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Rose City Opener 2017 – Race Weekend Recap Portland International Raceways No Chicane

What: First sprint race weekend of the year, shaking down the car with new upgrades, testing and experiencing the highs and lows of racing.

If I knew then, what I know now: 

  1. Make no assumptions on communication!  Make sure everyone on your team knows exactly what is happening and when.  We lost a day to shake down the car and found an obscure issue with the new transmission resulting in more lost track time on Saturday.
  2. Make sure you know what kind of qualifying is happening, open session or pressure style and adjust tire pressures accordingly.
  3. Plan where you want to be on pre-grid for open session qualifying wisely so that you can benefit from drafting other cars in class and even faster cars.

Products that made life easier in this post: 

Kick off to the sprint season

As I mentioned the 6 Hours on the Ridge post, I primarily race with ICSCC, which is a sprint race focused sanctioning body.  Aside from the endurance races that bookend the start and end of the season, each race weekend is made up of the following elements (for the most part):

  • Friday test and tune – usually for race cars only but sometimes includes High Performance Driver Education (HPDE drivers).
  • Saturday – Practice, qualifying, non-points races and a 1 hour endurance race.
  • Sunday – Final qualifying and points races

Here is a picture of the announcement for the race weekend of which if you do a couple of groups, that is plenty of track time.  This weekend and for the full year, I did Group 1 (the main group for the PRO3 annual championship) and the Mini-Enduro.

The schedule for the first sprint race of the season. I’m in Group 1.

Shaking down a refreshed car

Initially I was supposed to get the #209 Track Attack PRO3 car back from Advanced Auto Fabrications at the 6 hour race but when they were doing final checks on it, they found that the newly rebuilt transmission wouldn’t go into third gear.  So we decided to have that fixed and bring it down for this weekend, where I would shake the car down and ‘take delivery’ from all the repairs and upgrades they did.

What I did not make explicitly clear was that I expected AAF and crew to be there on Friday, which they would do more often than not, but not always.  I even checked in the Monday prior to make sure all was on schedule but I did not explicitly ask about Friday.

Big mistake because when we drove down on Thursday night, so we could be all unloaded and ready to drive on Friday AM, the gigantic black AAF hauler was nowhere to be seen.  AAF and crew decided to skip the test and tune due to the limited amount of track time and forecasted rain in the morning.  They’re not scared of rain, just that if it isn’t supposed to rain on Saturday or Sunday, the risk of damage is higher than the benefit.

Regardless, we made the most of the day by working on odds and ends in the RV, spend some quality time with the family, caught up on work and chatted with folks up and down the paddock.  The AAF crew showed up on Friday evening and by Saturday AM, was all set for the first on-track session.

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As I got going in the morning practice run, it took me a few laps to get into the groove of things, remember the course and get up to speed.  Initially letting several cars pass me but then quickly catching and passing them again.  Lap times were solid, with nearly a .8 second improvement from the year prior. SWEET!

When we came off the track, a fellow PRO3 driver mentioned that they saw smoke coming out of the back of my car, a light smoke but consistent.  We checked the car and sure enough, the rear and under body was coated with transmission oil.  We were leaking somewhere from this newly rebuilt transmission that aside from this, seemed to be running great.

 

That is transmission oil – note that it is everywhere.

Over the next several hours, we went step by step, replacing the main rear transfer seal and then the shifter seal.  We thought we had it addressed but after the non-points race, still had oil.

Long story short, it turns out that when the transmission was sent for a rebuild, they took my old transmission in as a core and sent back a different transmission, from an older model of the E30, which had a different kind of shift mount assembly.  This assembly had two bolts that mounted to the top of the transmission, which served the purpose of securing the assembly and sealing two bolt holes into the transmission itself.

We don’t run the OEM shifter assembly, opting instead for the incredibly awesome CAE shifter assembly, which meant those holes were completely exposed and the source of the leak.  This obscure situation had never come up with this crew of people who have been racing E30’s for over 10 years and built and rebuilt dozens of PRO3 cars.

We didn’t figure this out until Saturday early evening, after we opted to not run the 1 hour endurance race, to save the transmission (if it kept leaking) for the Group 1 qualifying and racing on Sunday.  We felt the risk was too high to run low on transmission oil in the 1 hour and potentially damage the transmission itself.

In conclusion, lack of communication and shaking down the car resulted in a completely lost Friday of running and 1 hour of endurance racing.  Sigh.

Qualifying

For the weekend, we had two qualifying sessions, one for the 1 hour endurance race and qualifying times for the Group 1 race.

1 Hour endurance race pressure qualy

Something unique to the Cascade Sports Car Club, which I love is pressure qualifying.  One out lap, one flying lap and one in lap.  Unfortunately, we did not realize this until we got to grid and didn’t adjust the tire pressures accordingly to compensate for the much fewer laps we’d run.  At least everyone else was in the same boat.  I love this type of qualifying because it eliminates the ‘draft’ variable – this is all on you as a driver, to make a fast lap happen there and then.  Not relying on getting a draft from a faster car or following and learning from a faster driver.  At a track like PIR, especially with no chicane on the front straight, a draft can make a HUGE difference, in the order of .25 seconds or more if you can get the right draft on the front and back straights.

Here is the video of my ME2 qualifying lap, which put me on pole for ME2 class but was a solid one second slower than my fastest laps in a regular qualifying session.

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Group 1 qualy

Qualifying for Group 1 was spread across the fastest lap times in the Saturday non-points race and Sunday AM qualifying.  The fastest time across those two sessions would count towards the final grid placement.

In the Saturday AM race, I qualified 4th with a mid-1:22 lap time and finished the race in 3rd.  It was an excellent race, where I got a great start and was running in 2nd before turn 2 of the first lap.  I tried to hitch myself to Brian Bercovitz, the eventual race winner but he got away and was stuck battling with Corey Peters for 2nd place.  I ran in 2nd for about half of the race but I ended up going too hot into turn 1, went wide and that was enough of a mistake for Corey to capitalize.  That meant Kyle Byers in the #55 PRO3 car was on my tail.  We ended up battling pretty hard, exchanging some bumper paint but nothing serious – just good, solid, respectful, hard racing.  He ended up getting a little sideways on the second bump he gave me and that was enough for me to pull away and finish in third, with a lap time of 1:22.274 and a new personal best.

Sprint non-points race results and qualifying 1 times

I would normally post the video here but I forgot to hit ‘record’ – I’ll try to get the videos from Corey and Kyle to share.

Sunday AM qualy brought out excellent conditions; dry, sunny and a cool breeze in the low 60’s.  I got on the grid early and was the lead PRO3 car on track but after a few laps, I realized I was reproducing low 1:22 lap times while everyone else was running in a pack and getting help with drafts.  So I came into the hot pits, checked tire pressures and waited for the right pack to come by and tail them.

I eventually got behind the pack with Corey Peters coming off of the back straight but he quickly picked up on my game and pulled off on the main straight away.  No issues, there was still another couple of cars to get behind.  On a decent flyer though, another driver, who I used for a draft and got by on turn 1 decided it was time to race and dove in to overtake in turn 7.  Why?!?!?!  What makes this more frustrating is that he then pulled off and slowed down that same lap, in the following straight away.   I can’t confirm but I think he also picked up on what I was planning and decided to ruin my lap.

No issues again and finally, I saw Brian Bercovitz and got behind him for one last final flying lap.  All looked good, with the predictive lap timer showing a 1:21.8xx for the first part of the lap but then I missed a downshift to third on the only left hand turn on the course.  This ended up still producing a solid lap time but I ended up qualifying in 5th place, where as if I would have executed, I would have qualified third and possibly 2nd in class.

The Main Race

The goal was simple: get a solid start, make up a couple positions in the traffic and be in the top three by the end of lap 1.  This would give me a fighting chance to get near the front and try to stick with Brian, who was on pole for our class.  I found during qualifying that if I could get behind him, I was able to keep the gap nearly the same.

Below is the race video and note, it has no data overlay.  The reason?  I didn’t complete a single lap.  I got a solid start and wedged myself in a position to go after 2nd, 3rd and possibly first by turn 7.  Unfortunately, up ahead, a Spec E46 car went off to the left and tried to get themselves back on the track without waiting for the pack to go by (my opinion).  When his front tires, who were turned to the right, hooked up on the track surface, they gripped and shot him across the track and into the on-coming pack of angry PRO3 cars.

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I saw it happening, moved to the right but still got a glancing blow on the rear quarter panel.  Initially I thought all was well because it didn’t really knock me anywhere but as soon as we hit turn 7 (right hand turn leading to the back straight), I saw and heard heavy tire rub and then the cabin was engulfed in tire smoke.  I went into the hot pits, got checked for fire but the damage was too much.  We could have swapped tires and rolled the fender in the hot-pit but we would have gone a couple laps down and I didn’t think it was worth it and called it a day.

Conclusion

It was a tough way to start the sprint season but when you sign up to go racing, this is a potential outcome that can happen any weekend.  I take 100% accountability for what happened and don’t blame the Spec E46 driver in any way.  All things considered, had a great time with friends and family, personal best lap times, fixed teething issues on the car and was still able to take it home, running and with some cosmetic repairs needed before the next race.  There were three other cars involved in the incident and they would take my place in an instant as their cars did not fair as well.

Damaged driver side quarter panel and hard rubbing on tire.
The guys using a jack bar to roll the fender so the tire could clear.
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Training the Body – Cardio for Drivers

What: Motorsports is exactly that, a sport that revolves around motors.  It is a sport, thus health and fitness is important.  Road racing works your heart (and lungs) like if you were running a marathon.  A healthy heart is critical!

If I knew then, what I know now: Have a healthy mix of aerobic, anaerobic and strength training to your work out program.  Too much of anything is not good.  I’ll cover this in a separate post.

Products that can make running easier: 

Foundational truths

Before we dive into what should be done, let’s all get on the same page about what happens when you’re driving and especially when you’re competing.

  1. Your heart is important:  This is not a question or an opinion. It is important for you to not only live but to handle stressful situations.  While most of us enjoy putting a car, motorcycle, kart or boat through it’s paces, the fact that your heart rate goes up, means that it is a stressful situation, where your body and heart (and lungs) specifically, work harder.
  2. Aging doesn’t help our cause: Generally speaking, as we get older, our hearts are not able to work as well and our maximum heart rate slowly goes down over time. Here is a good article on Maximum Heart Rate (MHR) from Runners World.
  3. Oh yeah, the lungs: The lungs are the things that bring oxygen into the bloodstream, of which then the heart pumps all that good, nutrient and oxygen rich goodness all over the body.  Then the various body parts use that goodness to power themselves, such as the brain, eyes, muscles, literally everything in your body.

Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

Per above, as we get older, this goes down.  See below and find your age.

Find your age and see what the estimated ranges are for you.

I am currently 33 (less than a month from 34) and what this says is that my maximum heart rate is around 185 Beats Per Minute (bpm).  If I were to get my heart going above that OR near that level for too long, I’d probably end up in a hospital unless I explicitly trained my heart for those situations.

It’s been documented in several articles, studies and my own personal data collection (below) that for a racing car driver, the heart rate can range from 120 – 160bpm, throughout a race.

Below is an example from a race, in August this past summer as I was wearing an Apple Watch and collected  heart rate data (note – I did not start a workout session and thus why it didn’t collect data every 1 second).  Note that you can see when I started doing warm up exercises before getting into the car and my heart rate picking up as we got into the thick of the race.  If I remember correctly, the race started ~4:35pm and was a 1-hour race.

Heart Rate data from my Apple Watch during a 1-hour endurance race.
Heart Rate data from my Apple Watch during a 1-hour endurance race.

Update: When I was originally writing this post, I looked everywhere for this screenshot below.  This was taken using a Fitbit Surge, during a day of three races and near 100 degree heat.  That is some serious heat, sweat and elevated heart rate.  Racing is no joke!

Heart rate logs using Fitbit Surge during a race day.
Heart rate logs from one day of intense racing in nearly 100F.

Now, here is a screenshot from a 4+ mile run I did recently as well at a ~9:00 minute mile pace.  Not super fast but not a slouch by most measures.

August 2017 ~6 mile run using Endomondo and a Polar Heart Rate monitor

What does this tell us?  Driving at even 7/10’s in a track day or racing session for ~20 minutes is the equivalent, cardiovascularly, as going for a relatively intense run.  So you are sitting in a hot race car, covered head to toe with fire-resistant material and your heart and lungs are working like if you were running a half-marathon.

Ok, healthy heart and lungs are important, but why again?

Like everything else on this site, it’s about helping you be a better driver.  A driver who makes good decisions, usually, ends up being a faster and more consistent driver than someone who doesn’t make good decisions.  Several things can lead to someone making bad decisions behind the wheel (on-track that is):

  • Being nervous or confused (which usually elevates the heart rate)
  • Being scared (which usually elevates the heart rate)
  • Being angry aka the red mist! (also elevates the heart rate)
  • Being tired (I won’t repeat again)

It gets more difficult to make good decisions, quickly, when you are tired, sweaty and out of breath.  So the goal here is to condition your heart and lungs in a way, that you’re comfortable being in the stamina & endurance zones, and can make good decisions.

I personally felt like my overall athletic and aerobic endurance was and is a competitive advantage in most races, as I felt just as fresh at the start of a race, as I did at the beginning.  Start strong and finish just as strong!  This was even more pronounced on the 1 hour or longer races and especially when it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

What should you do?

Disclaimer: We are not doctors, nor play them on TV.  Consider consulting your doctor before taking on a new exercise program.

We will cover other types of exercise for different benefits in future posts but for here, we will focus on cardio health.  The goal is to do exercises, that have you for the most part, in the stamina & endurance zones. It’s ok to peak every once in a while into the conditioning zone or drop momentarily into the weigh loss zone.

Most of my driving sessions are 20 or 30 minutes and sometimes 60 minutes long.  So I target conditioning myself to be able to easily handle 30 minutes by exercising for 45-60 minutes and having regular (about every other week) 60-75 minute workout sessions, usually 6+ mile runs.  This is grounded in a theory from playing football and Taekwondo.  Practice should be harder than the actual competition (most of the time) so that at least from a conditioning standpoint, the competition will be a relative breeze or you at least have plenty of reserves to go harder.

Here are some top exercises and plans to consider:

  • Running: It’s pretty much free.  I found it the best to sign up for a race that forces you to build up to a goal, set a schedule and stick to it.  Better yet, do a race with a friend or two, so you have support and accountability for when you’re too lazy to run in the rain.
    • Highly suggest downloading an app like Endomondo, Nike Run Club or MyRunKeeper.  They all have some kind of functionality where you can state your goal (like run a 10k), the pace you want to have and when your race will be held.  They come up with a personalized training program to build up your performance, you just run!  Sometimes these are in premium memberships but you can easily find training plans online and just track them manually.

  • Cycling: One downside to running is the repetitive joint impact throughout the body, especially toes, ankles, knees, hips and back.  Cycling is a great alternative to running for cardiovascular performance.  I personally bought a used Bianchi road bike and over the past few years have used it off and on as an alternative to running.
    • Here is a link to my Strava profile – it’s been sparse lately because it’s cold and rainy in Seattle.  🙁
    • Same plan though – whatever time you were planning to run, get on a bike in the gym or on a trail and cycle up a storm.
  • Swimming: Admittedly, I am the least experienced here as I rarely get in a pool but I know it is great for aerobic exercise, working the body overall, core development and joint relief.  If you have access to a pool, get on it!

Conclusion

Cardiovascular health and performance are not just important to live but they can give you a significant performance edge in driving.  There is a reason you see several top professional drivers all over the world, also spend significant amounts of time doing the exercises above and in examples like Jenson Button, competing in Iron Man and Triathlon competitions.

Consider regular cardiovascular exercise to be part of keeping yourself healthier and it has a big potential upside to your driving.

 

 

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Tents, canopies and shelter – how to stay protected on track!

 

What:  Having some ideas on what kind of tent may work for you and what you do

If I knew then, what I know now:  I would steer clear of Target/Walmart/Box-store tents all together at the track, they cannot put up with the use and abuse.

Product to check out: ShelterLogic – might not be as top of mind as the E-Z Up brand but solid product at a much lower price.

You should have seen that tent flying across the paddock! Pop-Up tents are one of the most necessary items to have in your track kit! It provides shelter, shade, support, and sometimes, even comic relief. Pop-up tents or E-Z ups as many call them, are the number one, most used and abused item at a track. I have seen my fair share hit the scrap heap for many different reasons. The number one reason is that you have to have one! There are a lot of options and considerations when it comes to tent. Hopefully I can help you decide on what might be best for what you are doing.

Got a team? 10×20 it is for you!

We have a nice custom E-Z up for the Track Attack Pro3 cars. It is a 10ft x 20ft unit that has a steel frame. It is a little heavy, but the quality is good and it is sturdy even in moderate winds. I personally like the 10×20 size for paddock use when at a race track. It allows for the car to be completely out of the sun or rain. It is big enough for a group to stand under during a long enduro race, and is only one item to load/unload out of the trailer for each race weekend. That being said. I am part of a team, and we have the luxury of having someone to help us most of the time when needed. Using a steel framed 10×20 EZ up solo is a bit of a tall order. Having a second person around is key.  It comes in an awesome bag that holds everything in place but man, it is heavy.  Probably around 60lbs total.

Nice big tent that can fit two cars sideways and one car, the long way.

Bigger than 10×20?  Yup!

There are larger sized tents as well. In 2010, when I was on the TC Motorsports Grand-Am Continental Tire team with our Boss Mustang, we had a really large one for the pro-race weekends. It was a 20×40 foot tent, and it took no less than 3 people to erect or take down. For long weekends, or if you have a large team to work with a tent this size may fit the bill well for you. Again, it is one thing to load and unload instead of many. The big tent had a home on our flat deck Taylor-Dunn pit cart when in transport. This was the best way to move the thing when it was packed up as it was very heavy.

20×40 tent!
The grip racing group has a full pro spec tent that connects to their hauler.

One-person operation? 10×10 is the way to go!

If you are a one man operation, or have a very limited crew to work with. Going with a 10×10 tent or even a couple of them is likely your best bet. They are the easiest to work with when alone. They generally package much smaller than the lager sized tents, and are usually light weight comparatively. They are also the cheapest option to purchase as well. For my 4runner, I am going to get a 10×10 to pack for camping, and track work weekends. It is cheap, easy to pack and use solo, and will provide with a bunch of extra usable space when camping at the track.

Several 10×10 tents, grouped together. A single person with two 10×10 tents seems to be the way to go. One person operation for carrying, putting up and taking down.
You can even get the tent material customized to really stand out, like this one from the Hard Motorsports team.

Tent pole material – it’s important

Tent pole or leg material is also an important choice. To be frank, the amount of times you use the tent, as well as how careful you are when setting it up or taking it down will have great effect on the life of the tent and legs. I have found in my experience that for consistent usage, finding a tent brand that uses steel legs and arms is better than aluminum. The aluminum tents are very easy to work with and move, but are quite fragile and the legs and tent arms are easy to bend and break. If you are doing just a handful of days per year, then getting two light weight 10×10 tents will be a good option for you. If you are putting in a full season, then they would be very much light duty for your needs! Again, I like a 10×20 size with a steel frame. Try and see what works for you.

Custom 10×20 tent being used by the Molly Helmuth racing team for Oval racing.

Securing your tent

Securing your EZ ups is an often over looked portion of your paddock set up for the weekend. I have seen dozens of tents fly away, get destroyed, or plain out just collapse because they were not properly addressed prior to something happening. Having something to weigh each leg down is the strongest start to keeping your tent in the trailer for a long time. You can use anything as ballast, but we normally use spare wheels and tires. They are easy to strap to, weigh a good bit, and are easy to move if needed. At night if we are leaving the car out, we will tie the tent to the car to keep it secure during the night. One thing to remember, is that if it gets really windy, as much as you may not want to take shelter down, it could be beneficial to take the the tent down. We have seen tents that are secured to trailers fly away, even lifting the side of a empty trailer in the air because it was acting like such a sail. Needless to say that tent was also destroyed, but it happened to damage that trailer, as well as dent a race car on the other side of the trailer as it flew. So be prepped for that!

Again, there is no right or wrong way to EZ up! You just have to determine what is best for you and your needs. If you are solo and need to be quick on paddock load in and out, then some light weight 10×10 options may be in your cards. If you have a friend to help, or maybe you are part of a team, then going with the bigger/beefier tents will be your call for sure (I would be worried if it was not!). If you are running with the pros… then you are paying for someone to handle this stuff for you! Get out there, get some shade and shelter for your day so you can maximize your enjoyment, and as always, don’t forget to have fun!