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Race #6 at Orlando Speedworld
07-16-05
Well, we made it! It took every bit of 4 weeks but we got the car done for the race.
The first week we took off the body and then moved the motor over 6 inches. Then, we took the rear end out and put new axle tubes on it so that the center section was moved over 7 inches. Then we moved the steering box over 6 inches so that it was in the center of the front wheels. Then we cut the roll cage out of the car and sectioned 6 inches out of it so that when we welded it back in it was also 6 inches over to the right of where it was to begin with. With all that done we primed and painter the chassis before re-assembling everything. For the most part everything went real well and by the following Tuesday we were ready for the new body to be put on.
We took it to the body man and he spent nearly 2 weeks putting it together. Last Tuesday night we brought it home and on Wednesday morning we got busy squaring the rear end, setting the front end up, and scaling the car. We really didn't know what adjustments we needed to make in our set up to compensate for the changes we had made to the chassis. The car has almost 5% less left side weight now so we decided to drop the cross weight a little and then work from there once we got back to the track. On Thursday we finished up all the little details on the car and then put on our new graphics. Finally, on Friday we went to the track to test.
The test session went pretty well at first. I am now sitting between all 4 wheels instead of just over the left ones so I can feel more of what the car is doing. It felt real free and responsive but at first I was over a second slower than we had been when we tested and raced here before. I might have been slow because I hadn't driven the car for almost 6 weeks or that I am still a little cautious after crashing a couple of times but Just when I was getting comfortable in the car and was beginning to try to drive it a little harder, the throttle stuck wide open going into turn 3. I got the clutch in and hit the kill switch while hard on the brakes and then dropped to the inside of the track. Once I came to a stop I tried to restart the motor but when it started it went wide open again so I shut it down and called for the push truck.
Let me tell you, that was about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. My crew chief told me that this is how several drivers have been killed and that he thought I handled the situation real good. I don't think he knew how bad my hands were shaking when I got out of the car! Getting back in the car was a little weird too! It was so hot and we really didn't know what had caused the throttle to stick open like that so before we could really see what the car needed we decided to load up and come home and wait until it cooled off before we tried to figure it out. It turned out that a little nut that holds the throttle cable on came loose and fell down into the linkage. We put it back and glued it tight but I have to tell you I thought about that nut a lot on Saturday night!
Back at the track on Saturday, we went out to practice again but now I was on the track with a few other TQ's. They just blew right by me and as I tried harder and harder to keep up I found that the car was loose in the center and then it had no grip in the front coming off. We changed the angle of the lower control arms to take out rear steer in the turns and then took out 2 rounds of cross and raised the panhard bar a 1/2 inch to free the car up coming off the corner. We tried to get another round of practice in but we were too late getting to the grid so all we could do was hope that the car was better for the heat race.
This was the first week that I didn't have to start in the back so I drew my pill for the starting line up and I got the pole! Great! The only problem is I'm still not that good at shifting the car so when we started the race I didn't get a good start at all. Before the end of the first lap I went from 1st to 5th. Once I was up to speed I found out the the loose in the center was gone but the car was still tight coming off. In a couple of more laps the last 2 cars got by me and I finished the heat race in last place. What was good was that my lap times had been slowly coming down and I was now within a half second of the leaders. We thought that maybe with a few changes and a little luck we could get a good finish in the feature.
What happened next was quite a surprise. Before, when we made changes to the car, the only thing that really seemed to help was changing the right front spring. Changing rear springs or moving the panhard bar never seemed to do anything. We decided to changed the right rear spring hoping to free the car up and then, at the last minute (always a mistake!), we decided to raise the panhard bar a half inch just in case the spring change didn't make that much of a difference. Now it gets sort of funny! When my crew chief went to raise the panhard bar it wouldn't move. Turns out that he was turning it the wrong way. Instead of raising it, he had been lowering it! It was all the way down. So, he took out the turns that he had put in before the heat race and sent me out.
Once again I tried to get a good start but I fired a little early and had to lift and then they took off and left me. I got up to speed and wasn't that far behind but my car was so loose I was afraid to get back into the gas until the end of the corner so I never was able to catch the pack and finished the race in last place where I started.
What is really good about all this is that I think we have accomplished what we set out to do by taking the car apart and making so many changes. Before, when we made adjustments nothing seemed to help. Now a minor adjustment really makes a big difference. Crashing the car twice and then having the throttle stick open has really messed with my confidence but I'm pretty sure that I'll get comfortable in the car again soon especially since now it will be easier to adjust the car to get it right.
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