Thanks Fiend.
For a cliff notes summary of last weekend:
I was really rushed by being out of town the whole week. Before I left I loaded the car up so Friday morning I just had to hook up and go. AFter getting to the track, We installed the fire system and worked on a few other things. I was really nervous due to the car not taking the pavement in a gear higher than second.
Went through tech and safety and failed tech due to the exhaust exiting in front of the driver seat. Thankfully, one friend went and drove to get pipe while we took the exhaust off and got the welder ready. it was really ugly but it worked and Phil was happy.
I didn't sleep hardly at all Friday night. The car was in the trailer with my buddy and I due to low 20's in temperature. Didn't want the radiator to freeze. After drivers meeting I got dressed and hopped in the car. We were about mid pack. I had to bed the brakes in on the pace laps and was freaking out about every single noise. The green flag waived and I didn't have time to think about anything anymore.
I took the first several laps really slow to make sure nothing disastrous was going to happen. And I was still passing a lot of cars. After a bunch of yellows, I keep picking up the speed. I love South Course of VIR. It's fun and allows technical passing due to the lower average speed of the track. When I got out, we were in the 20's with the 5th fastest time of day. And I hardly pushed it. I noted a few things I need to change but was ecstatic about some of the decisions I made. (my shock combo worked great!) So the main problem which surfaced were the axles bolts. On both stub axles side are 4 pressed in studs that are used to bolt to the axles. I pressed these out a long time ago because I wanted new bolts. Then found there are discontinued. My solution was not good enough used m8 bolts and serrated nuts. The bolts were stretching and then loosening the nuts. We even doubled nutted them the second time they broke. The first time the right axle broke, it wrapped around the diff cooler hose from the pump. Had to replace that, and the axle. That was the 1.5 hour stop. Thankfully, I didn't bring a lot of spares, but I had those.
My buddies all got a turn in the car in-between the axle issues. They said they had an amazing time driving it. Said it was so much fun. The coolest part I think it the welded diff. Adds so much predictability on entry and apexes. An LSD might be faster in times, but it was a lot of fun to drive.
I was back in the car before it got too dark. About half way through I told myself to take 10 laps and have as much fun as I wanted. I never drove a car that I was solely responsible for and wanted to let looses for once. I had a ball driving my heart out. I put 3-4 laps together that was within the top 10 laps of the race. And 1 that resulted in the 4th fastest. And there was still time out there. I never had a clean traffic lap. I was so elated to have so much fun in the first race driving my own car.
We ended early because the right axle went again. Everyone drove, and there were only 2 hours left, so we called it a night. The goals were mostly met, and encountered times and speeds I never thought was possible for that race. I have a huge list of things to do for NCM (National Corvette Museum in Kentucky) and have some awesome drivers lined up, with Bill Strong, Mike Helm, and John Hurley. I cannot wait for that one as I will do everything to set us up to try and go for the win. It will be a busy 3 months prepping.
Good video from the ChumpCast that shows the rear end of the Celica and me at the start of the race. Paulie, the announcer, couldn't figure out what kind of car it was. lol
https://www.facebook.com/ChumpCarWorldSeries/videos/10155049624652346/