9 replies to this topic

[jsgprod]

Unfortunately, mixed results.

I'm going to keep this as short as I can. The last two weekends my 2015 race season kicked off . Homestead Jan 9-11 and Sebring this past weekend. At both events we had two races each, while the car performed quite well both weekends I was only able to achieve a 3rd and 2nd place finish at the Homestead event. Sebring? All

I managed to come away with was two DNFs unfortunately.

 

Both weekends I was able to put the car on pole in HP for the Saturday races, Homestead I kept it for Sunday Sebring, not so much. But I was still 2nd in HP on the grid.

 

Saturday at Homestead I maintained my lead and built a small 3-4 sec. gap to second...until lap 17&1/2. That's when the shifter broke and left me in 3rd gear. Ended up finishing in third position stuck in third gear.

Sunday I lost the lead at the start but caught up to my competitor (in a 3G Civic FWIW) and we had a great back & forth battle till the end. When I managed to botch the last 3-4 upshift, on the last lap, handing the win to him by about 0.2 seconds.

 

Sebring was depressing. As I mentioned, I started from pole (in class) and kept the lead on the first lap as far as I could. Unfortunately that was only until the Green Park area (turns 8-9) when I had to pull off with a broken left front radius arm.

Sundays race, after driving all the way back home to get my back-up radius arms, ended even sooner than Saturdays. On the warm-up lap I felt & heard some very odd clunking. Then it stopped, but I also noticed the shifter moving A LOT more then it should have been under hard acceleration. At that point I knew I had a broken engine mount of some sort so there was no point in taking a chance and ruining someone elses race. I moved over, waved the field by and drove down pit lane... race over.

 

I discovered only ONE stud remaining of the three that 'were' holding the front engine mount to the block.

Sucks, but as they say when this crap happens at the race track.... do I really need to say it?

 

The only video I have from both weekends.

Homestead, Saturday start:

http://youtu.be/tUmf5g1QvvM

 

Sebring, Saturday Start:   Don't blink, you'll miss it.

http://youtu.be/4nqISMUbegE

[anjin]

Nice report for Homestead, tough luck at Sebring.  All that effort for a couple hundred yards of actual race makes for a hard day at the (other) office.

Similar to me doing the timing belt a few miles short of the actual track.

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

That's a really tough start to the year Jay. Mine doesn't start for five and a half months. I am working on a brand new car for this year. My fiancee is going to drive the one I ran last year. Cage is about 2/3 done but that's it.

[niccer]

Terrible start to the season, but it can only get better from here, right?  Pretty close call on the brake check from the white car going into your second lap!

[1986civicsi]

Jay, sorry to hear about problems at Sebring. Car looked like it was running good at Homestead. I just got my car back from frame shop after Laguna accident. So I missed Ca. Speedway opener. Hope you have better luck with next race.

[Andy69]

That's gotta be frustrating. 

 

Our season doesn't start until March.  I missed the annual charity autocross  at Memphis International Raceway, which was a shame as there were 108 participants and I think I would have easily scored a top 5 finish if not FTD.  More importantly, it would have been a non points shakedown for all the upgrades and repairs I did to the car in December.  I'm always a little skeptical of my ability to put things back together the first time around

[CSPCRX]

I am missing ours, still no CC Plates that work with my Koni struts.  Making me crazy!!  Car is good to go despite this one thing!

[Buford]

Jay, What broke on the shifter exactly?

[CSPCRX]

Not to hijack but just got word from Chedda that revised CC plates are on their way. They are supposed to work with the Konis!!!!!

 

The day before my last event I had the rear motor mount bolt fall completely out of the mount.  Luckily it was on my street so I found it and it wasn't on race day!  That would have really sucked!

Edited by CSPCRX, 25 January 2015 - 10:54 AM.

[jsgprod]

Jay, What broke on the shifter exactly?

 

The short shifter extension that was welded on just below the pivot ball. I made that over 15 years ago and it's worked fine up to that Saturday. I also noticed that it had been breaking in a couple of spots for some time. I just never checked it.

 

I also discovered why I was having trouble with the 3-4 upshift too. I took the cover off between Homestead and Sebring & looked at it very closely. When it was in neutral the (now repaired) extended part of the shifter was not exactly vertical. I checked the distance the shift rod moved when it went into gears 1,3 & 5 as opposed to 2 & 4 and they were a little off. After welding in a ~3/8" extension to the shift rod it worked a lot better. And the shifter was now a lot closer to vertical when in neutral too.

 

Never had one issue with it at Sebring.