The season finale for the NWMECS Enduro Championship. CRR and Retro Racing came together to take 1st Pace in the 4 Hour Enduro and 2nd Place in the 2 Hour Enduro. It was great racing at Portland International Raceway. Big thanks to our Sponsor, Subaru of Bend. Your continuing support and shop work has made it possible to be competitive in endurance racing with our STI. And thanks also to our tuner, Surgeline.

We would have taken first or second in the 8 hour if a suspension bolt hadn't fallen out.

One of the RR Team drivers was in the car on the last lap of the 4 hour Enduro when things went badly. He'd just gone into the chicane when he lost all power and the car spun out. A turn worker came over and told him the right rear wheel was cocked out at a 30 degree angle.

Towed in on a trailer. We quickly determined the upper suspension bolt tying the coilover to the hub had fallen out. We found a bolt and put it back together with an eyeball camber setting.

But still no go forward. Further checking found the left rear CV axle had sheared off inside the outer CV boot. We called every auto parts store and dealer in the Portland metro area, no one had an STI CV axle. So we welded the broken one back together. That lasted 6-7 laps, which was 5-6 more than we expected. It was too bad, we were doing great in the 8 hour up to that point.

I'm not complaining, I'll take a First and Second anytime!



The good news: The engine ran great. There no issues with oil pressure, oil temp, coolant temp, or tranny temp. And PIR is a 75% of the time WOT track. The Subaru EJ257 showed it can handle 4 hours of being thrashed, and showed no signs it couldn't go another 4 hours. We would have had to add oil though, for sure. Easy in the DS tank in the trunk.

I have a new system for the dry sump. On the head valve covers the two rear ports are tied to the oem balance bar and oem block port. So they are still all oem.

The front ports are teed together, then teed to the back block port that used to be the PCV port. From there the line goes thru a -12An fitting that has a 1/8"npt port. The port has a 1/8th" npt nipple with a vac hose to a Vac/Boost gauge on the dash so I can monitor what is happening for blowby gas pressures. From there it goes thru a Vibrant one way check valve. When the DS pump is pulling vacuum the check valve closes and I get the benefit of block vacuum. When the engine is running full tilt and the DS pump is no longer able to create vacuum, the check valve opens and allows the blow by to vent to the DS tank. The Vibrant valve works really well, it's part of the Vibrant E-Vac system for using the exhaust gas stream to create a vacuum in the engine block, so it's good for high temps. Part #: 11192, Description: One Way Check Valve, Flapper Style, -12AN (Male AN Flare to Male AN Flare)




It's been a great season. I have a couple of more track days left at ORP to do some testing on the 818R and the Palatov before the cars go into hibernation.