On 2024-08-17 13:12, Tom Elam wrote:
> On 8/13/2024 4:40 PM, Alan wrote:
>> On 2024-08-12 10:16, Alan wrote:
>>
>>> Well, it was great to get back on track.
>> I said there'd be a follow up post and here it is!
>>
>> Sunday morning dawned (very, very thankfully) under cooler
>> temperatures, cloudy skies and even a very small amount of rain. The
>> high for the day was forecast to be down from too high to something
>> that was at least bearable. That having been said, it still ended up a
>> day where hydration was key. I think I drank 2-2.5 litres of water.
>>
>> I arrive at the track at about 8am with very little to do, and as we
>> were going to be the first group out for warm-up, and as it was going
>> to be a track just damp enough to need rain tires, but which would dry
>> out quickly enough that you'd then destroy your rain tires...
>>
>> ...I just decided to give the warm-up a pass. I'd learned all I needed
>> to learn about the track (where the new bumps were, where the
>> organizers had added penalty cones for track limits violations, etc),
>> and about the car (I need to add some rear brake bias.
>>
>> So I thought I'd have nothing more to do than to add a little nitrogen
>> to my tires (American Racers tend to leak a little—especially the
>> highly cantilevered rear tires, and so need refilling at least once
>> when the day begins), give the brake bias knob a couple of turns to
>> "more rear", and unpack for the day.
>>
>> But then I noticed a 6" diameter puddle of oil right below the Van
>> Diemen's combined bell-housing/oil tank/oil overflow tank. What's more
>> from the colour and odor, it could be gearbox oil.
>>
>> I was all set to start looking at the bottom of the car for any
>> indication of where the oil was coming from when my shared crewman,
>> Tom, noticed the faint trail of oil from the sight glass of the
>> overflow tank. Since I started running the car in 2018, I'd never seen
>> any indication that the overflow tank was full, but it certainly was
>> now (after we'd changed the engine oil and as all racers do: added
>> enough to make sure that some would end up in the overflow tank).
>>
>> No problem! (Are we sensing a theme, here? 😉). I'll just find a catch
>> pan (my own having been accidentally left at the shop, take out the
>> small drain plug, and seal it all back up!
>>
>> Only no one had one close handy either. But Erle had what appeared to
>> be an aluminum tray for baked goods (muffins or maybe cinnamon buns)
>> that might do the job. It was certainly short enough to fit beneath
>> the drain hole with the car only up on short stands.
>>
>> I took out the drain plug, and out came the oil, and... ...that catch
>> tank was pretty big. I started to get concerned that we might be
>> overflowing the available vessel, but...
>>
>> No problem!
>>
>> ...the flow started to slow as it got higher and higher in the tray,
>> and I thought I was in the clear...
>>
>> ...when it became apparent that there was a hole in the tray a little
>> more than half way up. And now I had a 3 feet in diameter puddle of
>> oil in my paddock space. Lots of oil absorbents later, it was gone.
>>
>> Let's get to the racing.
>>
>> First race of the day, as the day before, the grid was set from the
>> fastest laps done in the race before that. Warm-up was just that; not
>> a qualifying session. So the FC was on pole and I was gridded next to
>> him. This time, when the flag dropped, Chris had clearly learned a lot
>> from watching me drive (his best lap this race was nearly 2 seconds
>> faster than his best from Saturday), and there was no way I was going
>> to be able to keep pace with him. And John, in the Mallock sports
>> racer with a 2 litre tuned Vauxhall engine was going to be my fight,
>> and it ended up being a fair fight. He could pull away for a while,
>> but only by using his brakes to the point where they'd overheat and
>> he'd have to moderate his pace.
>>
>> So the finish was: 1. Chris in the FC; 2. John in the sports racer 37
>> seconds back; 3. me in the Van Diemen less than a second behind John.
>>
>> Still a pretty good result for running on 2 year old tires.
>>
>> The next race (race 5 of the event) at the egging-on of my crew, I
>> pulled the restrictor to see if it might be possible to run with the
>> FC and beat the Mallock. It wasn't—possible to run with the FC; he
>> still had about a 12% horsepower advantage as well as downforce and
>> Hoosier tires. The Mallock had problems and so didn't factor.
>>
>> What WAS cool, though, is that there was an original Lotus 41 Formula
>> 2 car from the late 1960s that was being driven by Doug (not that
>> Doug; another Doug) who normally drove a Dodge Viper. It had much more
>> rubber than mine and while the engine was a 1.6 litre mill, it was a
>> Cosworth FVA engine with WAY more horsepower than any Formula F; Ford
>> or Honda.
>>
>> The Cosworth FVA was a "proof of concept" engine designed to show Ford
>> what Cosworth could do before they built the famous Ford-Cosworth DFV.
>> It makes something on the order of 200-225hp.
>>
>> The only saving grace was that this was Doug's first time running the
>> car—his first time in any open wheel racer, so it was taking him a
>> while to come to grips with it. This led to us having a super-fun dice
>> with him leading off the start, me passing him for 2nd place, then him
>> passing me again as he got better and better in the car. Our regular
>> on-track photographer, Brent Martin...
>>
>> (shameless plug: martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com)
>>
>> ...was at turn 3 and he must have got dozens of shots of the two cars,
>> separate by at least 30 years, going through nose to tail.
>>
>> In the end, Doug got the better of the battle, but it was so much fun
>> to be a part of (and I wasn't bright enough to have had my GoPro
>> mounted for the race!), and we finished:
>>
>> 1. FC; 2. Lotus 41 F2; 3. Me VD RF98-2 FF only 1.2 seconds behind Doug.
>>
>> And for the last race... ...well... ...I was already gassed. It might
>> not have been as hot as Saturday, but it was hot enough.
>>
>> I simply decided to relax, and ease off to play with Erle Archer in
>> his 1979 Tiga. I left the restrictor pulled, but I played games with
>> myself by going through corners in one gear too high, or not using all
>> the throttle down the straight...
>>
>> ...and in the end...
>>
>> ...because this was the race for which you get a plaque as the
>> "Abbotsford Trophy" winner in FF...
>>
>> ...I backed off coming off turn 9 to let a legal FF take the checkered
>> flag.
>>
>> As the race played out, Erle was leading as we started the final lap,
>> but he left the door too wide open to pass up entering turn 2, and I
>> felt I needed to get past him once more for the fun of it. Then I left
>> the door open in turn 3, and he didn't pass.
>>
>> So I did the only thing that seemed right.
>>
>> All-in-all, a great weekend of racing just for fun; no points. We saw
>> some people and cars that don't normally come out, including Ross
>> Bentley...
>>
>> (shameless plug: speedsecrets.com)
>>
>> ...an alumnus of racing with the SCCBC who went on to drive
>> (occasionally) in IndyCar, and who has become a highly sought-after
>> driving coach.
>>
>> Now, there are three weekends left in the season, and I hope to make
>> all three. I think I can win all 9 of the races, but I suspect that
>> with the points lower (because there will probably be fewer FF drivers
>> out), I don't think that I can win the club championship.
>>
>> Still, there are some folks who didn't make it out to the "Historics"
>> that I'd still like to see on the track.
>>
>> Cheers!
>
> So to sum up, absent Floer, McKay and others, Alan Baker can beat the
> few FF back-runners left that he has regularly beaten easily in the past.

LOL!

And stay with a Formula 2 car with close to double the horsepower.

And beat an FC car with:

More than 20% more horsepower.

Stickier tires

Downforce.

All while on two year old tires.

:-)