Restoration-Mini

General Discussion => Events and Mini Clubs => Topic started by: MiniDave on May 09, 2017, 01:57:41 PM

Title: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on May 09, 2017, 01:57:41 PM
The WeatherTech® International Challenge with Brian Redman presented by HAWK (Vintage Cars)

A mid-summer favorite, The WeatherTech® International Challenge with Brian Redman presented by HAWK is one of the largest vintage racing events in the United States and features over 400 cars competing in several groups. The four-day weekend will also showcase a historic CAN-AM race, which is the highlight of this year's event as an impressive field of cars is expected to gather in celebration of CAN-AM's 51st Anniversary. This year's event will also feature a special S2000 reunion. The Concours d' Elegance in downtown Elkhart Lake on Friday for race cars and Saturday night for street cars is a can't miss event for any enthusiast.

I have a friend running in the S2000 class and another running a Sprite (the event I went to in Lawrence was at his shop) so I will be there crewing and watching the races. Wisconsin this time of year is a very pleasant place to be, weather is usually good and there are plenty of camping places to rent for reasonable prices, including at the track itself.

Anyone wanna go to the races?

Fabulous track, 4 miles long, lots of elevation changes, plenty of great spectating places, so a terrific venue!

It's a 9 hour drive for me from KC. and it's always more fun when you know someone entered, but the caliber of racing and the breadth of the field makes this one a must-do event - I mean - Can Am cars!



Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on May 24, 2017, 08:09:08 AM
Plans are firming up for this little adventure, the race cars going with us include

Aquilla S2000

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/John_Fergus_Sports_2000_winner_2011_SCCA_National_Runoffs.jpg)

Sprite

(https://www.hemmings.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//2014/02/22197872-770-0@2X-700x420.jpg)

Le Grand

(http://www.racecar-ads.com/eu/photos/legrand_mk_20a_for_sale.jpg)

MGA

(http://www.mossmotoring.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/26C2006RupertBerrington-2956.jpg)

Ginetta

(http://s3.amazonaws.com/scardigest/wp-content/uploads/20161220085639/dsc_1444-1-750x500.jpg)

Elva

(http://fantasyjunction.com/img/cars/xlarge/48008.jpg)

Looks like a good bunch, and plenty to watch all day as all these cars are in different classes. Going to the races is so much more fun when you know some of the drivers on track. I've got my room booked at the Fond du lac Microtel - closest place I could get to the track and spendy considering the location!

Don has decided if his schedule will allow he'll go with me and take his camera (Don is a professional photog, tho not in this field) but being self employed, if he gets unexpected work he'll have to bail.
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 21, 2017, 07:55:39 PM

Today was an eventful day for a couple of our racers - they ran two qually sessions......in the first session the MGA came to a stop on the track outside of turn 6......when he got towed back to the pits he found he had a blown battery - split in two! Tracing the fault he found he had a shorted starter motor, a new starter and a new battery and he was good to go for this afternoon's session. In his second session he improved his lap time by over two seconds, but not his position as the other cars in his class had improved too. Still he'll be well in it tomorrow as he is a perennial winner in his class.

The second fellow did not fare so well. In only his first outing with this car that he built himself from cad drawings - other than a couple of test sessions at Heartland Park - he dropped two wheels off onto the grass going down into Thunder Valley and the car snapped into a 360 and hit the wall, almost right in front of us. The driver was not hurt and the LeGrand wasn't badly done either - in fact it was drivable once he removed the bent body work. But he's decided to call it a day and head back home.

On the cars I'm crewing - the #74 Schmidtbox Sprite ran well, in fact it ran so well, didn't break anything, didn't leak anything - we're pretty concerned!   ::)   ;D

Clancy's Sport 2000 Aqilla (pronounced A Kee La) also ran flawlessly. But as it's his first race with the new car and it's so much faster and quicker thru the turns than his last car he's decided to just go easy as he learns the car.....I asked what other brand S2000's were racing with him and he said he seen a few Tiga's, several Lolas and so on - as they passed him he could read the names on the backs!  ;D

The other cars in our group - a Bugeye, a 911, the Elva and Ginetta all did fine, with no issues to report so all in all so far it's been a good weekend for our little group.

Our compound is just opposite turn 5 and it's easy to cross the pit road and get to the grandstands for turn 5, which has a great view of the cars coming down into Thunder Valley, thru turn 5 and up the steep hill to turn 6, then we can also see them coming into the final turn onto the main straight and going up the steep hill to the start/finish line., it was really sunny and hot today and despite slathering on the SPF 50 I got burned a bit. Tomorrow I'm putting on even more and spending more time in the shade and less in the sun!

There is some amazing machinery here this weekend and I'll post some more photos tomorrow, the wifi is not great in the hotel so I have to resize them or it times out trying to upload them. I've seen everything from CanAm cars, former IMSA racecars, F1 cars and on and on - really great stuff. They say they have over 400 cars entered - I believe them!
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 22, 2017, 07:16:39 PM
Looks like I spoke too soon.......this is what we did this morning...
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: 94touring on July 22, 2017, 07:23:01 PM
What seems to be the problem?
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 22, 2017, 07:36:35 PM
It has a fancy internal clutch slave cylinder, wouldn't hold pressure so it was an engine out problem.

Then things went downhill from there.....
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 23, 2017, 07:14:24 PM
Scott and the crew had the engine back in and mostly together, when he tried to bleed the clutch, fluid started dribbling out of the bell housing, so the engine had to come back out again - turns out he hadn't tightened the banjo bolt to the new slave cylinder, easy to fix but set them back a bit - as it was he missed his morning qually session, but had two in the bank from Friday so he would be allowed to run that afternoon - assuming he got the car back together.

As we were working right on the main drag of the paddock, lots of people come by to watch and ask questions and Scott and Clancy both are such terrific hosts and affable people they always stop and talk and answer questions - and I think that's what caused this problem and the next ones.

Once he had the car re-assembled again it would not start.

After checking everything over carefully he found he's hooked the coil up backwards and fried the electronics in the distributor. That was solvable too as he carries a spare, but it had points in it....that's fine too but required a bit of time to get set up and timed properly.

So, out on the grid, run the form up lap and let her rip! he was well in the lead in turn one but by turn 3 he realized he was losing oil pressure badly - so he shut it off and coasted all the way down to turn 5. They towed him back to the pits where he found one of the oil lines loose - tightened it up, poured 4 quarts of oil in it  and made one more lap before he retired.

Not a good day.....but that's racing I guess.

Clancy's day went mostly better, but he's still acclimating to the car, and frankly at 6'4" he doesn't fit it very well....see if you can spot the problem in this pic one of my friends took.....

In his race yesterday afternoon, someone chopped him off at a corner and he spun 360*, but did no damage and didn't leave the racing surface....but it didn't leave a good taste in his mouth to say the least. We changed his front pads and rotors, bleed his brakes and adjusted the front/rear bias a bit to get ready for today's race.


Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MPlayle on July 23, 2017, 07:35:03 PM
The top of his head is above the roll bar?

Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 23, 2017, 07:36:08 PM
Bingo!

One of the corner workers noticed it and mentioned it to him, we were all surprised they let him run the rest of the weekend actually.

We figure he pops up slightly under braking when he's pushing back on the brake pedal, when accelerating he scrunches back down a bit, but any way you look at it either the car needs a taller roll bar or a shorter driver.

I think it was by far the best looking S2000 in the field, if not the fastest. It's a beautifully crafted machine - one of three ever made.....one of which was rolled up into a ball at a race., so one of two in existence.
Title: Re: Road America - Vintage Races
Post by: MiniDave on July 24, 2017, 11:03:04 AM
Never say die - Scott won his class in his Sprite on Sunday afternoon!