Saturday afternoon Sept 15 found us on our way to Sunny South Raceway, we got away early as we had a lot to do when we got to the track. We were very tight at the last race before the huricane and couldn't keep the car on the bottom in the center of the turns which cost us a lot of time. We had an opportunity before the storm to scale the car and got the numbers to where we thought they should be (this coupe handles a lot differently than the sedan), but we are still "chasing it". After registering and going through tech we got on the track and were too loose, but the track temp was 132 degrees, so we tweaked the chassis a little to get it quicker, didn't gain much. We had to wait for the track to cool down some. After another minimal adjustment we qualified in fourth place. We wanted to take a big swing at the setup before the heat race, but Mr. Joe said he wanted to get an early start because we had the Bombers and the Mighty Mites on the schedule that night. I didn't want to get the car torn down and have him call Legends to the grid, so we decided to wait until after the heat plus the track was cooling down which would tighten it up some.
The cars that were in attendance Saturday were the #7 Hunter Lewis, #55r Ronnie Osmer, #44 Joseph McArdle, #53 Jeremy Lundy, #04 Dawson Kenner, #10 Chan Robinson, #94 Brad West, #33 Dalton Chipley and of cource #32 Connelly Dubuisson.
Qualifying: The #44 laid down fast lap for the pole, followed by #7, #53,#32, #55, #10, #04, #33, the #94 missed qualifying and was to start at the rear for the heat race. The top 5 qualifiers were separated by less than one tenth of a second.
Heat Race: As a result of the qualifying we started 4th in the heat, we were still too loose, Joseph in the #44 started from the pole and lead wire to wire for the win, followed by the #53, #7 and Connelly in the #32 for fourth with Ronnie in the #55r in fifth by a whisker. It was a well contested close race with the first five cars separated by no more than 150 feet.
After the heat race we went to thrashing on the #32. We changed the right front spring, Connelly said the car felt like it was "rolling over" on the right front, we then changed the camber in the left front. Part of the front suspension has to be disasembled to accomplish this and it took four tries to get it where we wanted it. Then it was off to the tech barn to scale the car, and it was about where we wanted it on cross. Then checked the ride hieght which was way off due to all the changes. We adjusted it to where it was close and decided to "go racing". This violates all of the rules of racing Rule #1 only change one thing at a time, Rule #2 NEVER violate rule #1, but what could we do we wanted to be competitive in the feature, so we took a "big swing" at it. We would probably start 4th in the feature and that would give us a chance to feel the car out before we really started racing hard. "Not so fast" Joseph throws the dice for the invert and you guessed it he throws a 4 now we are starting on the pole with a race car that we have no idea what it is going to do, with 8 snarling cars behind us looking for the win, we really felt like all the changes helped it, but who knows.
The Feature: I told Connelly in our pre race discussion to just hold his line and feel the car out for a couple of laps then go racing. He lead the first lap by a whisker and then got into the right front of the #55r with our left rear and fell back to 4th behind the #44, #7, and #53. The car appeared to be handling better and Connelly was able to close up to the rear bumper of the #53 and ran there for several laps. We were about 10 car lengths ahead of the #55r who was only a bumber ahead of the #94 when on lap 16 of 20 Connelly suddenly spun on the backstretch the #94 was right behind the #55r and didn't see Connelly spin and when the #55r slowed down the #94 went to the inside and had nowhere to go. He hit Connelly in the left rear doing fairly signifigant damage to the trailing arms, panhard bar, the pinion angle bar, all associated heims and the right rear axle bearing, relegating both the #32 and #94 to DNF's. Upon examining the left rear wheel we saw some blue paint off of the #55r on the wheel where we had gotten together with him, the wheel was slightly dented and it appeared that this was the created a slight leak which let the tire go down and caused the spin. Connelly said the incident with the #55r was his fault he should have given him more room. But what can you say, the last time we got together with the #55r in the same place on the track his tire was cut down and he had to drop out of the race. So what goes around comes around. Just one of those racing things. Betty did not tape the final 4 laps but I understand there was plenty of action, it seems the #53 and #44 got together sending the #44 to third, allowing the #7 to win, with the #55r moving up to second. Congratulations Ronnie. The final finishing order for the top five was: #7 first #55r second, #44 third, #04 fourth, and the #10 fifth.
Now we have a race car to repair, and a short week to do it in (we are scheduled to race again next Friday night) we will see what we can do.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Friday & Saturday Aug 31-Sept 1
We were supposed to be at Sunny South for the Friday night regular race event and Saturday night Bandolero national championship event, but hurricane Isaac had other ideas. Isaac was not a prticularly intense storm from a wind speed prospective but it made a tremendous amount of rain. Our wind speed here in Metairie probably got to 90 mph, but man did it rain !!!!! My rain gage goes to 10 inches and it was full on Thurs am. We have never had so much rain and so much sustained high wind for so long. I know we had wind speeds above 45 mph with moderete to heavy rain for at least 36 hours. I am so tired of seeing "sideways rain" if I never see it again it will be too soon. We were very fortunate in that we sustained no property damage, did loose elect power from 4:00 Wed morning to 10:30 am Saturday. Thank God for my generator, it ran everything referigerator/freezer, fans, plug in lights. Had enough extension cords running around the house to trip/hang half of the Italian army, but guess what NO A/C. Fri night it was 86 degrees in our bedroom. We had two fans working one oscelating and the fan we use to cool the Legend off in the pits. At that temprature they don't make enough fans to keep you cool. If you see me hug the generator in the back of my truck in the pits you will underatand why.
Some good news. Connelly had no school on Monday because of the storm, we used the day to "batten down the hatches" for the storm, then rolled out the racecar and started to work on setting the cross. We got it very close to where we feel it needs to be and rolled her back into the trailer just as the rain started, we feel very comfortable that we are close. The next race date is Sept 15 followed by the makeup dates of Sept 21 and 22 for the reg race date on Fri and Bando nationals on the 22, we can't wait. Come on out to Sunny South Raceway and see some outstanding racing put on by some very good young drivers. Sunny South is less than a one tank trip from the New Orleans area. You will enjoy the racing.
Some good news. Connelly had no school on Monday because of the storm, we used the day to "batten down the hatches" for the storm, then rolled out the racecar and started to work on setting the cross. We got it very close to where we feel it needs to be and rolled her back into the trailer just as the rain started, we feel very comfortable that we are close. The next race date is Sept 15 followed by the makeup dates of Sept 21 and 22 for the reg race date on Fri and Bando nationals on the 22, we can't wait. Come on out to Sunny South Raceway and see some outstanding racing put on by some very good young drivers. Sunny South is less than a one tank trip from the New Orleans area. You will enjoy the racing.
Saturday Night August 25, 2012
Saturday evening found us at the Sunny South Pit gate for 4 pm right at opening. We got there early, as we had a lot to do. We had put a lot of lead on the coupe since Joseph used a different set of wheels than we do and we were underwieght by almost 30 pounds. At home we got the car "legal" as to overall weight and left/right percentages, but the all important "cross" was way off of where we wanted it. Connelly had never driven a coupe in competition so he suggested that we wait until we get to the track to adjust the cross. When we got to the track he tried the car and he was way too tight. We came down, still too tight, came down again, same result, adjusted again still tight, so we put it back on the track's scales and all that adjusting only gained us 2%, we were still almost twice that off. We kept on adjusting until we had the ride hieght at the minimum so we stopped. We would now have to adjust the front and that is more sensitive and we were running out of time. The car was drivable, but not where we wanted it to be, so we adjusted the air pressures for qualifying and took a break.
The Competitors: There was an excellent field of cars for tonight's competition; the regulars of Ronnie Osmer in his #55r, Daniel Thompson in his #39, Jeremy Lundy in his #53, Hunter Lewis in his #7, Joseph McArdle in his #44jr, Chad Robinson in his #10, Dalton Chipley in his #33, Michael Beaslely in his #110, Robbie Johnston in his #96, Dawson Keener in his #04, Brad West in his #94, and of course the Blue #32 driven by Connelly Dubuisson. A good field of 12 cars.
During practice a strange event took place, our good friend and competitor Daniel Thompson in his #39 was testing on track when the #10 spun in the apex of turns 1 and 2, Daniel went to the outside to avoid hitting the spinning #10 and lost controll and hit the outside wall hard, the impact apparently cut the fuel line and the entire engine compartment went up in flames. The safety crew was there quickly putting out the fire and more importantly Daniel got out unharmed. Another competitor Jeremy Lundy got to the burning car first and helped get Daniel out, however the #39 was finished for the night. The car appears to need a signifigant amount of reapir before being ready to compete again. I offered whatever help we could give and will respond when called upon. The whole #39 team are good people and fine competitors and we want to see them back out there. The most important thing is that Daniel is OK, you can always replace broken parts, you know the rest of the saying.
Qualifying: Connelly in the Blue #32 qualified 5th out of 11 cars (no #39) starting him inside second row for his heat race. Not bad for a tight race car. In his heat race he finished third which would start him fifth in the feature
Feature: Connelly started fifth in the feature and held position for the first half of the race. Ronnie Osmer was always less than a car length behind, ready to "pounce" when the opportunity presented itself. They both were in close pursuit of the #10 and both finally made the pass. Connelly and Ronnie put on a really good race for fourth place for the remainder of the race. Finishing order was the #7 first, #53 second, #44 third, with Connelly #32 fourth and Ronnie in his #55r finishing out the top 5. The most hotly contested race for position was put on by Ronnie and Connelly for fourth place. Hey good racing is good racing no matter what positions are involved. We will work on the car if at all possible as the next race is Aug 31 and that is a short week. Looking forward to the next race already
The Competitors: There was an excellent field of cars for tonight's competition; the regulars of Ronnie Osmer in his #55r, Daniel Thompson in his #39, Jeremy Lundy in his #53, Hunter Lewis in his #7, Joseph McArdle in his #44jr, Chad Robinson in his #10, Dalton Chipley in his #33, Michael Beaslely in his #110, Robbie Johnston in his #96, Dawson Keener in his #04, Brad West in his #94, and of course the Blue #32 driven by Connelly Dubuisson. A good field of 12 cars.
During practice a strange event took place, our good friend and competitor Daniel Thompson in his #39 was testing on track when the #10 spun in the apex of turns 1 and 2, Daniel went to the outside to avoid hitting the spinning #10 and lost controll and hit the outside wall hard, the impact apparently cut the fuel line and the entire engine compartment went up in flames. The safety crew was there quickly putting out the fire and more importantly Daniel got out unharmed. Another competitor Jeremy Lundy got to the burning car first and helped get Daniel out, however the #39 was finished for the night. The car appears to need a signifigant amount of reapir before being ready to compete again. I offered whatever help we could give and will respond when called upon. The whole #39 team are good people and fine competitors and we want to see them back out there. The most important thing is that Daniel is OK, you can always replace broken parts, you know the rest of the saying.
Qualifying: Connelly in the Blue #32 qualified 5th out of 11 cars (no #39) starting him inside second row for his heat race. Not bad for a tight race car. In his heat race he finished third which would start him fifth in the feature
Feature: Connelly started fifth in the feature and held position for the first half of the race. Ronnie Osmer was always less than a car length behind, ready to "pounce" when the opportunity presented itself. They both were in close pursuit of the #10 and both finally made the pass. Connelly and Ronnie put on a really good race for fourth place for the remainder of the race. Finishing order was the #7 first, #53 second, #44 third, with Connelly #32 fourth and Ronnie in his #55r finishing out the top 5. The most hotly contested race for position was put on by Ronnie and Connelly for fourth place. Hey good racing is good racing no matter what positions are involved. We will work on the car if at all possible as the next race is Aug 31 and that is a short week. Looking forward to the next race already
Monday, August 13, 2012
Saturday Night August 11, 2012
Saturday morning we woke up to a tremendous line of thunderstorms. They passed and went out into the Gulf to agravate the fish. We got to the track went through tech and got ready to go out for some parctice. Connelly said the car felt wicked fast. He ran about ten laps increasing his speed on each lap. He was on Joseph's tires and we wanted to try the car just like they had run it last. Joseph went out with his #44 primary car (we had put our #32 on the car he loaned us) his oil filter loosened up and began to leak. He saw the oil on the track and pulled in and the engine was refilled with oil. The oil was cleaned up and practice resumed. We felt like we needed at least 30 or so laps of practice to get Connelly used to the feel of the car as coupes have a slightly different "feel" than a sedan. In the next session Joseph blew the engine, he put the #3 connecting rod through the side of the block. That put things in a totally different perspective. How can we race Joseph's back up car with our motor when he dosen't have a car to drive and he is currently the points leader? Connelly went up to Mr. Joe and said we weren't going to drive the backup car with our engine and that Joseph could drive it, at first Mr. Joe said no but we insisted. We are in 3rd place for points and a no points night would really hurt. The #7 team brings a backup car that they are trying to sell to the races and they very generously let Connelly use it. We really didn't want to put the car in jepordy by mixing it up with the rest of the cars, we just made a light qualifying run, ran about 4 or 5 laps in the heat race before retiring finishing last, ran half the race easy in the feature then retired with a 7th place finish. We were in full points conservation mode. We lost 17 points to the 4th place car but still are in 3rd by 36 points. We may use this race as our "drop" race, each team must drop their lowest points race of the season before the final points calculation is done. All in all a very interesting night and thanks to the generosity of the #7 team we were able to salvage the night.
The Racing: The race was reletavely uneventful with no cautions with the #7 fininshing first, #32 (Joseph) second, #55 third, #39 fourth, #33 fifth, #53 sixth, #13 (Connelly put his little sister's soccer number 13 on the side of the "loaner" in red masking tape) finished seventh. However the saga is not over yet, we loaned Mr. Joe the engine we ran last year in our sedan until they get their motor back from Charlotte so musical motors/cars contiues. Currently we plan to race the #32 coupe (Joseph's #44 backup car) next race on the 25th of August. Come out and see how this saga plays out and treat yoursellf to some really good racing.
The Racing: The race was reletavely uneventful with no cautions with the #7 fininshing first, #32 (Joseph) second, #55 third, #39 fourth, #33 fifth, #53 sixth, #13 (Connelly put his little sister's soccer number 13 on the side of the "loaner" in red masking tape) finished seventh. However the saga is not over yet, we loaned Mr. Joe the engine we ran last year in our sedan until they get their motor back from Charlotte so musical motors/cars contiues. Currently we plan to race the #32 coupe (Joseph's #44 backup car) next race on the 25th of August. Come out and see how this saga plays out and treat yoursellf to some really good racing.
Saturday Night July 28, 2012
In our pre race preparation we found a small discrepency in our setup, something we had overlooked for the past two races. We felt like it was such a small thing it couldn't have made much difference in the handling of the car. We put it back like it was supposed to be ane after going through registration and tech Connelly put it on the track and it handled really well. We then went to a slightly different air pressure setting and the car took off. It was really fast and stable, Connelly was really excited and anxious to race. The track's transponder reader had broken so there was no qualifying and we had to draw chips for the starting positions.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
There were seven racers available tonight, the #44, the #7, the #94, the #59, the #33, the B00 from Ft. Worth TX and of course the #32 Of Connally missing were the #55r and the #39.
The Heat Race: Connelly drew the 6 th starting position so it was outside the second to last row for us at the start of the heat. The B00 drew the pole and at the start he broke his motor mount and could not shift, which backed up the inside row. Connelly took full advantage and shot to the front he came out of turn two in first place and led for the first half of the race with the #7 and #44 in hot pursuit. Connelly overdrove turn 4 slid up the track slightly but it was enough for the #7 to get by. Connelly went on to finish second behind the #7 with Joseph in the #44 third. Connelly said this was the best car he had ever had under him and he felt like he might have something for the #7 in the Feature.
Feature Race: Due to the roll of the big dice for the invert (a roll of 6) Connelly started 5th in the feature, by the end of lap two he was second to Joseph in the #44, going down the back straight he got a huge run on the #44 and instaed of going to the inside of Joseph he went to the outside letting the #7 and #B00 get by so in one straignt-a-way he went from challenging for the lead to fourth. Another driving mistake. But the car was really flying. A couple of laps later a caution came out for a spin by tne #33 and Connelly took the "choose" which put him outside front row on the restart, it took him a lap to get to the bottom now in 3rd place. The #7 passed the #44 and Connelly got inside the #44 going down the back stretch, Joseph drove it in deeper than Connelly and they were side by side through turn 3. It appeared that the #44 may have gotten a little loose and came down just the slightest, Connelly checked up a little and the#B00 got into the back of us getting us loose, Connelly saved it but the #B00 got us again and sent Connelly straight into the wall at about 60 MPH. It was a really hard hit and lifted the rear wheels off the ground. The safety equipment did its job, he did have some tenderness where the seat belts held him but by Sunday morning he was fine. The HANS kept his head from thrusting foreard, no neck tenderness, the worst he got was he hit his knee on the steering colum and that was tender until Monday. While they were loading the car on the rollback Connelly walked all the way across the infield to where the cars were parked on the backstretch under the red flag and had a "conversation" with the B00 driver. The infiend safety truck official went over and made sure there was no altercation and drove Connelly back to the trailer. The car was signifigantly damaged. It will need to be clipped and the entire right front suspension will need to be replaced. Thank God for the safety equipment built into the car and thank God it worked as designed. You can always replace parts.
Then something really special happened. Mr. Joe and Brian McArdle offered us the use of his backup car that is without engine (it is in Charlotte being re-done). We tore our car down on Sunday assessed the damage, went to get the #44 backup on Monday night and installed out motor in it on Saturday. We went over as much as we could and by Friday were ready to go RACIN. Cant wait to see what our motor will do in that car.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Friday The 13th 7-13-12
Friday the 13th, one is always aprehensive on that day. Although I am not superstitious, I don't believe in taking chances. I had on my lucky T shirt, left home at the same time as usual, took the same route, filled up the truck at the same gas pump at the Shell station in Grand Bay, AL, and parked in my usual pit stall. I had done my part so lets see if Lady Luck will smile on us tonight.
We got to the track on time, the track opened at 5 pm due to the Friday night program. Got the car registered, went through tech, got on the track for a few practice laps, God, that track was slick. Track temp was 124 degrees, couldn't tell much about the car but Connelly said other than being loose (hot track) it felt good.
QUALIFYING: The participants tonight were the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #10 of Chad Robinson, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #04 ofDawson Kenner, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #94 driven by a new driver who just purchased the car, this being his first race. and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.
Connelly qualified third, 2 one hundredths of a second behind second place #53 and 8 one hundredths of a second behind the pole sitter #7 of Hunter Lewis and only 1 onehundredth of a second ahead of the #44 of Joseph Mcardle. A very close field the first four qualifiers were within one tenth of a second of each other.
HEAT RACE: We started on the outside front row in the heat race and before we could get to the inside we were third behind the #7 and #10. It was an uneventful heat race with Connelly driving the #32 to a third place finish only one car length behind the #10, but almost a quarter of a lap anead of the 4th place car. Connelly was never more than 2 car lengths behind the #10 at any time in the heat.
FEATURE RACE: In the feature, Connelly started in fifth position because of his heat race finish (there were two heats) We raced in fifth place for the entire race always in touch with the #10 (who held down fourth place) but never quite able to pass. Connelly got alongside of the #10 at one point but before he could complete the pass, a caution came out and the restart was determined by the last completed lap prior to the caution, back to fifth. The #32 appeared to be a handful to drive, he wasn't able to keep it on the bottom in the turns and he was snappy loose coming out of the turns especially #4. As a result he could not get back to the throttle as soon as he needed to coming out of the turns and on several occasions after he got back to the throttle he had to "burp" it to get the rear end back under him. I didn't realize how bad the car was handling until I saw the in car video. His hands never stopped moving. He was definately sawing on the wheel. A fifth place finish was not what we were looking for, but under the circumstances, we'll settle for it. We gained pionts and are within 8 points of third place. The finish of the feature was #53, #7, #44, #10, #32, #39, #04, #59, #55, #94. In his first race the #94 did a great job, he didn't spin didn't get involved in any incidents, and overall handled himself and his car well.
I couldn't wait to get a look at the car and try to figure out what was causing our "tight in the center" problem. After going over the car with a fine tooth comb, we found that we set the fender bracket too low and the right front fender was draging on the tire in the turns so much that it cut a groove in the tire. That rub was causing the right front to not turn as freely as the left, causing the tight in the middle problem. The "snappy loose" off was caused by Connelly having too much "wheel" in the turn to try and hold the car down in the center that when he ran out of banking coming off the turns, the car was jumping out from under him. We have gotten all of that corrected and am looking forward to the next race July 28th.
CONCLUSION: I have learned that the secret to sucessfully running a Legend racing team is that there is no SECRET, just constant and deliberate attention to a thousand small details, all of which have to work in harmony to make one of these little boogers run. It is a slow process, but we are learning.
We got to the track on time, the track opened at 5 pm due to the Friday night program. Got the car registered, went through tech, got on the track for a few practice laps, God, that track was slick. Track temp was 124 degrees, couldn't tell much about the car but Connelly said other than being loose (hot track) it felt good.
QUALIFYING: The participants tonight were the #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #10 of Chad Robinson, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, the #04 ofDawson Kenner, the #59 of Terry Myers, the #55r of Ronnie Osmer, the #94 driven by a new driver who just purchased the car, this being his first race. and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson.
Connelly qualified third, 2 one hundredths of a second behind second place #53 and 8 one hundredths of a second behind the pole sitter #7 of Hunter Lewis and only 1 onehundredth of a second ahead of the #44 of Joseph Mcardle. A very close field the first four qualifiers were within one tenth of a second of each other.
HEAT RACE: We started on the outside front row in the heat race and before we could get to the inside we were third behind the #7 and #10. It was an uneventful heat race with Connelly driving the #32 to a third place finish only one car length behind the #10, but almost a quarter of a lap anead of the 4th place car. Connelly was never more than 2 car lengths behind the #10 at any time in the heat.
FEATURE RACE: In the feature, Connelly started in fifth position because of his heat race finish (there were two heats) We raced in fifth place for the entire race always in touch with the #10 (who held down fourth place) but never quite able to pass. Connelly got alongside of the #10 at one point but before he could complete the pass, a caution came out and the restart was determined by the last completed lap prior to the caution, back to fifth. The #32 appeared to be a handful to drive, he wasn't able to keep it on the bottom in the turns and he was snappy loose coming out of the turns especially #4. As a result he could not get back to the throttle as soon as he needed to coming out of the turns and on several occasions after he got back to the throttle he had to "burp" it to get the rear end back under him. I didn't realize how bad the car was handling until I saw the in car video. His hands never stopped moving. He was definately sawing on the wheel. A fifth place finish was not what we were looking for, but under the circumstances, we'll settle for it. We gained pionts and are within 8 points of third place. The finish of the feature was #53, #7, #44, #10, #32, #39, #04, #59, #55, #94. In his first race the #94 did a great job, he didn't spin didn't get involved in any incidents, and overall handled himself and his car well.
I couldn't wait to get a look at the car and try to figure out what was causing our "tight in the center" problem. After going over the car with a fine tooth comb, we found that we set the fender bracket too low and the right front fender was draging on the tire in the turns so much that it cut a groove in the tire. That rub was causing the right front to not turn as freely as the left, causing the tight in the middle problem. The "snappy loose" off was caused by Connelly having too much "wheel" in the turn to try and hold the car down in the center that when he ran out of banking coming off the turns, the car was jumping out from under him. We have gotten all of that corrected and am looking forward to the next race July 28th.
CONCLUSION: I have learned that the secret to sucessfully running a Legend racing team is that there is no SECRET, just constant and deliberate attention to a thousand small details, all of which have to work in harmony to make one of these little boogers run. It is a slow process, but we are learning.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Saturday June 30, 2012
Saturday night June 30th competed three weeks of racing in a row. While Connelly loves it, it puts a strain on your service program as you don't have that off weekend to thoroughly go over the car. I can only imagine what someone like Joey Padgett goes through when they race 3 or 4 times a week. Gotta be tough on people and equipment.
We got to the track right on time, got the car unloaded, got registered, went through tech and were ready to hit the track. We still had to put one heat cycle on our last set of tires, so we got that done and put a couple of hard laps on them, however out lap times were not what we were looking for, high teens and low twentys, but the track temp was 121 degrees. Connelly still comlplained that the car still wasn't rolling through the middle of the turn as well as he would like it to, but all in all the car was very close. We discussed a chassis adjustment but didn't want to mess up what we had. We opted for the adjustment thinking that we could always put it back. After the adjustment he was all smiles, said it was the best car he had ever had under him and did not go back on the track again until it was time to qualify.
We had a very strong field of cars tonight. The #53 of Jeremy Lundy, the #7 of Hunter Lewis, the #44 of Joseph McArdle, the #39 of Daniel Thompson, The #10 of Chad Robinson, the #66 of Andrew Johnson, the #59 of Terry Myers, and of course the #32 of Connelly Dubuisson. Our good friends and long time competitors the Osmers with their #55r did not attend tonights race due to a prior planned vacation, we all missed them.
Quilifying: Qualifying was devided into two heats, we were in the second heat and qualified in third place two one hundredths of a second out of second (#53) and almost one tenth of a second behind the pole (#7).
The Heat Race: In the heat I told Connelly just to take it easy as the track was still quite hot (over 100 degrees and slick) we were running third about 6 car lengths off of second knowing that they were going to invert some cars for the feature race. With three laps to go there was a spin, bringing out a caution on the track. This bunched the cars up and Connelly decided to give it a shot and see if he had anything for the #53, and #7. During those last three laps you could have fit all three of those cars under a blanket. Connelly was right on their rear bumpers. The #53 won with #7 second and Connelly third by less than a car length. We just put fuel in the car and waited for the feature race. At intermission they had fan appreciation night. All the cars in all classes were parked on the front straight a way and the fans came out on the track and got autographs signed and photos taken with the drivers and cars. A lot of fun for all.
The Feature Race: Jeremy Lundy #53 threw the big dice and rolled a 4 meaning that the first four finishers in the heat race would be inverted. This put Connelly outside front row with the #53 behind him. Something very strange happened next. As soon as Connelly got on the track the upper ball joint came off the spindle block. The right front was leaning out at about a 30 degree angle, and they were fixing to go green. Jeremy #53 saw the problem and pulled up alongside Connelly waving his hand and pointing to that wheel. The flagman called off the start and Connelly limped into the pits. I got to the pits as fast as my worn out knees would allow, and Connelly's friend Thomas who helps us crew the car jumped the fence and we got to the car at about the same time. It took a couple of moments to figure out what the problem was. We carry a spare ball joint in the trailer, robbed the nut off of it got the greasy ball joint bolt back in place secured the nut and in our haste, replaced the right front wheel with the right front that we had just heat cycled instead of the one we had run in the heat race. Now we have a mis matched set of tires, a hastily repaired ball joint with no cotter key in it and we get back on the track with two laps to go, but we got back out there and scored 8th place points. Working in the dark on a greasy ball joint and getting it done in 18 laps aint too shabby. Connelly had left the in-car camera on during the whole repair process. It looked like a Chinese fire drill with Thomas and I fighting to get Con back out. The only damage done to the car was that we bent very slightly the lower right ball joint. We replaced it in our maintnence work done this week. After repairs, the car scaled right on the money. We hope we are ready for Friday night's race.
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