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LOSTCIRCUITS	SHORTCUTS: A Day At The Races Preparations In The Pits / Qualification Hail Broke Loose The Show Must Go On Side Lines Give Us Some Feedback
A Day at the Races A different kind of speed
(Review by MS, July 14, 2004)

The Event

Saturday, July 3rd were the warm-ups. I was tied up with other agendas so I couldn’t make it but the real race was on Independence Day anyway. Saturday had been a scorcher with temperatures around 100 degrees and cloudless skies, which, especially at 6,000 ft altitude above sea level, translates into some major radiation. Combine this with exhaust fumes and some extreme deciBel levels and there is a recipe for disaster. By oversight, the crew had left the tent out at the pickup truck at the in-field parking lot and so there was no shadow at the hot pits. The lingering results were headache, heat-caused exhaustion and sun glare-related nausea, minor issues in the grand scheme but if you need to be at your best, even little things can become bigger than the sun.

A Day at the Races

Independence Day saw the gates opening at 1 pm in another afternoon of scorching heat. Having not been in the infield before, the first task was to find the team, which turned out a bit more difficult than expected. In all the pomp and glory of the MOPAR and similar teams, the little pickup trailer was somewhat difficult to spot to begin with. Moreover, it was deserted since everybody was in the hot-pits reserved for the drivers and mechanics that a normal mortal has no access to. Luckily, everything was still in the setup phase and I spotted Dave in his ATV hauling some canisters of methanol over to the track, and thus, I found my way in to the hot pits. Not before buying some earplugs though, without which I would have had permanent hearing damage at the end of the day.

                           

MOPAR trucks running about 1/2 million US$ each were dominating the scene. Midgets and other racers were pushed around using ATVs or queuing up at the entrance to the hot-pits.

At that time, the first qualifying races were held, based on the lap times of the previous day. As it turned out, more than 30 teams had signed up in the Silver Crown class and only 30 teams are allowed per race – safety first. The first 24 cars from the Saturday qualifications – based on the lap times were qualified, and then there were 10 cars leve that had to race against each other for the final placement. Based solely on the qualification times from the previous day, #13 would have been qualified as number 30, but now everything was open again.

That means that we had to qualify within a field of more or less professional drivers, all of whom were in for the money at least. Bottom line was that in order to break even, Dave had to come in at least within the first 5 placements in the actual race and, every round that the car had to do extra, sort of diminished the chances of getting through in one piece. This was the situation going into a race of 10 competitors, where the top 6 placements were going to make it to the final race. The marching order was to take it easy on the car, don’t do anything crazy, just keep the line behind the car in front and play it safe.

                           

Compared to the showcasing of other teams, our little flatbed trailer felt somewhat out of place but the spirit was there (and Max kept his fingers crossed). It was David against Goliath all over again with Merlin trying to do some magic, a Knight without shining armor and not to forget Dan... (left to right: Bruce Knight, David Mirk, Dan and Merlin). There was some looming disaster in the air, at least with respect to the weather but the car was strong and holding its 5th place without problem during the first couple of laps.

Based on the practice times from the day before we started in the 5th position, which was not too good but not too bad either and #13 held its place without too much sweat until the second to last round. The car behind started trailing a thick black smoke cloud and had to come in, leaving only one competitor to beat. At the time, we were running a solid 27.33 sec for each lap. Then, all of a sudden, we got radioed by Dave that the temperature had gone up beyond the 210 Fahrenheit cap to 225-230 and that the brakes were acting up….. he was coming in.

A quick check of the car revealed that the fuel mixture was a bit too far on the lean side, which had been one of the last minute adjustments based on the recommendations from other teams. However, it turned out that the gauge was probably a bit off and consequently, the mixture was leaner than intended with the side effect of burning at higher temperatures and consequent higher thermal load on the engine.

At the same time, the front-rear bias of the brakes was leaning a bit too much towards the rear brakes causing the car to fishtail, which, given the top speed of about 170 mph is nothing for the faint of heart either. The adjustments were relatively minor but the official comment was that #13 was ranked now #31 and just missed the qualification of the field that was limited to 30 racers. All attempts to sway the officials to allow one extra car in the pool failed, at least where we were concerned (later it turned out that they let in one additional car….)

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