WERC Round 4 Utah 6 Hour

[crash]

The 6 hour Western Endurance Racing Championship series round #4 was held at Utah Motorsports Complex this last weekend and while the Factory Five Racing Mendeola Transaxles Prototype Development Group GTM team did not finish where we had liked, there was plenty of action and a little bit of drama.

Qualifying went well and we qualified 4th out of 40+ cars. I started the race from the second row and had a pretty good start.

Lap two in turn one, an Audi decided to use me as his brakes and hit me from behind in the left rear tire. The car felt okay so I continued for my 2.5 hour stint, but when we did the driver change/fuel/tire stop it was apparent that I was incredibly lucky as the outter rim was flattened and the valve stem was leaking.

I turned the car over to Beau Borders in pretty sad shape as the transaxle started having an issue going into 4th gear during my stint. We have found that once things start going out of tune in the drum/fork assembly of these transmissions it only gets worse and eventually leads to the gearbox not shifting and being stuck in one gear. About a half hour into Beau's stint he reported just this and that the gearbox was stuck in 3rd gear. We wanted to take a look and just see if we could get it up to 4th gear as that would prove to be a better gear to be stuck in so Beau brought the car into the pits.

During our first stop a pit steward pointed out that we needed to do something slightly different than we had been doing for the last 10 years as far as fueling goes. We always put a catch pan down under where we are fueling in case some fuel is spilled and then the catch pan absorbs this and we do not get penalized as long as there is no fuel on the pavement once the stop is complete. Well the guy that usually places the pan, and opens the fuel cap is the same guy that holds the fire extinguisher during the stop. Then once the stop is over the fire extinguisher guy puts the cap back on and removes the catch pan. The steward decided that since there was a possibility that there would be fuel present on the catch pan that a suited fueler would have to be the one to remove the catch pan. Truthfully this makes some sense, but it was certainly a change in procedure for us, and it would prove to be our undoing in this race.

So the gear box is locked in third, and the car comes in to have it checked out. The fuelers see the car in and assume they should put fuel in the car. That wasn't really the case since it wouldn't get us to the finish anyway on fuel at that point, but they started fueling so they continued. Unfortunately one of the fuelers was not paying close enough attention to the light system we use that tells him when the car's tank is full, and the tank was overfilled until fuel came out the overflow tube. The fueler would note later that the intense lights that the track had right above us made it difficult for him to see the change in the light when the tank was indeed full.

Unfortunately because of the change in the procedure that was forced by the stewards the fueler was not really trained as to what to do during a fuel spill incident. We use local Cobra Club guys to do our fueling in Utah because it is so far away from our home turf, so they get the minimum of practice and training before this event. So the fueler picks up the pan, but instead of simply sliding it out from under the car, he tilted it slightly and gas ended up spilled on the asphalt. Automatic 5 minute penalty.

Considering the fact that we were forced to run 2 hours of the race in one gear and the fact that the Truspeed Porsche was about 7 laps ahead of us we really thought that the fuel penalty was minor heading into the last 30 minutes of the race.

That was, until the Porsche experienced a complete electrical failure with 10 minutes to go! At this point we were running 4th overall and 2nd in class and could see the podium in our sights. Unfortunately NASA was very prompt with the checkered flag and we ended up not being able to pass the Porsche that was beside the track for a position. The difference was 1 lap and roughly 40 seconds. A lap is roughly 2 minutes, so we ended the race approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds behind our rivals, not only for this race but for the year end points. Disappointing, to say the least.

Next race is this weekend where we will be running at Thunder Hill for Round #4 of the United States Touring Car Championship where we lead the GT points race.

[beeman]

Sorry for the misfortune. What are you thinking for the future? Strobe bulb (on a switch) for the fuel level indicator? Good luck this weekend!

[johngeorge]

Great job guys! trials and tribulations of racing, how fun.

[crash]

I try and remind the guys that without the "challenges" this racing business would be a lot less fun!

[Roger Reid]

How is Richard doing?

[crash]

Richard is doing well. He is now back at the races after his significant medical leave, and back working again on a daily basis.

[Roger Reid]

Good to hear. Richard, if your reading this, it's great to have you back.

[crash]

Video here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYiv59W52Hg