Month: November 2010

A Fight!!!

It is two days before we leave for Thunderhill and it’s time to “switch on”.  

An important part of racing is understanding the rules we’re working with and making sure not to run afoul in any way – it’s also a good idea to be aware of what you may be up against. 

While doing the final preparations of the car, the subject of the “factory” Honda CR-Z’s entered in our class (E3) came up.  I wasn’t there and the first I heard of any concern was when I received a call from Sean Hedrick asking what I knew about this – and if I would look into HOW that bitchin’ little piece had worked it’s way into E3. 

I had seen the car at SEMA and gave it a second look (but not a third) – it is gorgeous, but surely it was nothing I had any reason to be particularly interested in.  It had a big wing, a splitter and a retro-cool graphics package that made it look to be just another hotted up corporate promo piece – which is probably truer than not, but… 

Honda CR-Z

Then, this story about how Honda is going “grassroots” racing caught one of the guy’s attention…  He thought this was one of the cars entered in E3?  Really?

Any yahoo can write a blog (duh…) so – we can’t just take this at face value – because, if we did, this car couldn’t be E3 eligible (they’re advertising too much horsepower, for example).  On the other hand, we probably shouldn’t just ignore it.  I’m most concerned that the car has a turbo and a custom built ECU, which both make the car unbelievably easy to quickly tune to higher horsepower numbers and back again in an un-detectable way.  

I’ll continue to chase down the rules (that are somewhat complicated regarding these things) and figure out where we stand.  I don’t mind a fight, but if I’ve agreed to fight with a knife (or a 20 year old chick car), I want to know the other guy isn’t packin’ a gun (or two) – well, at least I want to know what kind of gun it is. 

It IS better to win when you’re out-gunned.

2010 25 Hours of Thunderhill – Miatacage.com Preview

The Miatacage.com Endurance Racing Team has won the “21 Hours of Thunderhill” two years in a row – and there isn’t a trophy for that.  The first week in December we will be heading south to do the 2009 result one better and win the bloody thing for a change. 

2009 Post Race Photo - all fingers and toes intact...

2009 Postview

Sean Hedrick (Mr. Miatacage.com) is a longtime supporter of amateur sports car racing, in general, and Spec Miata, specifically.  “The White Car” was built by members of the team with the purpose of winning this race in 2008 – we blew it… up. 

The short version (long version is in here somewhere) is that the throttle body broke while we were leading the ultra-competitive E2 class by what I recall being as much as 5 laps.  By the time we found a replacement we were down 5 laps and not much interested in finishing second.  While 2 laps down, we decided to skip an under hood check to add some oil to the motor which was consuming lots of it.  We don’t know exactly how much oil came out of the four holes made in the block when the connecting rod separated itself from the piston – but it was most of the rest. 

In 2009 we were again enjoying a comfortable 5 lap lead when a rear hub sheered itself in two – yes, that IS weird… the car was towed back to the paddock where drivers Ken Sutherland and Will Schrader made repairs which allowed us to finish – in 15th overall and 2nd place in class E2. 

Putting on the pressure late in the 09 race.

During 2009, I had raced the car a couple of times – so it was already well sorted when it came time to do the Thunderhill preparations.  It really is one of the best Spec Miata’s I have ever driven.  It has a safe cage with a nice roomy cockpit; it’s easy to see out of and is generally comfortable to drive quickly. 

In 2010, the team made The White Car available as a rental (to increase the 25 Hour budget) and it was returned molested to the extent that it needed some real “body shop” kind of attention.  The shakedown that followed resulted in more damage (which was easily repaired) and then the fresh enduro motor nearly suffered a catastrophic failure which required a complete rebuild after just one lap.

Everything is okay now as the team packs for the trip to Willows, California.  Hopefully the strange luck has played itself out and this 3rd time will be a charm.  The team of previous years is mostly intact and the driver’s roster contains only Oregon Region Spec Miata Champions (amongst other substantial accomplishments) – all of them are championship and race winners. 

As last year, drivers Sutherland and Schrader are joined by Jon Davies and newly crowned Oregon Region SM champ Bruce Wilson.  Brian Clemons will again serve as Crew Chief and Carrie Sutherland as Den Mother. 

The entire team has been through this exercise at least once.  Jason Rawlins (the owner of my 2007 Championship winning car) and his wife Cheree will be with us again.  Kevin “Big Hands” Clark and Josh McKinney are back for the second time – this time possibly with Josh’s wife Holli and their newly born daughter (start them young…). 

Perfect Pit Stops in 2009 - The Team Returns

Sam Davies will be joined by her younger sister Claire (neither of them are strangers to race cars, and Dave Sutherland and Ed Pavone (both longtime crew members of team leader Ken Sutherland) will provide “over-the-wall” experience.  In addition Ed brings financial support to the team – you might say he is fully committed to the program… 

I’ll be there to fill in when needed, file and defend protests, annoy competitors and report here on the team’s progress.  If there is any doubt that we race because it’s “hard”, the fact that we are returning again, should put that debate to rest.

Everything I’ve written about our previous 25’s is here.