Aug 5, 2021, 3:10 pm · #51
Nice, and thanks for sharing your adventure. This car is running the Quest engine, right?
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200sx SE V6 Endurance Race Car Build
Aug 5, 2021, 5:26 pm · #52
Thanks and No problem! Yes it's from a 2000 Quest.
Aug 6, 2021, 5:52 pm · #53
My opinion on the VG33e has changed completely after I reset my timing (and added a supercharger). Bet your car's got just enough torque to get out of turns without cranking too many RPMs.
Aug 6, 2021, 6:43 pm · #54
Kelso, is there posted info on your VG supercharger project? I'd really like to see the whole process. Really.
Did I say, "really?" Because I meant "really."
Aug 7, 2021, 4:48 pm · #55
kelso840 on 05:52:01 PM / 06-Aug-21My opinion on the VG33e has changed completely after I reset my timing (and added a supercharger). Bet your car's got just enough torque to get out of turns without cranking too many RPMs.
The torque is great. I believe I mentioned that we stopped revving the engine up to the 6000 rpm redline, and instead started shifting 53-5400. Not spinning the engine as high makes a huge difference in keeping temperatures down. So this meant that we used 3rd-5th gear instead of 2nd-4th. I'm sure the car is faster if we use the lower gears and the whole rev range, but really not by much.
Aug 9, 2021, 8:02 am · #56
Max on 04:48:02 PM / 07-Aug-21The torque is great. I believe I mentioned that we stopped revving the engine up to the 6000 rpm redline, and instead started shifting 53-5400. Not spinning the engine as high makes a huge difference in keeping temperatures down. So this meant that we used 3rd-5th gear instead of 2nd-4th. I'm sure the car is faster if we use the lower gears and the whole rev range, but really not by much.You are truly doing god's work sir. I am running out of popcorn.
Post Merge
weitrhino on 06:43:01 PM / 06-Aug-21Kelso, is there posted info on your VG supercharger project? I'd really like to see the whole process. Really.Really. Really really. As a supercharger guy I command a detailed explanation.
Did I say, "really?" Because I meant "really."
Aug 9, 2021, 2:35 pm · #57
iceageg on 08:02:50 AM / 09-Aug-21You are truly doing god's work sir. I am running out of popcorn.
Thanks man I appreciate it. Glad it's entertaining and contributing something to the community. Racing was always my destiny, and I'm so glad to finally be doing it.
Aug 9, 2021, 11:14 pm · #58
iceageg on 08:02:50 AM / 09-Aug-21You are truly doing god's work sir. I am running out of popcorn.
Post Merge
Really. Really really. As a supercharger guy I command a detailed explanation.
He supercharged a truck rather than an S12
Aug 10, 2021, 2:08 pm · #59
weitrhino on 11:14:10 PM / 09-Aug-21He supercharged a truck rather than an S12Not as cool, but still interested. I am supercharging my subaru right now. Along with several planes but "work" doesn't really count.
Sep 2, 2021, 1:54 pm · #60
More content!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDeeb8HpTLQ
Was able to get my VG30e cams out of the VG33, and install my new Isky Racing reground cams (using original VG33e cams). When I was doing my VG33e swap, I installed the VG30e cams in the engine and noticed some cracks around the dowel and threads when I was going to set the timing. Running out of time, I checked to make sure the cam gear bolt would reach it's torque spec. It did, and I rolled the dice with the cracked cams. We survived 10 hours of racing in record high temps, thank God. The cracks were worse and there was a lot of play in the gear. Sent my 3.3 cams to Ron @ Isky and asked his advice on the best cam for a stock engine, stock RPM, endurance race car. He recommended the "258 Mega" grind that has a 258 duration and .435" lift. I installed them last weekend and put together a clip for you guys. The car feels like it just has more between 3000-6000. Butt dyno guesses 10-15 hp gain, which is what I expected. There is slightly more valvetrain noise, which caught me off guard. I seriously couldn't be more impressed with the Isky product, value and service. They sent them back in nice boxes, engraved, parco coated, with a jar of Isky assembly lube, a cam spec card and a lot of install/general cam information. For only $206 shipped! Ron was awesome. You HAVE to call him and ask if you want Isky regrinds. They are not listed on the website.
Sep 3, 2021, 9:55 am · #61
Awesome. Long live the VG33 hybrid. Minivan motors in every enduro car!
Nov 10, 2021, 3:56 pm · #62
Epic update imminent! 
Exeptional photos by Drew Shephardson and Dakota Snow.
Post Merge
Race Report – Lucky Dog Racing League, PIR 10/30-31
**warning - long**
Saturday 7 hour Enduro
A new driver to the team, Mark L., started the race for us. He has been racing Nissans for over a decade with other teams and was a solid driver for us from lap 1. He dove on to grid (safely) and gave us a great starting position. He laid down a bunch of laps in the 1:30's, and set a fast lap of around 1:36.4, which was the fastest the car had gone up until this race. I believe when Mark pitted, we were P1 in C-Class. This was the beginning of our biggest challenge of the weekend. Mark was only able to go about 70 minutes before the car started to studder on fuel. We put Dave Sutherland in next and he also did a solid job. Apparently, he spun it after the turn 1 braking zone. I had a similar experience, and we realized that if you don't rev match and bring the RPMs up high enough before letting the clutch out, the back end will break loose and it feels like the brake bias is too high in the rear. Careful rev matching and downshifting later in the braking zone seemed to remedy this. Dave lowered our car's fastest lap into the low 1:35's before pitting. At some point the race was black flagged due to a large amount of people passing under yellow. We pitted right before the black flag and put Tyler Burnside in with a full tank of fuel. I believe during this pit stop we got a penalty for having crew over the wall before the car came to a stop. I'd never heard of that rule but oh well, we lost a few minutes in the penalty box at pit-out. Unfortunately, Tyler sat in traffic and then the race was black flagged yet again 9 laps later for the same reason, race control decided to make a driver change mandatory to try and curb the passing under yellow. This is when things got a big crazy. Megan volunteered to drive 4th, knowing that we would have to fill in a short stint of about 45 minutes. Well, when the mandatory driver change occurred, it accelerated our need for her to drive by about an hour. She rushed to get ready to drive a race car for the second time in her life. She was dead set on driving for 30-45 minutes, but the truth was, we needed her to go as long as possible or we'd be looking at yet ANOTHER pit stop by the end of the day. She ended up pulling through for us big time and stayed out for over an hour! She pitted and I got in the car. I had a great time driving the car. The first time I turned into the chicane I thought "OH MAN THIS THING HANDLES GREAT". It's so hard to tell how good a car is going to be on track when all you can do it putt around the neighborhood, but we nailed it. My stint was exciting and trouble free, I lowered the cars fast lap to a 1:34.275. Tyler got back in after me, followed by Dave. We were a bit out of contention early on because we had to pit so early, then had a penalty. It seemed to compound by the end of the day because we had to make so many stops. But we brought the car home in P6 in C class, 20th overall out of 56 cars. The car was in good shape, and we knew it was fast enough to compete. We put some front brakes on it, and repacked the wheel bearings, and headed off to dinner. Saturday's race was a bit of a blur for me, and our camera got almost no video. Thankfully the photographers Drew & Dakota rented a helicopter to take pictures of the race, and we got some once in a lifetime kind of pictures.
Sunday 8 hour Enduro
Sunday we were all very pumped up and had learned some lessons from Saturday. We figured that with one extra hour, our lack of fuel capacity would be an even bigger challenge, but from the green flag, nothing went how we thought it would! We put Mark in the car to start again. Cars started rolling on to grid and he dove to try and get a good spot in line. HUGE MISTAKE. They gridded cars on the track a few hundred feet away, on track, instead of pit lane. We thought we'd be able to finish getting Mark situated while cars got into position, but we didn't realize it would be so far away and on the track. I grabbed the radio and sprinted hundreds of feet as fast as I could. Got to our car and his right shoulder belt was not tight, the radio plug not connected, and the camera not running. Thank GOD I made it to him. They go out for their formation lap, and I jog back to the pits recovering from a mild heart attack. The green flag drops and we watch the green e46 BMW come to an abrupt stop, with apparent rear suspension failure. We all watch helpless as cars split off to either side to avoid the car at a dead stop in the middle of the track. I breath a bit after mark passes him without incident. Unfortunately, the blue Porsche 944 was not so lucky. He was following a car who darted to the side at the last second to avoid the BMW, and it was too late for him to avoid. The Porsche plowed into the BMW hard, and the race was red flagged for a half hour while they helped the drivers and cleaned up the cars. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one had any serious injuries.
The accident meant that our driver sat on the track and took a nap for about a half hour with the engine off. This mitigated our fuel capacity problem. He had another red flag, or full course caution, I don't remember which. The two incidents meant that Mark was able to go the full 2-hour stint on one tank of fuel. If I'm not mistaken, Mark pitted while P1 in C class. Dave got in next and was nice and quick, putting down a bunch of laps in the 1:34-35 range. Dave did not have any unusual circumstances to mitigate the fuel situation, and the fuel only lasted another 40 laps or just over an hour before it started misfiring. Around this time, Dave came across a slow-moving car in turn 10, and punted them hard. Of course the camera didn't work and he's not sure who it was. He self-reported instead of getting black flagged, and they seemed to know that the car was slow moving. Dave admitted it was his fault, and they understood and sent him on his way. He thought the car was bent up pretty bad, but as he drove by us in the pits we could hardly tell. That very out-lap, we had some luck go our way. There was a separate incident that caused a safety car, so we called Dave in. This worked out quite nicely, while our main competitors did not have to pit for fuel, they did have to drive around slowly behind the safety car while we put Tyler in the car and fueled up. I think this saved us from losing 1-2 laps to our competition. The teams we were in close competition with were all Miatas, Durkee-Walker, Pist'n'Broke, and Bunny Boys. About 30 laps later, they all pit and we retook the lead. Tyler is to be commended for his performance during this stint. Bunny Boys and Pist'n'Broke came up on Tyler, and I gently told him those are two car's we're battling and to please stay ahead of them. At the time they were running faster than Tyler had ever gone, in the mid-to-high 1:30's. Tyler kept them at bay for several laps, and during this stint ran something like 15 laps faster than he'd ever gone before. His best lap of this stint was 2.5 seconds faster than his previous best. Eventually they overtook him when he was caught in traffic, and he finished out his stint. I jumped into the car next and had a great time. Sometime during Saturday, the steering wheel got knocked off center, and it was no better today. In fact, I noticed that the wheel would be straight sometimes and crooked others. The rack was definitely shifting in its mounts. I continued and learned how to deal with it. The sketchiest part was braking for turn 10 at 110 mph with a crooked wheel, turning in and the car wouldn't steer for the first inch or two of steering wheel input! I didn't improve my time from Saturday but did get close, and put down a lot of laps in the 1:34-35's. Durkee Walker pit for their last stop, and we re-took the lead. I held out for as long as possible while misfiring but eventually came in to avoid running out of fuel. We put Mark in and only about 7-8 gallons of fuel, and I was a bit confused. Thankfully, my team was back in the pits thinking clearly while I was out racing. Tom explained to me that there was not any chance of finishing out the race with one stint, so Mark would drive a short stint, and we'd put Dave in for the last hour. We dropped down to 4th again, but Pist'n'broke and Bunny Boys pitted shortly after for their last stop and took over 2nd place. Mark was in the car for about 45 minutes when opportunity struck, and the safety car was deployed! We called Mark in ASAP and got ready to put Dave in for the last 70 minutes of the race. While we did our driver change and put 10 more gallons of fuel in the car, Pist'n and Bunny Boys caught back up to us, but only barely. They were forced to do 3 slow laps behind the safety car while we busted out the fastest pit we could manage. Dave rejoined the track in 4th place 37 seconds adrift of Bunny & Pist'n who were basically in the battle of the century. For the next 45 minutes I painfully watched the slow train wreck that would be us cruising to yet another 4th place finish, where we would narrowly miss the podium for the second race weekend in a row. Dave took 7 seconds out of their lead before reporting the car was getting hot (230F), and we knew we'd be close on having enough fuel to finish. There seemed like nothing we could do but cruise home in 4th. Then a bit of luck went our way when Pist'n and Bunny boys epic battle took a turn when they collided and were black flagged for contact. Dave inherited 2nd place and put one lap on them before they were released. At this point we were tempted to tell Dave to try and run down Durkee Walker, who was a lap up, but at times nearly 10 seconds a lap slower! I told Dave just don't blow the engine, run out of fuel, or lose our 2nd place and bring the car home. This turned out to be the right move. Durkee Walker took the win and had an empty fuel tank (explained why they were going slow), and Dave crossed the checker about 50 seconds adrift. Later Dave said he was misfiring in just about every corner!!! P2 in C class, P13 overall. We couldn't be happier; this is the teams best result to date!
TLDR just watch the video:
https://youtu.be/ARhAa4nY5PU
Nov 11, 2021, 12:11 pm · #63
Good show!
If I'm being honest, I'm a little jealous of the fun you guys are having!
Nov 11, 2021, 3:19 pm · #64
Thanks! It's a ton of fun, and I consider myself very lucky. Although I've wanted to race since I was a teen, and now its finally happening. Have you tried a track day? Couple hundred bucks and you'll never be the same!
Dec 13, 2021, 10:41 am · #65
Probably a good time for an update! Since the race in October I've been trying to limit the amount of car work and try and take a break. Of course, this is lame, and so I want to get back to work asap.
Ordered a Pyrotect helmet for my wife, who decided she doesn't want to be nervous or not know what she's doing if she races for us again. We'll sign her up for a track night early spring and get her some practice.
Sold some uber-rare parts that came with my car that I'd been holding on to. My "turbo" hood, and literal mudflaps and created an absolute frenzy amongst the s12 community. I decided if I were to let these items go it would only be to fund something important, so I made the switch from Z32 wheels to these Rota Grid V 16x8 +20mm wheels. 
The Z32 wheels were +45mm offset, and wouldn't allow me to run coilovers in the front without 35mm worth of spacers! Turns out 5x114.3 wheels in very low offset are almost non existent, and forget about being wide! The s12 is not easy to find wheels for, especially in 5 lug, and 8" is basically the maximum without running flares. I considered 15x8's but all the 15" tires are 2" less diameter and I didn't think it was a good idea to mess with gearing that badly. These rota's could not fit better. They dont' require a spacer to clear the strut, but will require the fenders to be rolled a bit more. I'll probably need a 10mm spacer when/if I put on the coilovers. I can use the same size tires I was on before (225/50/16) and save 2.4lbs/wheel.
Next up I'm going to attempt to improve our fuel situation dramatically. We only have 14 gallon capacity. The car will only pump out 13 gallons sitting still. We only go 1 hour 10 minutes flat out before stumbling. When we pit after stumbling for 3-5 laps, we can only add 9-10 gallons tops. We need a surge tank, and I will also attempt to add a vent at the top of the fuel pump, and tie that back in to the filler neck next to the stock vent. 
All fuel stuff needs a bulkhead if it's in the cabin. Since aluminum is expensive, I found a truck tool box at work for free. Hopefully I can clean it up, and utilize this lid for easy access. 
Here is my idea for adding a vent. Red arrow is the stock vent, and you can see it's mounted pretty low and leaves a lot of air in the top of the tank. Red line coming up to the filler is the routing idea. It'll have to go through the cab (and behind the bulkhead) because otherwise it'd have to go 3x as far, down and around the frame rail before routing back into the filler neck. 
Considering we get 70 minutes before stumbling, and we still have 3-4 gallons left in the tank, I think the surge tank alone should get us at least another 21 minutes (7 min/gal). If the vent works and we can put another gallon in the tank maybe that'll be 28 minutes. That would get us 98 minutes before pitting. We're still not there (need to go 2 hours), but this should save us one pit stop over our competition (we had 2 more pit stops than 1st place when we came second). I plan to add a float sensor in the surge tank so that a light comes on when the surge starts to empty.
If you have any other ideas for my fuel situation I'd love to hear them. This is my first crack at anything like this.
Dec 28, 2021, 4:53 pm · #66
Ok, trying to take a break from the racecar combined with freezing temps have caused me some paralysis as far as working on the car. Cold in the garage, and the car facing the wrong direction causing no dang light on what I'm working on has discouraged me to make any progress.
Well I finally broke through that barrier over Christmas break. Decided I needed to get the car running with the surge tank to break me out of the rut. So last night me and my 3 year old son bundled up and finished the car enough to fire it up. Decided to back it out and back it in to the garage so that the trunk area would be directly under the garage lighting. We got to the bottom of the driveway and realized the pump in the surge tank only comes on when the pump primes with key-on. I wired it on to the same circuit that turns on the stock pump, but apparently something else turns the pump on when the engine is running. So... starting the car for 10 seconds at a time, doing reverse burn outs up the snow covered driveway before the engine dies, trying not to crash in to the house or wifes car, 3 year old saying "whoa dad!!" sitting on a pillow in the passenger seat area.... and we made it.
So now I have to figure out why/how the pump is not staying on after priming, and build a bulkhead. But at least I have light to work under! After those are done I'll tackle adding the vent. 
Excuse the mess... this is what you get when you work on a project for a month in a series of 15 minute increments.
Next up, wife gave me the remainder of our Christmas budget to put towards a transponder. I hate all of the transponder options, but we still need one....
Rent one - $50/race
Buy subscription based - $140 and $109/year after the first year
Buy non-sub based battery powered - $540
Buy non-sub based hard wired - $707
Leaning towards the battery powered non-subscription transponder, provided I can have the battery replaced if it fails... Really makes me sick paying this much money for a blinking light.
Jan 17, 2022, 11:58 pm · #67
I'm sure you posted it but what is your wheel set up...
Jan 18, 2022, 12:10 am · #68
Rota Grid V 16x8 +20mm wheels. This size seems like it was made for the s12. Will work without spacers, but will require rolling fenders. I have more work to do on my rear fenders to clear with 225/50/16's
Jan 19, 2022, 4:07 pm · #69
yeah I'm looking to see what will work for my rear when I LS swap I'm gonna need something wide but not drag wide. I was thinking maybe 245 50's
Jan 19, 2022, 8:22 pm · #70
There's a lot more room for the rear tires. 225 is pretty much the max for the front and the offset has to be just right, and fenders rolled. You could fit 245's in the rear, probably with some rolling. More importantly than the width, would be what compound. 245/50/16 seems like it wouldn't have any performance compounds, and I bet 225/50 in an RS4 or falken azeni would have more grip. There's a few in 245/40/15, but that's a pretty short tire. More options in 17".
Jan 24, 2022, 4:25 pm · #71
Yeah I'll have to do a little more research..
Nov 4, 2022, 4:44 pm · #72
Epic update of the century.
What a truly epic weekend!! It's very hard to put words to describe just how good of a weekend this was, but I'm sure I will manage to come up with way too many words anyway, fair warning. This was the best weekend of racing of my life. We truly experienced the extreme lows (okay no one crashed or got hurt, so not THAT low), and the highest high we could have imagined. It feels like your underdog team has a comeback to win the Superbowl, only it's YOU! I'm so grateful for my team who came and threw down their hard-earned money to race with us, worked their butts off all weekend even when things were bleak, their enthusiasm, and of course for their performance. Thank you, team! We're grateful to Cathy and Lucky Dog who has given us racing at PIR for 13 years, and putting their heart and soul into building this organization. Thanks Erik, Chris, all the Lucky Dog team, and all the teams out there that we met &/or got to know better this weekend. Pontiaxed, Durkee Walker, 3D, Miata Vice, BDR, General Leif, and I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting. Thanks to Leo of Apex of Failure for being willing to help our team through our repairs, live stream support, parts runs, everything, dude… thanks.
If you've read all that and want to hear an epic story… here you go (Warning LONG).
We started the weekend very confident that we had a good team and a good car, despite forgetting a laundry list of stuff, I thought we had a shot at the podium. Our driver lineup was Dave, Blake, my wife Megan, and myself. Matt, Sarah, Jarrett and Leo rounded out the team.
7 Hour Enduro
We started Blake in the car on Saturday, and about 1.5 hours in to the first stint our hopes of a podium went up in a giant spectacular white cloud of smoke. Blake thankfully put the car in 5th gear and putted into the pits, engine stalled and he rolled the rest of the way… would not restart. He reported coolant temps of 175 all morning and then instantly shot up to 230 and… Poof!
Brought the car behind the wall and began to troubleshoot. No/low coolant, so I pressurized the cooling system and started cracking spark plugs loose. Coolant pressure held until I got to cylinder #6… PPPPSSSSSSSSSHHHH!!!!! Steam coming out of cylinder 6. We found the failure, blown head gasket! I thought about it for about 5 seconds and decided there is a decent chance it's ONLY a headgasket and not major engine damage, therefore we MUST replace it. We may not be running before the checker, but we have a good shot at taking the green flag the next day. Leo very awesomely volunteered to run parts, after we realized we had no vehicle left on the outside of the track. He had us headgaskets, 10 qts of oil, filter, water pump, and various nick-nacks by 3pm. We exploded the whole engine through our pit stall but were able to get it all back together right before dark.
The motor fired on it's first crank but was running on 5 cylinders. Took a couple more hours of diag, stressing out, stupefied blank stares, and a parts run. I believe there was a plug wire that pulled out of its insulator and wasn't making a good connection. We fixed that and replaced the plugs and fired it up… sounds good. Drives good around the parking lot. I requested the coldest of beers from my team, high fives all around, bedtime.
8-hour Enduro
Sunday morning, we have our act together. Flush the oil for a second time, and wow, it's a milkshake… Really just hoping there was no bearing damage due to the coolant at this point. What else can you do? How much abuse can a 140,000-mile junkyard minivan engine take? Fresh oil and we take the car to grid.
Dave starts the race for us. On the pace lap he reports a misfire. That really takes the wind out of my sails. I ask him if he can drive it and he says he'll try. Well, we don't hear from him that much so I decide not to push the issue… I don't want to bring in a car to try and fix something that will certainly kill our race if he's still able to drive it kinda-fast. Leo looks at me and says "this is why you need a RaceCapture live telemetry system". Megan leaves to go put our raffle tickets in for the drawings, and dumps all but a couple into the RaceCapture box. Dave's stint goes decent except he locked up the brakes near the safety truck when the car in front stopped suddenly… We get a penalty for extreme asshattery and are given a sticker on our car depicting a sad face with a butt on top. The shame…. Dave apologizes and we only lose a few minutes in the doghouse. I find the NW Safety crew and give more apologies. We're way down the order, and I'm just assuming at this point that with the engine down on power and the penalty… this will just be a long track day and give the team some laps for all their trouble the day before. At this point I stopped checking where we were in the order… 12th or 13th in C-Class, don't remember… this is a long shot. But it's a long race, and anything can happen, and I always like to keep that in the back of my mind. Regardless we need to keep the car out there and turning laps, and give ourselves the best chance we can.
Next, we send Megan out. This is the quintessential nervous mother driver, and the only time of the day where it really starts to rain. What better way to learn how to drive a RWD car with a locked differential??? Megan does great and was able to beat her best time from the summer despite having very few laps when the track was drying. If nothing else she learned a lot about how to control a sliding car, got more confidence, and made her first full 2-hour stint. I wander down to the timing tower to check the raffle results. We won the dang RaceCapture. I radio and tell Megan while she's driving. Icing on the cake!
I'm next up and man did it just consistently drizzle for my entire stint. Hard to find grip. Seemed like there was no grip in turns 1 & 2, 7, and 11… but places like 4 and 5 were as fast as when dry?? Crazy! Hard to learn. I'm now understanding what the misfire is like. The engine actually has power, but every few rotations it's clearly dropping a cylinder. Keeping the revs low seems to reduce the misfiring, but it is still challenging, and the whole car is vibrating. Can't even pull most miata's on the straights. But it is race-able. I finally get my lap times down into the 1:38's and I was cool with that given the conditions. Blake radios to me that I've just inherited 4th place in C-Class and this is the first moment since the morning when I actually considered where we stand. I could hardly believe it! Dave gets on the radio and informs me that the fuel light staying on for the entire front straight is an indicator that we're nearly out of fuel, and we must pit that lap. He did this in the morning, and it stumbled as he was entering pit lane… This fuel float is in the 2-liter surge tank, so that means we're seriously low. When the light stayed on solid, I come into pit. Unfortunately, my stint was part-dry, and no cautions, so I only made it 1:27 on fuel. We're now realizing that 5 stints could BARELY work, and we may run out of fuel at the end. I pit in 4th.
Next up is Blake. He rejoins in 4th ish, give or take. Blake does a good job, and the track starts to dry out during his stint and would remain dry for the rest of the race. He inherits 2nd or 3rd place (don't remember exactly) while the top 3 Miatas all pit for fuel right on time at 3pm, 2 hours to go. We start to see how the race is going to shake out. We'll pit again for fuel and to put Dave in the car and drop back to 3rd. Blake just needs to go as long as he can to give Dave the shortest stint possible. Of course, this couldn't be closer, so Blake only makes it about an hour 20 on fuel before reporting the fuel light on solid. I call him in and our fueler Matt says he's going to slow the fuel down and make sure it's filled all the way up the filler neck… This is going to be so close.
Dave starts our final stint and has an hour and 31 minutes to the finish. Nobody has been able to do this in dry conditions. The writing appears to be on the wall for how this is going to go. He rejoins in 3rd, 1.5 laps ahead of 4th place (3D racing). 1st (Durkee Walker) and 2nd (Pist'n Broke) place are a few laps ahead of him in their own fight. All 3 miatas plan to go for 2 hour stints, and not stop the rest of the race. I had a talk with Dave before he got in the car and told him he really has to conserve fuel or we're not going to finish. As hard as it is to not go fast, please do not go fast. He does a few laps, gets his bearings and gets up to speed, and with his 1.5 lap buffer back to the 4th place 3D Miata, I get on the radio and tell him "Alright you've had some fun, we need to slow the pace and make sure we finish". Dave, being a racing driver, does not want to go slow. There was a great deal of back and forth over the radio as he mostly-complies and slows the pace by about 4 seconds per lap. He keeps this up for a lot of his stint, but defiantly sets the fastest lap of the weekend to prove a point, protect his pride, so he can smack talk Blake later, whatever. I fire Dave from the team temporarily. What Dave doesn't know is that 3D racing is taking about 5 seconds a lap out of his lead. What I don't know is if the fuel light is flickering and you know what, some things are better left unsaid between the crew chief and the driver. My plan is to let them get a lot closer and then release Dave to drive as fast as he can. I trust Dave can match 3D's pace and keep him behind when it becomes necessary. We must save fuel, we must finish, we must stay ahead of 3D racing and keep our spot on the podium… this is a juggling act that we really don't know if we'll be able to pull off. I'm sitting at the computer watching the times, holding the radio, watching the cars pass by and checking the gap, losing years off the end of my life for the last hour and a half of the race. Unexpectedly, Durkee Walker must have burned too much fuel trying to stay in 1st place, gives up the lead to Pist'n Broke, and starts moving slowly. They pit for fuel, a couple laps ahead of us. By this time the gap between 3D racing and Dave has shrunk to a mere 19 seconds. Everyone in the pits is yelling at me to release Dave to put the hammer down. I refuse. Wait one more lap… 16 second gap. "Dave, the moment you've been waiting for, it's time to push. We're either going to get on the podium or we're going to get towed in." "Copy That!" I can hear the smug grin on his face through the radio. Dave puts the hammer down dropping his lap times 4 seconds, and it appears that 3D racing gets the memo and responds, still running 1.5-2 seconds a lap faster than Dave. Just to make things more nerve-racking, Durkee Walker rejoins right between Dave and 3D, and a battle ensues about 8 seconds behind us. We begin to suspect that the 1st and 4th place miatas may not make it to the end on fuel either, so we plan an emergency pit stop if Dave sputters before 5 minutes to go. 5 minutes left comes and goes, and we're sure Dave will put us on the podium or come in on the hook. Suddenly 3D racing slows and has run out of fuel trying to run Dave down. Doesn't help us in the moment but solidifies our spot on the podium if Dave runs out too. Durkee Walker is charging hard with a fresh fuel stop. They keep taking chunks out of our lead. Race control gives the signal for the 2-minute warning, and we all rush to the wall to cheer on our teams. Dave comes around for our final lap with Durkee Walker just feet behind. We can see his helmet glowing, which turns out to be the fuel light on solid. That is the fuel light we have had an unspoken rule of not discussing. He radios "He's dive bombing!!" and sure enough he tries to dive on the inside of turn 1 but is unsuccessful. Checkered Flag comes out. So here we are not knowing if Dave will be able to hold off Durkee Walker for the rest of the last lap, with no fuel, with a misfiring engine, with a fresh track side head gasket and maybe milkshake oil in our junkyard engine. I have a heart attack from stress while waiting. Then they come around turn 12 and we see our Nissan ahead of Durkee Walker but just barely and start to realize there isn't enough room for him to run us down. Our whole team and maybe some other teams were yelling so loud and jumping up and down like a bunch of idiots. Dave crosses the line in 2nd place .098 ahead of Durkee Walker in 3rd! This is the margin at the checkered flag after 8 hour of racing:
We're hugging and high fiving each other and Dave says on the radio "It's stuck in 4th gear, I can't shift" I reply "whatever Dave you can crash it for all I care". After the race I pumped 0.4 gallons of fuel out of the car, and discovered a tire that had been rubbing that was cut down to the cords.
While not 1st place this was the hardest fought victory I've ever had, and I can probably say the same for the team. It almost feels better that we had such bad luck the day before because I don't know if it would feel this good without it. Thankfully Lucky Dog saw it the same way and awarded us with the Ebay Motors Underdog Award and I got a giant check for $500.
On top of that we brought home a metal dog trophy, $100 Pyrotect gift card, 1 Hankook RS4, $150 in Hawk brakes, and of course our RaceCapture. This was the best race weekend of my life and I don't think I'll ever forget it.
Jan 25, 2023, 12:47 pm · #73
Damn lol