Montreal F1600 Weekend
The temptation to go again this year was too great. 2007 was one of the most fun racing weekends I ever had, so my entry fee went in bright and early.
Thursday morning, 8 Am departure from Connecticut was the plan. All loaded up I went around the trailer and SUV to check tire pressures and find a substantial embolism on one valve stem. Jack up the truck, demount the tire from the rim and replace the valve stem, rebalance the wheel and off we go . LESSON1. Valve stems need to be replaced when a street car gets new rubber. Don't cut corners to save a few bucks
One hour into the 6 hour ride up we stop for coffee and a check of the rig. I always put a hand on each tire to look for excessive heat buildup from underinflation, puntures or brake drag. One of the trailer tires is hot, a swap to the spare is executed and we find that the tread is partially delaminated and the tire gets the nickname 'lumpy'. LESSON2. Don a nitrile glove before doing the tire temperature survey, there is a lot of urine resiudue on the tire surface when you park in the trailer/truck lanes.
Arrived at the track after a simple and friendly border crossing. LESSON3, have a printout of the trailer inventory handy for the inspector to look at and stamp and sign.
Got to bike around the track and look at the F1 cars up close as they did pitstop practices and final FIA checks. LESSON4. If you go to the F1 weekend as a F1600 competitor, make sure you get there on Thursday afternoon to do the pit walk
Friday had us on track at the end of the day and all went well. I got to drive on the Dunlops again for the first time in two years and also worked on learning the turn-in and braking points. Two laps before session end, the engine developed a bit of a valve tick. Thought that it might be a rub on the valve cover or a loose adjuster. Diagnostics lead to cam/lifter failure and it was absolutely clear from the following diagnostic innovation by Steve Fog on my crew. Put the car in gear with the rockers off and the pushrods in their holes. Roll the car so that the engine turns over. At the same time feel each pushrod as it goes through its stroking motion. The failing cam lobe/lifter pairs have a destinct crunch to them, while the healthy ones have smooth actuation. LESSON5. Diagnose the situation with all the ideas you can bake up. LESSON6 might be that conventional synthetics are no longer good enough for our engine needs. Many a wise man came by to tell me about a horror story with brand name synthetics and cam failure. To date I have never had this problem and I have had an FF of some sort for 17 year now. Friday AM did include an oil change with a brand new can of Mobil1 Extended Life. From now on I will try RedLine or Joe Gibbs based on the wisdom I was given
LESSON7. Britain West is a class act
LESSON8. David Clubine who owns BW is a gem. He helped me in every way he could. Thanks! Thanks!! Thanks!!!
7;30 Friday evening we commited to pull the engine, clean out what we could and install a cam and lifter set bought from Britain West. The engine was bakc together and ready fo install at midnight. LESSON9. If your crew guys are nuts and competent, you can get a lot done with a bucket of whole grain gold fish and some wine and beer instead of an upscale Montreal restaurant visit. Thanks to Mike, Steve, Rob and Jessica!
Saturday morning the thrash continued and we missed Qualifying by about a 1/2 hour. So what, we start Race1 40th. Race1 was mayhem. The gridding and start were botched in every way. Cars sitting on the grid overheating. Crews not being allowed to the cars to hook up jump batteries, then the crash at the start line. A rolling start was employed based on the lack of experience of a lof of the field. I had looked forward to a standing start, but it was not my call. Some guys up front hooked into each other and tore up a few cars. This brought out a red flag, so a regrid with even worse overheating for most ensued. LESSON10. Make sure your car starts reliably and you can turn it off a few times and get it restarted. Mine did, but I did not plan on it.
Race1 finally gets going and a rythm sets in. I am able to make up some places early and then settle in to battle a few mid 90's Van Diemens who are too quick to draft by, but are running the same lap times. Two laps to go a guy behind me takes a lunge at turn 14 and I let him in only to be hit by another guy who thought that he could come from even more car lengths back and make it stick. The cars are locked together and we spin off to the runoff area and get dragged to safety by a team of marshalls. Guy is gratious about his late dive and we shake hands. The Royale is intact except for side body damage. His more modern car is a bit deranged, but fixable. Contact was all rubber to steel. Fortunately not tire to tire as we both estimate that it would have sent him up in the air. Final position was 28th, in spite of not completing the last two laps
Saturday night repairs went quickly and the crew got a night on the town. LESSON11. Remember to go into town on a race weekend and have some fun! The place was electric with live music and great dining and drinking spots
Sunday early morning Race2 was a lot of fun. Some crashes, but nothing more than local yellows. Got passed under the yellow twice (annoying). Made two mistakes, by running off at turn 7/8 and spinning at the hairpin while trying too hard. Finished in 18th overall with the oldest car in the field. LESSON12. I really still believe that Dunlops are the way to go for FF/NCF. LESSON13, consider going up to the Trois Rivier event to run with this gang again. Hard racing, good teams, Dunlops and 40 FF's on the grid.
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Originally Posted by old 59
