GammaF4

Sunday May 8th...

2011-05-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

BEMC STR 2011 Mosport F4 Race #2 from Devin Hanes on Vimeo.

Sunday morning--last minutes checks on the car. Jim went out for the morning open-wheel pratice to check the "fixed" shifter cable. Jim seldom goes out for Sunday morning warm-up.

The cars left the mock grid and entered the track, I headed over to the pit wall to wait for Jim to come by. He never did. The expression "Oh crap" came to mind. What happened....what did I forget to do....what did he do....

Richard pulled into the pits to make some adjustments to his jets--his car was still running to lean apparently. Richard informed me that Jim was parked at the end of a steak of oil at turn 3. Double crap. Jim has a liftless shift kit installed on the car--it is attached to the shifter cable. He he up-shifts, the kit cuts the ignition to the engine, allowing Jim to keep the throttle peddle depressed. We disconnected it to fix the shift cable and could not re-connect it. My thoughts were that he forgot and did not lift on a shift, blowing the motor....

At the end or practice, however, I was the truck pulling him in--a very good sign, for if the motor had blown, they would have tarped the car under the motor and used the tow truck to carry it in. Turns out that on the out lap, through turn 3, the oil light for the external oil tank came on, and Jim turned the motor off to be safe.

IN the paddock we examined the oil level, the external oil pump, and other stuff and could not find anything wrong. They only explanation we could come up with was since we did not warm up the motor in the paddock that morning, the oil temperature never came up to operating temperature before going out on the track. The oil was probably still very viscous, and not flowing normally, therefore not returning to the tank and hence the warning light...

For the first race Sunday (FL race #2), Jim started 8th overall, 2nd in class. We chatted about taking it easy, not sure if the shifter cable would hold up....A tentative start as a pack of sports racers all wanted to lead through turn 1. A couple of laps later, Jim was all over the back of the two FMs (Formula Star Mazdas)...Next lap by, he was right in the middle of them...Jim turned a stack of 1:27s....2s off his "fast" pace, but still pretty quick...So much for taking it easy...After passing the next FM, Jim ran by himself for the rest of the race, finishing 1st in class and 2nd overall. The shifter cable held together!

For Race #3, Jim started 1st in class, and 3rd overall. The only real concern was the Stohr DSR (D-Sports Racer) of Jim Hallman. He been the fast car in the field all weekend, but had yet to complete a race, DNFing from 1st place in the previous two races of the weekend. The debate on the mock grid was not if Hallman would take the lead, but when....1 lap, two laps???? End of the first lap he was in third, right on the tail of Greg Bell & Nick Majors in their sports racers....Next lap, he was decisively in the lead.
As for Jim, he had an uneventful race, finishing 1st in class(F4), 4th overall, and winning the 1st place trophy for "Wings & Slicks."

Overall, a very good weekend for the first weekend of the year. Don't know yet who will be the competition for the year, the Stohrs have a clear speed advantage. Do not yet know if or what Radicals may come out and play this season, or any other formula cars, but it should still be a fun season, nonetheless....Heck, maybe we should get that 160hp superbike motor built and go play with the Stohrs......

Saturday May 7th....

2011-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday Morning:
Adjusted the clutch cable. Jim drove the car around the paddock without the body work so we could adjust the the clutch cable. Perfect! Except with no bodywork, the car became filled with little stones....

Practice:
For practice and qualifying the organziers combined the FVs and the FLs into one group. Lots of cars on the track!
Jim went out for one lap, then into pits so I could check for fluid leaks--fine.
First lap back out and the univeral black flag was waved for the entire field to come into the pits. Some Hero had stuffed his car into the wall between corners 9 & 10 on his out lap....Nose, both front corners and the left rear corner were gone. Horrible way to start the first weekend of the season! The clean up time used up the 10 minutes allotted for the practice session, so Jim could not go out again....

Qualifying: HUGE field! 15 Fvs. Between 25-30 cars on the track. Jim could not get a clean lap and about 4 laps into the session, another universal black flag. The clean up used up the alloted time. Jim did not break 1:30--not enough time to get some heat into the tires, nor get a clear lap...Qualified 7th overall. Managed 1st in class because Mike & Richard were having problems of their own.

Race 1:
Started 1st in class, 7th overall.
Rocket start up the inside of the front straight to get by Caitlyin Johnson in her Formula Fit and tuck in behind the two Formula Mazdas (FM). Passed the first FM in turn 9 (barely...). On the front straight, pulled out to take the next FM when the shifter cable broke....Car was stuck in 4th gear. After that, Jim just cruised around for the rest of the race. Due to attrition, he managed a 2nd in class, and an 8th overall.

Once back in the pits, we worked for a few hours trying to figure something out. No spare shifter cable. Called a couple of truck parts places looking for a push-pull cable to use--no luck. Ended up using a spare throttle cable, some clamps, tape, and other supplies to "jerry-rig" the shifter cable back together. Hopefully it would hold together the next day....

BEMC STR 2011 Mosport F4 Race 1 from Devin Hanes on Vimeo.

Friday May 7th...

2011-05-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

Left London a little later than planned...Jim had some last minute issues Thursday evening and Friday morning.

The new carbon fibre front brake ducts were a tad long. When the front wing was attached for the first time Thursday evening, the brake ducts hit the wing end plates...

And apparently there was also a minor issue with the new trailer hitch Friday morning...

Anyway, we ended up making great time to the track. Once there, however, we took a tad longer to set up the awning then normal--winter rust (ours, not the awnings....)
Got it set up just in time, though, as the rain started immediately after we finished it!

And the scrutineer liked it. There was a long line of cars down at Scrutineering getting their annual tech with no cover/awning at Scrutineering. Instead of pushing the car down the paddock to wait in the rain, the Chief Scrutineer came to us and teched the car under the awning--benefit to all invovled!

Barbequed dinner at the tracker Friday night, instead of driving into town for dinner. A nice change as it was easeri on the budget, and also much more relaxing to just hang out in the paddock. We should keep doing this!

I got to sleep on a new mattress on the trailer floor! No more air mattresses that leak, but an actual memory foam mattress! Best night's sleep I have ever had in that trailer!!!

Late night--

2011-05-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

Late night, the other night, getting ready for the weekend.

Car has spent pretty well the entire winter up on the table.

Put in on the floor to weight it. As we pushed it to the scales, we heard a weird "rubbing" noise from the rear wheels. Brakes? Bearings? Nope, the upper suspension piece was rubbing the tire sidewall. Seems someone attached the upper suspension piece on the outside of the frame, instead of the inside. Easy enough to fix, just mean more time, and meant having to re-do the rear alignment....

That completed, we tackled the ride height. Adjusted the coils until the car was where we wanted it: 2" at the front, 2.25" at the rear.

Now onto the scales. Very close to perfect weight distribution. 49.9% side to side (front and rear!), and 59.9% weight bias rear to front. Damb that is good.

Took the car off the scales, put the scales away, and tried to attached the new carbon fibre diffuser. On the table, this had been easy to do. On the floor, not so much. Fiddled, messes, cursed alot, and then figured it out.

Krap. Once that was on, notice that the front sway bar was connected--forgot to disconnect it to weight the car....This night just wouldn't end. Out came the scales again. Low and behold, the weight distribution was perfect. SWEET!

The night was late, we put the car back on the table, and I went home to bed. Should be a good weekend. The car is light, with better weight distrubution. The new diffuser is much lighter and much stronger than the old one. New stiffer springs should improve the handling w/ the diffuser. Let's just hope the weather holds. Right now forcasting rain Friday night, then mix of sun and clouds, high of 15. But it is Mosport--and Mosport has it's very own unique weather system....

Sunday afternoon: less than a week left...

2011-05-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Almost ready for the weekend...

Sunday I did lots of little, annoying jobs that need to be done...

Cleaned up/organized the trailer and made sure it was stocked with spares. Filled up the air tank in the trailer. Put air in ALL the tires (slicks, rain tires, trailer tires, bicycle tires, etc.).

Jim wrapped the exhaust, then we attached it to the motor. Was that ever a tight fit. Amazed he could fit his chubby hands in those tight spaces....

Still need to do:

trim carbon-fibre undertray, a
ssemble nose cone and front wing,
weigh car and add/adjust ballast,
shake-down run at Sparta...

. www.formulafour.com

Only a week left...

2011-05-04T04:49:00.000-07:00

First race of the season is this weekend. Been a long winter. Tons of upgrades made to the car, and it looks good. Carbon Fibre body, nose, undertray/diffuser, front brake cooling ducts, etc.

Lots still to do though.

First post

2011-05-04T04:47:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and welcome to my blog.

Here I plan to comment on our season, on and off the track, and keep some sort of journal/record of the trials and tribulations of an amateur sports car racing team in Ontario Canada.