I got asked a couple of times today how my race session went, long writeup
03-13-2007, 10:24 PM
#1
1.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 478
I got asked a couple of times today how my race session went, long writeup
Well the 2007 ice racing session is over and I got asked today from two people how it went. So I started typing and this is the ups and downs in 2007.
First weekend, car ran great for about 2 hours. I couldn't ask for anything better. We were making changes to the wing and car. Everything we did made it go faster which was great. After lunch I made a few laps before the races started again. After everything got warm, I started driving hard. Going down the back straight I heard the pop that no-one likes to hear. Well the oil-air box on the back of the motor blow out. After 1 hour at the shop I had the motor out and couldn't find #2 piston. It was a huge pile of crap in the bottom of the pan. We skipped Sundays races, and prepped my spare motor for a complete build. I didn't need to blow up again.
Well being the first Honda I have ever built and only a week to do it, was very hard. I ordered Je pistons, eagle rods, ARP everything, ACL race bearings, Honda gaskets and parts, everything was next day air (379 in shipping charges)
Monday 6pm to 2am
Head got rebuilt, valve job, surfaced, guides, small amount of port work, washed cleaned and assembled.
Tuesday 6pm to 4am
Balanced crank at friends shop, sent pistons out for coating, honed block, checked bearings (wrong ones) wrong headgasket, cleaned out oil cooler and lines.
Weds
6pm to 5am
Assembled the bottom end after I picked up the pistons. Got the head on, timming belt, cams, bolted on the intake. I also fixed up a different pan, welded baffles, and fixed Hondas pick up issue.
Thrusday and Friday was just a fucked up mess. I wasn't sleeping at all and working my 7am to 6 pm wasn't helping at all. I got the car running by 7pm on Friday and spent about 7 hours on the dyno.
Next weekend same track,
Kicked ***, won a few races. Nothing was stopping me, I was driving good and the car was great. I skipped Sunday's endro due to the fact I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore after racing all day on Saturday. Plus the tranny was making a bad crunch into 4th gear.
All week long I learned way to much about B trannies. I wanted to mix match gears but I guess it's not that simple. I found out this by next day airing more damn parts for Acura.
The following weekend was just ok, the wing that I worked so hard on. Crashed at 125 mph, I guess 37 degrees of angle and that much speed was too much for the front lower mount. No real damage to the car beside the fender.
I got a huge break, the Canada race wasn't in the race budjet. 7 hour drive in a loaded down Chevy Subran is not cheap.
The following weekend was my favorite event. Balsam lake is like a rich vacationer hangout. We race right outside a super nice bar-diner. The track is plowed by a Honda driver and the Hondas always good very good there.
AM pratice the car ran better and faster then before. Everything just worked great. I quified 2nd for the first race. The green flag drops and the peice of ---- just miss fired like crazy. I ran about 4 laps and parked it.
We ran to town to buy every damn part we could find.
Cap
Rotor
wires
module
coil
Nothing fixed it
That night I had my Wife drive 3 hours with a reman dissy. We installed it and nothing improved it. 1am my buddy pulls into the motel parking lot. He was sunburnt from welding all day and night
He has been racing hondas for about 10 years. He didn't like the ---- wires that we got intown, so he gave us a set to try. Now very late and cold as ---- out, we headed to the lake. The car ran ------- great down the ice fishermans path. I was at the top of 5th gear with a 24 inch tall tire (fast) and hit some big bumps, crazy fun if you make it out alive.
Sunday AM the endro, 7 laps into it. The CV locked up going into turn 1 at about 90 mph. The steering wheel was locked also because the cage binds up. I pulled the wheel so hard my back tooth loosen up.
Monday at the denist office. 3 hours and 1700 bucks
Tuesday my tooth was about to come out still. Went back to my denist and he gave me my money back and sent me to the Puller. 100 bucks and I got it ripped out of my skull and a bottle of happy pills.
Wednesday Valentines day. This is always a tricky day to get everything done. I worked until about 6
0 then started working on the car until 9:00pm made dinner, humped like bunnies had a early night.
Thrusday my ------- racing buddy desided that he would contiune V-day and didn't think he had to work on the car. So I up until 2 am working on the car, still bleeding from my tooth area, black gums.
Friday went to some bull ---- dinner with my wife, then back to the shop for my first all nighter.
Saturday was complete crap. After about 15 minutes my CV joint once again broke.
Monday I made a bad phone call to a very high price cv joint company. They said too bad!!!
Tuesday night and I still didn't look at my car
Wednesday still no phone from my racing buddy about racing or trying to come up with money for new cv's
Weds PM I called Brian the other Honda racer asked what his plans for the weekend were. He loved the idea of me driving his car during the endro on Sunday if I worked for him on Saturday.
Saturday AM drove up to his house at least a hour drive. Well it was freezing raining and made the trip pretty long. Got up to the race track and had a good time in the pits, trying to make his car go faster. He let me race the rookie race, his 91 whp car just isn’t fun. The track layout was crazy fast, long corners and wide. We started talking to Dave the Honda god in our world about my car and the CV issue. He went to his trailer and grabbed a cv. Brian and I got the bright idea to grab my car and head back with my car. By the way it snowed 6+ inches and coming down hard. We got back to his house and there was a foot on the ground. I had to drive back to my shop to start installing the CV. 3 hours in my s10 back. Brian came out and helped too.
Sunday AM we got up there and it snowed about 2 feet by then. It was crazy, but Brian drives a damn monster truck. He had to bust a path across the lake so the plow guys could get out there.
Sunday afternoon went great. Brian started the race in 4th place. He drove a great first half for never driving my car before (3 times the horsepower). After a hour he brought it in the pits for our driver change, when I was getting in the car and fueling someone rolled a car. They stopped the race, and gave us a huge upper hand. For the restart they started me 3rd. The guys in front were still needing to pit and the 1st place car was smashed up (something to do with the car on it roof)
I spent the next hour on cruise control. Running 2nd place, because I later found out we were one lap behind the leader at the red flag. With about 15 minutes to go the miss fire was back in the worst way. I couldn’t run over 5 grand without it missing like crazy. Well I wasn’t moving past slower cars as fast and my straight line speed was decreasing. I was watching and seeing the pits tell me 3 rd place was right on my ***. I held him off for a few laps as we gained on a semi fast- hard to lap Dodge turbo. With three laps to go we caught the Dodge right before a very tight part of the track(because of the snow banks) thinking it would slow 3rd place from me. Well I clipped 6 foot snow bank and went for a ride. When I first hit the snow dust was impossible to see out any window. I felt the car get very light and starting to spin. I thought for sure the roof was going to cave in. But a very soft landing was a great surprise. When the snow dust settled and I quit peeing myself, I watched 3rd place drive by right in front of me. I was 3 feet off the racing line on all fours. I fired the car back up and cruised to a 3rd place. No damage at all besides my ego. Still a good day of racing.
The next week was pretty easy. Get the car on the dyno and get the miss figured out. I disconnected the MSD (My spark died) box and they car just kept making good horsepower. Change the oil and checked over things very well. Actually we worked are asses on the car. Fixed things up. Washed it, change tranny fluid, repacked CV joints, bleed brakes, and fun stuff like that. And it snowed like I haven’t seen in years. 4 foot drifts in front of the shop and my house.
Brian, my racing buddy and I show up on Saturday AM like on a mission. It was the last race of the year. The car was running at it’s finest(more boost-less fuel) and we still had tires. This track is normally super fast and wide. But with the snow it was small and curving, and always inbetween gears. It was going to be a good weekend I knew. Well in the AM Brian put it off, I put it off and the fuel pump wire fell off. It is always fun working in a 18 cell fixing wiring at zero degrees.
Well the first race I went out and our fix didn’t work and fell off again. The motor just shut off and before I could do anything that damn Dodge rearended me hard. It was like being kicked in the back of the head.
We get it fixed and Brian takes it out. He became a punching bag for a slow VW out there. Now the whole left side is messed up. It’s my racing buddies turn to drive. He door slaps a Saab and a couple laps later the Saab drills the rear quarter in rage. The rear axle got moved about 4.5 inches forward and the sheet metal was rubbing the tire. After a couple of hours we got it back somewhat straight again. We pulled on it with my truck and Brian’s monster truck.
Sunday we started 4th, Brian went out and ran a ok race. At the hour mark he brought it in telling me it missed a couple times. I jumped in a made a half a lap and it just died. At that point I put it on the trailer and came home.
2500 dollars over budget
one banged up car
a weeks worth of cleaning up to do
4 percent leak down on the motor
1600 dollars worth of tires junk
102 gallons of race gas used
no brakes left in the car
10 months until next ice-race session
My wife asked “was it worth it?”
I said “down the straight at 7000 rpm 4th gear 12 pounds of boost, 180 water temp, 14 volts, 55 psi oil pressure, pulling away from 20 year old newer cars with deeper pockets, HELL YES!!!!!!!!”
At this point I have to thank a couple of people for their hard work
My wife and dog for putting up with the most ---- over the past
My dad for have the lights on late in the shop
Jesse, Brian, Dave, Mike my racing friends for all their track support
Hrpworld.com for my racing supplies
The Deerwood motel for the great rooms at a cheap price
Blaast Performance for the great Garrett turbo and the best customer service
Chris at Xenocron for all my programming supplies and support
Sean at Burkle Acura for the hook up on Acura and Honda parts
The guys at Acestainless for the manifold and turbo plumbing
BMC flanges, (Sam the flange man) is my nick name for Sam
All the good people on Homemadeturbo.com and Redpepperracing.com
Tim @ Kath auto for the race gas
Menard racing tires for the great traction that we have
Fast wings for the downforce
First weekend, car ran great for about 2 hours. I couldn't ask for anything better. We were making changes to the wing and car. Everything we did made it go faster which was great. After lunch I made a few laps before the races started again. After everything got warm, I started driving hard. Going down the back straight I heard the pop that no-one likes to hear. Well the oil-air box on the back of the motor blow out. After 1 hour at the shop I had the motor out and couldn't find #2 piston. It was a huge pile of crap in the bottom of the pan. We skipped Sundays races, and prepped my spare motor for a complete build. I didn't need to blow up again.
Well being the first Honda I have ever built and only a week to do it, was very hard. I ordered Je pistons, eagle rods, ARP everything, ACL race bearings, Honda gaskets and parts, everything was next day air (379 in shipping charges)
Monday 6pm to 2am
Head got rebuilt, valve job, surfaced, guides, small amount of port work, washed cleaned and assembled.
Tuesday 6pm to 4am
Balanced crank at friends shop, sent pistons out for coating, honed block, checked bearings (wrong ones) wrong headgasket, cleaned out oil cooler and lines.
Weds
6pm to 5am
Assembled the bottom end after I picked up the pistons. Got the head on, timming belt, cams, bolted on the intake. I also fixed up a different pan, welded baffles, and fixed Hondas pick up issue.
Thrusday and Friday was just a fucked up mess. I wasn't sleeping at all and working my 7am to 6 pm wasn't helping at all. I got the car running by 7pm on Friday and spent about 7 hours on the dyno.
Next weekend same track,
Kicked ***, won a few races. Nothing was stopping me, I was driving good and the car was great. I skipped Sunday's endro due to the fact I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore after racing all day on Saturday. Plus the tranny was making a bad crunch into 4th gear.
All week long I learned way to much about B trannies. I wanted to mix match gears but I guess it's not that simple. I found out this by next day airing more damn parts for Acura.
The following weekend was just ok, the wing that I worked so hard on. Crashed at 125 mph, I guess 37 degrees of angle and that much speed was too much for the front lower mount. No real damage to the car beside the fender.
I got a huge break, the Canada race wasn't in the race budjet. 7 hour drive in a loaded down Chevy Subran is not cheap.
The following weekend was my favorite event. Balsam lake is like a rich vacationer hangout. We race right outside a super nice bar-diner. The track is plowed by a Honda driver and the Hondas always good very good there.
AM pratice the car ran better and faster then before. Everything just worked great. I quified 2nd for the first race. The green flag drops and the peice of ---- just miss fired like crazy. I ran about 4 laps and parked it.
We ran to town to buy every damn part we could find.
Cap
Rotor
wires
module
coil
Nothing fixed it
That night I had my Wife drive 3 hours with a reman dissy. We installed it and nothing improved it. 1am my buddy pulls into the motel parking lot. He was sunburnt from welding all day and night
He has been racing hondas for about 10 years. He didn't like the ---- wires that we got intown, so he gave us a set to try. Now very late and cold as ---- out, we headed to the lake. The car ran ------- great down the ice fishermans path. I was at the top of 5th gear with a 24 inch tall tire (fast) and hit some big bumps, crazy fun if you make it out alive.Sunday AM the endro, 7 laps into it. The CV locked up going into turn 1 at about 90 mph. The steering wheel was locked also because the cage binds up. I pulled the wheel so hard my back tooth loosen up.
Monday at the denist office. 3 hours and 1700 bucks
Tuesday my tooth was about to come out still. Went back to my denist and he gave me my money back and sent me to the Puller. 100 bucks and I got it ripped out of my skull and a bottle of happy pills.
Wednesday Valentines day. This is always a tricky day to get everything done. I worked until about 6
0 then started working on the car until 9:00pm made dinner, humped like bunnies had a early night.Thrusday my ------- racing buddy desided that he would contiune V-day and didn't think he had to work on the car. So I up until 2 am working on the car, still bleeding from my tooth area, black gums.
Friday went to some bull ---- dinner with my wife, then back to the shop for my first all nighter.
Saturday was complete crap. After about 15 minutes my CV joint once again broke.
Monday I made a bad phone call to a very high price cv joint company. They said too bad!!!
Tuesday night and I still didn't look at my car
Wednesday still no phone from my racing buddy about racing or trying to come up with money for new cv's
Weds PM I called Brian the other Honda racer asked what his plans for the weekend were. He loved the idea of me driving his car during the endro on Sunday if I worked for him on Saturday.
Saturday AM drove up to his house at least a hour drive. Well it was freezing raining and made the trip pretty long. Got up to the race track and had a good time in the pits, trying to make his car go faster. He let me race the rookie race, his 91 whp car just isn’t fun. The track layout was crazy fast, long corners and wide. We started talking to Dave the Honda god in our world about my car and the CV issue. He went to his trailer and grabbed a cv. Brian and I got the bright idea to grab my car and head back with my car. By the way it snowed 6+ inches and coming down hard. We got back to his house and there was a foot on the ground. I had to drive back to my shop to start installing the CV. 3 hours in my s10 back. Brian came out and helped too.
Sunday AM we got up there and it snowed about 2 feet by then. It was crazy, but Brian drives a damn monster truck. He had to bust a path across the lake so the plow guys could get out there.
Sunday afternoon went great. Brian started the race in 4th place. He drove a great first half for never driving my car before (3 times the horsepower). After a hour he brought it in the pits for our driver change, when I was getting in the car and fueling someone rolled a car. They stopped the race, and gave us a huge upper hand. For the restart they started me 3rd. The guys in front were still needing to pit and the 1st place car was smashed up (something to do with the car on it roof)
I spent the next hour on cruise control. Running 2nd place, because I later found out we were one lap behind the leader at the red flag. With about 15 minutes to go the miss fire was back in the worst way. I couldn’t run over 5 grand without it missing like crazy. Well I wasn’t moving past slower cars as fast and my straight line speed was decreasing. I was watching and seeing the pits tell me 3 rd place was right on my ***. I held him off for a few laps as we gained on a semi fast- hard to lap Dodge turbo. With three laps to go we caught the Dodge right before a very tight part of the track(because of the snow banks) thinking it would slow 3rd place from me. Well I clipped 6 foot snow bank and went for a ride. When I first hit the snow dust was impossible to see out any window. I felt the car get very light and starting to spin. I thought for sure the roof was going to cave in. But a very soft landing was a great surprise. When the snow dust settled and I quit peeing myself, I watched 3rd place drive by right in front of me. I was 3 feet off the racing line on all fours. I fired the car back up and cruised to a 3rd place. No damage at all besides my ego. Still a good day of racing.
The next week was pretty easy. Get the car on the dyno and get the miss figured out. I disconnected the MSD (My spark died) box and they car just kept making good horsepower. Change the oil and checked over things very well. Actually we worked are asses on the car. Fixed things up. Washed it, change tranny fluid, repacked CV joints, bleed brakes, and fun stuff like that. And it snowed like I haven’t seen in years. 4 foot drifts in front of the shop and my house.
Brian, my racing buddy and I show up on Saturday AM like on a mission. It was the last race of the year. The car was running at it’s finest(more boost-less fuel) and we still had tires. This track is normally super fast and wide. But with the snow it was small and curving, and always inbetween gears. It was going to be a good weekend I knew. Well in the AM Brian put it off, I put it off and the fuel pump wire fell off. It is always fun working in a 18 cell fixing wiring at zero degrees.
Well the first race I went out and our fix didn’t work and fell off again. The motor just shut off and before I could do anything that damn Dodge rearended me hard. It was like being kicked in the back of the head.
We get it fixed and Brian takes it out. He became a punching bag for a slow VW out there. Now the whole left side is messed up. It’s my racing buddies turn to drive. He door slaps a Saab and a couple laps later the Saab drills the rear quarter in rage. The rear axle got moved about 4.5 inches forward and the sheet metal was rubbing the tire. After a couple of hours we got it back somewhat straight again. We pulled on it with my truck and Brian’s monster truck.
Sunday we started 4th, Brian went out and ran a ok race. At the hour mark he brought it in telling me it missed a couple times. I jumped in a made a half a lap and it just died. At that point I put it on the trailer and came home.
2500 dollars over budget
one banged up car
a weeks worth of cleaning up to do
4 percent leak down on the motor
1600 dollars worth of tires junk
102 gallons of race gas used
no brakes left in the car
10 months until next ice-race session
My wife asked “was it worth it?”
I said “down the straight at 7000 rpm 4th gear 12 pounds of boost, 180 water temp, 14 volts, 55 psi oil pressure, pulling away from 20 year old newer cars with deeper pockets, HELL YES!!!!!!!!”
At this point I have to thank a couple of people for their hard work
My wife and dog for putting up with the most ---- over the past
My dad for have the lights on late in the shop
Jesse, Brian, Dave, Mike my racing friends for all their track support
Hrpworld.com for my racing supplies
The Deerwood motel for the great rooms at a cheap price
Blaast Performance for the great Garrett turbo and the best customer service
Chris at Xenocron for all my programming supplies and support
Sean at Burkle Acura for the hook up on Acura and Honda parts
The guys at Acestainless for the manifold and turbo plumbing
BMC flanges, (Sam the flange man) is my nick name for Sam
All the good people on Homemadeturbo.com and Redpepperracing.com
Tim @ Kath auto for the race gas
Menard racing tires for the great traction that we have
Fast wings for the downforce
03-13-2007, 10:41 PM
#4
3.0 BAR
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 2,299
Re: I got asked a couple of times today how my race session went, long writeup
nice to here ya had a fun time. too bad the outcome couldnt have been better for you. theres always next year though. i want to do something similar like you except road race my TA. autos suck at road racing though :P so i gotta find a way to get 2 grand together for a tremec 5 or 6 speed... 
but im lookin to have fun in one way or another. get us some pics of the car again if ya dont mind. always nice to see how it looks after a good ping pong match.
but im lookin to have fun in one way or another. get us some pics of the car again if ya dont mind. always nice to see how it looks after a good ping pong match.
03-13-2007, 10:47 PM
#8
1.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 478
Re: I got asked a couple of times today how my race session went, long writeup
Right before it's first race.
Club info
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/icerace/
Many more pictures
http://www.jimsracing.com/
Club info
http://www.angelfire.com/mn/icerace/
Many more pictures
http://www.jimsracing.com/
