best lap of 1:20.4-something, and actually finishing back in front of the Spitfire, who had to park it shortly after passing us due to overheating. Final margin of victory over the Bimmer was nearly 9 seconds; would've been 10, except for hanging the tail out badly at the end of the back straight, drifting through Turn 6! Didn't quite loop it though, kept it on-track and moving, waved to the crowd in the stands at that corner, then motored on to take the checker.

That race was a particularly special one; we were finishing up the Racing4Jim season, in memory of Jim Hawkins, an ITB racer who passed away last year after losing the battle to lung cancer. His wife, Sammi, was again in attendance, and finally got to take a checker flag lap in the car! Truly was a wonderful close to the season for her.

Talking to Doug after the race, we found the story on his tires - corded! He promised to put some other used ones on for Sunday, though he wasn't sure what they'd manage, since they had been taken off the car earlier that season as "used-up" with no grip left.

So we started the first (class) race on Sunday as we'd finished Saturday's race, 1-2 in ITB. One of the leading cars dropped out, giving us the 2nd row to start side-by-side. I got hung out to dry on the start; we were right behind the polesitter, who missed a shift and parked it in front of us. With nowhere to go, Doug wooshed by right into Turn 1 and it was our turn to give chase.

But we hung tight, crawled back up to him, and hung on for a few laps. Finally got the run coming off of Hilltop and through Big Bend onto the back straight, allowing us to motor down to the inside of Turn 6, off the end of the back straight. We ran side-by-side through 6 and held the inside going into Paddock, though a bit behind... Doug tried to slam the door in Paddock, but we were already there and held ground - banging doors, peeling paint, and with our wheel studs chewing through his rocker!! Held our ground into the Esses, and got the launch out of the Esses, winning the drag race into Swamp, coming out in front at the end of the lap!

But the car was developing quite a push now as we'd overheated the front tires in all that; additionally, the Bimmer was much stronger on corner entry, and the only way we'd managed to get by was better corner exit speed and sheer determination! But now we had to play it cautious, and defend, meter out our speed to not open the door to any passing opportunities for his superior entry speed, and make sure that we had the exit speed we needed to stay in front.

Sure enough, a bobble on our part coming over hilltop and Doug got the same run on us; held the inside line to defend into 6, but without the car turning in well, he again got the inside in Paddock and paid us back, passing for the lead on the last lap through the Esses. Final margin of victory was less than 2 10ths of a second - within a couple of feet, and well earned! Additionally, in fighting so hard with eachother, we'd both pushed our way into the 1:19's - 1:19:975 - where we'd only been on one occasion this year, and Doug not at all this year!

The feature was more of the same; he'd outqualified us this time by only 5 thousandths of a second, so we started side-by-side on the 3rd row. Again we had a troubled start; timed it perfectly, passing start within inches of the rear bumper of the yellow Spit... who immediately after missed his own shift to 3rd gear. BAM! Inches away and no time to react at 60mph, we pounded the whole rear of the poor Spit in. Then immediately got hammered ourselves from the rear by the black Capri, #8, immediately behind us! Chain reaction, we all got it sorted, and continued with our race without even hardly lifting.

The Spit promptly got by Doug, leaving us to duke it out ourselves. For 12 laps straight, we rarely got further than a car-length apart, often within a foot at 11/10ths. The video is incredible. We'd tweaked the alignment of #77 a little bit to try to help the turn-in, bumping the front toe to 1/4" toe-out. That little bit made a big difference, helping us get into the corners a little better, losing less ground (though still not as good as the BMW). And our exit speed improved further, allowing us to get a run on Doug on most corner exits - particularly onto the front and back straights! Only problem was, he'd already figured out our game plan, and knew not to let us have the inside into either 1 or 6. Without the car turning in substantially better, it just wasn't possible to go fast enough into the corners to stay beside him (yet still stay on track).

So we had to content ourselves with continuing to pressure Doug, showing the nose everywhere, and trying to force him to make a mistake. Doug said to me after the race, he know going into the race that this was one race he knew he couldn't afford to make even one mistake! But he didn't, leaving us just table scraps to try to work with.

Yet by the end of the race, we really had his number through Big Bend and Swamp (leading onto the back and front straights, respectively). On the last lap, the interval and timing was just perfect, our slower entry speed gave us just the right amount of space to get a solid run on him. It's really easy to see in the video; Swamp is a double-apex left-hander, and as we track out of the first apex, you can see his car squirming as he's feathering the throttle, trying to put down power. Meanwhile, we went foot-on-the-floor BEFORE the first apex, and we're motoring right into the side of him, just playing with the steering wheel to get the trajectory right!

And that's exactly what happened on the last lap; the trajectory was just right and we had the speed and the angle to turn under him into the second apex and start passing him. Meantime Doug, as he admitted after the race, knew he had to leave me room there! That's because in the previous race I'd had the same run, charged down the inside, and he only left me half a car-width. So I did what I've done to Mustangs before, held my line and put the inside of my car through the dirt to get in front!

Doug pointed out he wasn't expecting that in the first race - and it scared the hell out of him! He was waiting for us to push him out into the rumble strips and the weeds, but of course we didn't - that 924 knows how to stick it onto the front straight!

So anyway, back to the Feature race, same deal, only we had a little more pavement to work with - left it in 3rd and just wound it out, damn the revs! Got it wound out to just under 7000rpm, right up the inside, door-to-door, and less than 6 inches from taking the lead at the line. Final margin of victory was 0.017 seconds. Doesn't get much closer than that! I definitely was not unhappy to lose that race - it was so close, neither of us even knew who won until we got back to the pit lane, to figure out who got to take the checker for a lap!

Our lap times - both Doug and I - were nearly as exciting as the race. We'd both pushed well into the 1:19's, with Doug pulling a 1:19.645, and us beating him out with a 1:19.604! Again, competition improves the breed, we'd both improved nearly half a second on our personal bests, we both have further improvements to make to our cars, and we're now only 0.7s off the ITB lap record for Waterford Hills!!!

Awesome weekend, car ran strong throughout, even if the weather was a little off-putting (cold, breezy, and occasional passing rain). We also had Chris Marsh out there on Saturday with his ITB 924 (formerly Jeremy Jadczak's #53 car) for the HPDE sessions, and we got some of the last kinks out of that car and he was able to get it down into the 1:30's - quite respectable for a rookie! Some more tweaking and mainly a lot more seat time, he'll be right in the thick of things.

Pics and video to follow...
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[jjadczak]

That is really exciting weekend of really close racing! I am looking forward to seeing the video too.

Glad to see Chris do well in our old car. Any pics of him out there?
_________________
Jeremy "I'm Faster than My Dad" Jadczak
#53 Porsche 924 (sold '06)
#35 Porsche 924 (R.I.P. '06)
#141 Porsche 944 944 Cup
FLAG Motorsports
"Fast Lucky And Good"

[morghen]

read it all...very nice racing !

so the 924 is slower on the entry of corners than the bimmer eh ?
_________________
Supercharger and EFI kits
https://www.the924.com

[924RACR]

Not sure about on-track, but I know Merritt got a couple of us playing with the car in paddock after the first session - changing hot/melted plug wires...

Yes, the 24 is slower into the corners... for now! The old 933 front struts are going to go back to Bilstein over the winter for a revalving to fix that once and for all!
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[morghen]

[Chrenan]

Congrats on another racing season!
_________________
1987 951 - M193 Version for Japan

[924RACR]

Thanks, guys! Hell, I forgot to mention - this successful weekend clinched our 2nd consecutive 2nd place in the ITB Championship at Waterford! Not as great as the 1st place we'd hoped to earn, but still very close fought, and we've learned a lot again.

Here's how close that racing was:


Here was the checker finish - you can see his bumper to the right of mine:


When we get more of the usual photos online, and video, I'll let you know... meantime, here's a good laugh... "Look Ma, no hands!!"

_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

[endwrench]

Too Cool! You tell a great story Vaughn.

Todd

[924RACR]

Thanks guys! Video is finally posted, last few laps of the Feature Race, 32Mb, definitely worth watching if you need a little adrenaline boost to wake you up this AM!
http://www.vaughanscott.com/videos/feature_race_front.wmv
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype