High Plains Raceway

[Mike Holland]

The Double National at High Plains Raceway currently has 6 entries.

03 LaBrie, John 2010 Phoenix Race Works F1K10 Draper, UT
5 Latham, Jake 2012 Stohr F1000 Broomfield, CO
11 Biner, Terry 2010 Firman F. B. Sandy, UT
13 Adams,Robert 2011 Speads RM11A Denver, CO
67 Ash, Christopher 2010 Speads RM 11 A Centennial, CO
83 Osborne, J.R. 2010 Stohr F1000 Stohr Village, CO

Since this is one of the BF Goodrich Super Tour races there should be live timing also
http://www.livetiming.net/

Good luck to all.

[Northwind]

It looks like this has the makings for a good race. How about your car Mike. Is it ready for the track yet?

[Wren]

That is a good field.

Can someone post a schedule so that we know when to watch live timing?

[Peter Olivola]

This should do ya'

[JakeL]

Can't wait!

First time out in the new car. Looking forward to seeing everybody again too.

Might be a few other late comers too I hope, I know there are a few other F1000's in the area if we can get them to come play...

J

[Richard Dziak]

Jake, you might have a new F1000 an be counted as the new kid on the block, (first timer to F1000) but I would be a betting man that your number #1 on the Podium.

Your one heck of a driver. I remember the Radical and Stohr well.

[Jnovak]

Great entries guys, good work. Get enough races in to qualify for the Runoffs!

Thanks ... Jay Novak

[Mike Holland]

OAP No. CLS DRIVER NAME BESTIME
2 13 FB Robert Adams 1:44.401
3 83 FB J R Osbourne 1:45.325
5 67 FB Christopher Ash 1:45.891
8 11 FB Terry Biner 1:49.677
12 03 FB John LaBrie 1:51.272

Don't know what has happened to Jake Latham.

[JohnPaul]

Damn,,, this kid Robert Adams must be one hell of a driver. (and in a speads??)

[Mike Holland]

Wow looks like a good race. Hope we get a report from someone there.

OAP No. DRIVER NAME NL DIFF LAPTIME GAP FL BESTIME BSPEED LED
2 83 J R Osbourne 18 28.312 1:53.376 28.312 8 1:44.617 87.749 0
4 11 Terry Biner 18 91.341 1:49.686 35.813 5 1:49.146 84.108 0
12 67 Christopher Ash 17 47.596 1:47.903 1.098 7 1:45.102 87.344 0
14 03 John LaBrie 17 64.934 2:01.724 10.474 12 1:50.157 83.336 0
22 13 Robert Adams 15 3LAPS 8:55.870 26.000 7 1:46.380 86.294 0

There was one fast DSR that lead every lap.

[Richard Dziak]

Any word on Jake Latham why he didn't run his new Stohr?

[JakeL]

Hi All -

Busy weekend thus far!

Thought I'd fill in some details from here at the track, using the free HPR wireless (looking at *you* Mosport...)

Conditions: Extremely hot here in Colorado - 105 ambient, and yesterday, my datalogger was reporting 130* logger temperature. Lots of cars reporting overheating problems - water, water wetter, and engine ice all being used judiciously I would say.

At 5500' elevation, 105* heat with basically zero humidity is the most difficult situation for cooling anywhere in the USA. Density altitude approaching 9000 feet means there's simply no air molecules to cool the radiators, run over the wings, the brakes, or for the engines to breathe - it's a whole different experience from racing at sea level. At least among the tracks I have been to, nothing remotely approaches HPR for the diffciulty of heat rejection in the car.

First, the interesting bits, collecting a bit of information about the race. Looks like the front row was Kirk in a Speads DSR, and Rob in his Speads F1000, with JRO third, having run a failed setup experiment.

Folks asked above about Rob (not exactly a kid - heh). Rob has raced here in Colorado for the past few years in a Radical PR6. At the end of last year he sold that car and bought a nearly new Speads F1000 to come race. We used to race together back when we both had Prosports - Rob's a great guy, super nice, and obviously a good driver!

I'll put my hand up and also add my surprise that the Speads are showing the excellent pace they seem to be thus far. JR reported that the excellent mechanical grip the Speads have was very noticable today in slower corners, and it was only in the higher speed corners that the Stohr aero package seemed to work better. Richard and his guys are working with Alain Clarinval on aero and setup stuff, and the injection of new knowledge and experience seems to be paying off.

From what I was able to piece together, JR got an excellent start and took the inside into turn 1, and led down the back straight, and Kirk in the DSR passed him into T4. At some point it sounds like Rob spun. It also sounds like Chris Ash was running very closely with JR towards the beginning of the race, but got chopped by an inattentive S2 (there are some...unaware S2 drivers in our region) and that put paid to his race. Final result, JRO first with fast lap, with Terry Biner coming through clean, and Chris Ash recovering to take the last podium Spot. New best for John LaBrie during the race, and kudos to Chris Ash only .5 behind JRO on pace, so he's really come a long way since moving over from SM a few years ago.

For my part, I was having terrible overheating problems during Friday's testing. 2-3 laps, up to 240* on the water, oil barely even 200*. Threw all the normal tricks at it to increase cooling, but finally decided that it had to be something more insidious. In similar heat a month ago, the car never ran more than 205. John fairly insisted that I use his spare engine, so we spent today changing the motor, on the assumption the current one has a head gasket issue. I did have a water line split during my last test, so I am guessing that perhaps the engine may have gotten very hot during that episode. Guessing only until Cap'n Dean takes his look.

we're now back here at the track after the engine change. JRO is headed home (work calls), so it will be five FB's tomorrow again. My goal is simply to finish the race, based on how difficult the gestation of this car has been thus far! If I can be within shooting distance of the pace the Speads are showing I'll be thrilled - I still really have no concept of what kind of lap times I will be able to do in this car...

More reporting as I'm able tomorrow - wish me luck, evidently I need it so far!

Cheers,

-Jake

[Revs2-12k]

Jake,

Good luck today and keep us updated when you get a chance.

[BennyBad]

goodluck jake
bring it home the way it went to the track
benny

[Northwind]

Good luck Jake,

Get the finishes and bring it to the run offs. It'much cooler there....

[crowe motorsports]

One of my two Van Diemen F1000 cars is Randy Mitchell's that regularly ran the Miller track in blistering hot conditions. He ingeniously engineered water misters for both the oil cooler and water radiator. He used expandable water bags that were molded into cavities of the bead seat with quick connect capilaries that ran to a pump and pressure tank and then spray nozzles located in each side pod. Looking in the car you did not even see the system. On the dash was a flip switch to activate.

BTW - anyone looking for a Van Diemen F1000? I still have one for sale

Michael

[Brett Lane]

Good luck Jake...

Just out of curiosity, just how hot did your engine get on the previous episode? Specifically oil temp? What did George say?

Just curious, I've had similar issues.

Regards,

Brett

[glenn cooper]

Jake on the engine swap.
The GSXR will never tolerate an overheat episode.
They will cool off, everything will look and smell fine - but the damage has been done.
They'll start up and run, and sound fine at the next event, and then BAMMO!

By pulling the engine, you have something that may be able to be refreshed.
If overheated bad enough I have seen the head warp, so ya may need another one of those, but still miles ahead.

GC

[Mike Holland]

Swapin' the engine must have done it. He is on the FB pole with a 1:43.***
Way to go Jake.

[JRO183]

...yeah, but it's a dry heat. Ted and I figured we go and try a track that we didn't have to travel over 1000 miles to get to. In fact, this is the first time I ever raced my Stohr F1000 in Colorado.

This was also the first time I've raced at HPR. Couldn't do the test day on Friday because work is really busy right now (hail storms = mucho roofing jobs). Went out with some 6"/8" R25 Hoosiers in practice (tires I had from last year's Runoffs) and car felt balanced, but not a lot of grip. Was thinking it was the used tires. Top of time charts though.

Put on some new R35's for qualifying and had zero grip. The track does not seem to have a lot of grip. There is a lot of slow speed turns and just could not get on the power. To top it off, my rear gurney flap decided it has enough of the heat and jumped ship. That made it even worse.

More concerning was just finishing the race as my water temps were 220 in the morning. The high altitude is a whole set of new problems. You need wide rubber and lot's of downforce at HPR to be fast. We know that know but had to race what we had. Ended up using the wore out R25's because I had no confidence in the 35's.

Got a killer start and got my the DSR and FB Speads going into turn 1. Let the 1st lap until the DSR got by me on the straight on lap 2. Chris Ash was right there for half the race until he got tangled up with a lapper. I kept pressing because the FB pole setter was only 11 seconds behind. He dropped out with about 5 laps to go (I think fuel pump). I backed way down because my water was at 225!! Nice to finish the race in those conditions.

Had a pow wow with Jake on what he should do to his set up and it looks like it was a step in the right direction.

Thanks to Ted for wrenching in the heat and to Greg Moon for giving me a motor that went the distance.

Ok, back to work. Take care guys!!!

[Mike Holland]

P No. - DRIVER NAME NL DIFF LAPTIME FL BESTIME GAP
2 5 - Jake Latham 18 16.502 2:32.263 4 1:44.297 16.502
5 67 - Christopher Ash 18 59.289 2:21.352 13 1:45.802 2.647
6 11 - Terry Biner 18 1:11.983 2:31.860 12 1:47.313 12.694
7 03 - John LaBrie 18 1:39.259 2:31.895 14 1:48.534 27.276

Congradulations Jake on the first win.

[Revs2-12k]

Congrats Jake!

[Nicholas Belling]

Congrats to everyone for enduring the weekend temperatures and extremes and Making it through !

impressive job JR for a new track and zero seat time to test on prior to literally going into RACE 1 ..

Jake for your outing in your new car and persistenct to push on through a motor change and fastest time OAL for weekend in FB

the speads and their performance. impressive

Terry and labrie awesome jobs !!

Good to see the reliability of the Firman and the 09-11 suzuki engine Biner is running !!

[JakeL]

Briefly: Wahoo! Pole, fast lap, track record, and the race win. Even had fun nipping at the heels of Kirk in the DSR for the first few laps before the temps came up (again) and I just took it easy for the rest of the race.

Huge thanks to John LaBrie for giving me his spare engine to run with (same temperature issues as before, unfortunately), and to JRO for being everpresent on the phone for suggestions and ideas.

Much more later, but thrilled to have a nice payoff a the end of a long weekend, and a longer gestation for the car.

Time to find a solution for cooling the car in thin air before Miller! JR and I were definitely running hot in the Stohr, I hear Terry was seeing 230, and the Speads 230-240, and John was able to get his car down to 220 by removing almost all the right-sidepod bodywork and adding a gurney flap in front of the radiator exit. Wicked heat. I managed mine to 235 or so the whole race, which was still way too hot for comfort.

-J

[Richard Dziak]

When I raced my Phoenix F1K-07 in Colorado the temps outside were very hot, and the water temp carried @ 230-240....Never had problems with the engine.

The high altitude, thin air and excess heat is not a only a problem for the engine temps, but a huge problems for the driver. The excess heat can really drain the driver's energy level.

Congratulations on a great day. Certainly thought even before the race, you'd be #1 on the podium. Enjoy the F1000, these are great cars, and a blast to drive.

I am sure you will.

[JakeL]

Knowing the standard to which we in the F1000 community are held with the ink-stained wretch Giancarlo DiCoopola as pulitzer-class race reporter, allow me to humbly submit my attempt at an F1000-worthy race report, with video and some images:

http://www.jakelatham.com/f1000/raci...7-01-hpr.shtml

I'll copy it below for those that don't click links

-J

[JakeL]

99 Cents, 99 degrees

Prologue: Shenzhou China, November 2011

A factory, like many others, sits on the banks of small river in China. Its purpose: manufacture of automotive rubber hose. A humble pursuit, yes, but one of many manufacturing pursuits required by modern world. Inside this factory are lines upon lines of machines dedicated to this pursuit - rubber hoses of all size, shape and color issuing forth from machines in endless ropes, always under the careful eye of their operators.

At one such machine sits Lu Jiong Ken, an unremarkable machine operator in this unremarkable factory. He is in his early thirties, and tired from an unrelenting 12-hour shift among the grime and cacophany of noise inside the factory. It is the end of his shift, and he is thinking mostly of getting home to his family, and thawing his feet, cold from the chill in the factory's none-too-warm interior. A buzzer sounds on the machine as a measurement goes out of spec. The sound is lost among the din of the machine's mechanical labors, and in his fatigue, Chen does not see the accompanying warning light. As his shift ends, he shuts off the machine until the next operator comes in to take over.

Meanwhile, in the hopper which contains the machine's product, a certain length of hose sits, produced by the machine while it warned of something being slightly awry. Unnoticed, the length of hose is eventually put on a container ship, where after a three month journey, it arrives in the United States, and is put in a warehouse. Some time later, it arrives at a small race car manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest, and still later, arrives at the shop of an excited - and verbose - race car owner in Northern Colorado. The hose waits, its defining moment yet to come.

Byers, Colorado, May 2012

It is impossible to tell the story of this particular race weekend without telling at least a bit of the background. Those of you that have read through the build log of the lengthy and slightly troubled gestation of this car will know that getting to the race weekend itself has been long in coming. Our final test day of three came in late May, after battling some bad electronics (master switch), some bad brake lines (flares), and the usual expected list of new car teething issues.

However, during the final session of the day in our test, one unexpected problem occurred: a bleed hose from the radiator to the swirl pot split down its length midway through a session, resulting in the car puking out most of its water before temperatures rose and I returned to the pits. Though we replaced the line and refilled everything, and the engine seemed to be just fine in a subsequent session, it still cast a shadow of doubt upon whether or not any damage had been done.

After such a long trip from China, and lying in wait for so long, the proverbial 99 cent length of rubber hose may have managed to ruin a $2,000 engine.

Friday: Easy Bake Motor

So then it was, with great excitement, some trepidation, and of course, a new -4 braided stainless radiator bleed line that we arrived at High Plains Raceway for this car's debut. Some 4 weeks, one wedding, and one honeymoon later, here I was back at the race track to have some good ol' fun.

The plan was fairly simple: do a bit of a shakedown, scrub some tires, and then get started with seeing if I could find a balance that would work to race with for the weekend. Things started smoothly, but when we put on a set of old tires and began to try setting some times, I noticed water temperatures getting hot very quickly - within 3-4 laps. During our previous tests, we'd seen only 200-215 or so on the water. Things that make you go "Hmmmmmm!"

Not to say that conditions didn't warrant it. 100* ambient temperature, almost no humidity, and 5000' elevation means very thin air, which means no air for downforce, no air for the brakes, and most critically, no air molecules to run over the radiator and take away the heat from the cooling system. Other folks were having trouble too - All the F1000's were running quite hot, but it seemed I was having more trouble than most.

A series of short sessions and attempts at fixes ensued: draining the water to put in a pure water mix, adding water wetter, Indian rain dances, Indian tech support, and attempting to bleed the system as completely as possible in case I just wasn't bleeding the thing completely. Nothing helped.

So, we were faced with an an engine that wouldn't cool, and yet no obvious symptoms of a problem (not pushing water, held pressure with the radiator pressure test). Based on head scratching, consultation with the heavens, and chatting with some other mechanics, I concluded the engine must have a head gasket issue, and concluded therefore that our race weekend was finis.

Enter the smiling face and jovial laughter of one John LaBrie, fellow F1000 competitor and keeper of the "beer so cold it'll make your teeth hurt." Upon hearing that we were a'packing up and heading (quite literally) for the hills, John fairly insisted that we take his spare engine and install it in the car to be able to run. I spent the next hour and a half walking the paddock looking for somebody with a hoist, engine stand, something, and came up totally empty. In the meantime, John sends me a text message: "Engine is in your paddock spot. Do with it what you will."

With that sort of generosity in hand, what could we possibly do but oblige? Bereft of an engine hoist at the track, we decided to load 'em up, drove the 2 hours back to the shop, and headed home for some sleep.

Saturday: Presto Chango

And so it was that at 7:00 Saturday morning I found myself shrugging on not nomex and helmet, but overalls and Mechanix gloves, in order to change an engine. John's spare engine was a brand spankin' new example from Mr. Dean, and was configured slightly differently from my own engine, so we ended up taking about 7 hours overall, including a high-tension fix of some munged threads inside the front engine mount.

In due time, the engine was changed, and we hightailed it (we "hightail" places out here in the Rocky Mountain West) back to the race track to register, get the car's annual, logbook, and official pope's blessing so that we could compete on Sunday.

Having gotten to the track, all of that was accomplished in due time, and once again I availed myself of some of Pete Coors' finest from Mr. LaBrie's stock while having a brief powow with JR Osborne in terms of setup options for Sunday, JR having run on all he had - some old, narrow, R25 Hoosiers from Runoffs - not precisely the hot ticket for a 100* day on a maximum downforce kind of track, as it turns out.

Sunday: Right into the fire

Sunday's schedule did not include any practice time, which meant first session out was going to be qualifying. Needing to at least get a lap in to check for leaks, I did a hardship lap before the first session of the day. We did in fact find a good leak. Whilst removing John's Geartronics gear position sensor in favor for the Suzuki one, I'd neglected to make sure the O-ring for the stock sensor was in place, and found myself with a nice big oil leak on the left side upholding our recent tradition of having at least one noteworthy leak on the left hand side of the car's floor. That was corrected with one from Richard Cottrill's collection, and all was well.

So then: Qualifying. Good thing you've got lots of time in the car, are confident of the engine, tires, setup, and know exactly what to expect...right? Yeah...that. Experience, don't fail me now.

Fortunately, luckily, happily, divinely, the car setup was almost dead on. Going into qualifying, I had no clue if I was going to be ahead of the pace, way behind, or somewhere in between, or even if the car would have a driveable balance. It seems that getting the setup right on the F1000 is a bit tougher than the DSR, since your adjustments are hanging way out at either end of the car, instead of being big fat tunnels right in the middle. Fortunately, small rake adjustments still seem to work quite well overall.

Having not set any true hot laps all weekend, I had no concept of what to expect. The Speads guys were quite confident from the day before, having been close to on terms with JR in his Stohr. That led me to believe I'd probably have my hands full with them, being under no illusions as to my pace relative to JR's! Happily, with the setup being so nice, I was able to immediately push and get comfortable with the car.

Ah, but here is the twist in our story: Remember our erstwhile section of much-maligned bleed hose, which ostensibly caused our engine problem. Not so fast, Inspector. Rather than nice cool water temps as I'd expected, immediately they began to climb once again, peaking at 238 when I backed out of it on lap 6, seeing a 1:43.8 on my dash. I had to figure that was going to be in the hunt, and unless I backed out, I was going to have nothing but shrapnel in the engine bay behind me.

Here, ladies and gentlemen, we have what one would call mixed emotions. This means the old engine is OK...Celebration Maurice! Buttttttt, this means the car doesn't cool well enough for the extremes of air and temperature that we have here in Colorado...sadness. More importantly, it means we might have high blood pressure in a month at Miller Motorsports Park too.

Accordingly, I resumed my casting about the paddock, this time in search of water wetter. I found it -- no surprise by now -- at Cap'n LaBrie's House of F1000 Parts. Water wetter thusly committed to the cooling system, we began the process of rationalization, prayer, sacrifice, and self-denial in order to convince ourselves that the car would now magically cool itself. It worked: we convinced ourselves it'd be OK.

Race time! My qualifying time had put me between the two Speads DSR's in second overall, somewhat ahead of Chris Ash in the first FB, who had spun and exploded his third starter of the weekend early on in qualifying. JR had gone home in order to take advantage of the bounty hail had left for the roofing biz. John and Terry were lurking somewhat further back in the field. Rob Adams did not run, having suffered fuel pump problems the day before, and I believe that car had also been DQ'd for a wing being too wide, so Rob had exited stage West and returned to Denver - that would be "hightailed it and headed for the hills," in Colorado parlance.

This being a BFG Super Tour event, we had the HPR pace car out, and we set out for our pace lap. Kirk in the DSR and I lined up side-by-side on the front row, and when the green flew, off we went! Kirk got a slightly better start and led into T1, but a small wiggle in 2 had me right on his gearbox (spar?) by the middle of turn 2, and we exited 3 in lockstep. He pulled a bit of length down the back straightaway to 4, but a small wiggle in 4 and a big ol' tankslapper in 5 let me get a run down his inside on the way to T6, locally known as "Danny's Lesson." In this instance, it was "Kirk's Lesson," that lesson being "You are not going to get by me" as Kirk moved over suddenly as we came to the corner entry, forcing me to brake substantially in order to keep my front wing and nosebox on intimate terms with eachother.

That was the last challenge I ever really had to Kirk's lead, though the lead ebbed and stretched somewhat during the first six laps of the race, depending on the traffic we encountered. A few times he was balked substantially and I found myself back on his rear wing. Ultimately, my temperatures came up, and I realized I was not racing him anyway, so I backed off, and short-shifted my way to the checkered flag, never having seen the rest of the field in my mirrors after lap 2. Kirk came in with the overall win, and I was somewhat behind, taking the win in F1000.

Allow me to put in a "I'd like to thank the academy" section: First, the Hoosiers were outstanding even in the heat - no change from lap 1 to lap 18, despite the brutal track temperature. Second, John LaBrie for allowing the weekend to happen, Richard at Rilltech for the steady exchange of parts between the two of us, JRO for the phone-in tech support, and of course, my faithful crew and parents, dear ol' Mom and Dad.

How could you be any happier than that to start off with a new car?

[crowe motorsports]

Jake

Congrats on making a weekend that started out as a PITA a great success. Yes Glen the Coop now has a colorful writer to compete with on and off the track. I had to look up the term MUNGE and determined it to be a computer nerd term. But it works OK for cross thread I guess. Also BTW, the term (Head for the Hills) is used regularly in the South (especially Tennessee and Kentucky). Of course you do have bigger hills than we do.

Best of luck at Miller. Wish I could be there. With the entry list, it will be the biggest F1000 participation at a National this year.

[JRO183]

Hey Jake,

Great job on Sunday. I'm really happy that it all came together and you finished strong. You are probably the nicest guy out there and I'm rooting for you even if I'm in the same race!!

Look forward to running with you and everyone at Miller.

J.R.O

[JerryH]

After reading this a couple of times, I still have to ask.... just what is considered the max acceptible temp for water and oil in the suzuki.

Thanks,

Jerry

[ghickman]

Jerry
In my opinion anything greater than 230 water and 225 oil sustained is a failure waiting to happen.

Ideal 190 water and 215 oil makes best HP and these engines seem happy with those numbers.

[Ivinsea]

I just reinstalled the original engine that came in my car; I ran it in 2010 and then had it rebuilt by Rilltech. It always ran hotter than I would prefer - up to 225*F.

My replacement never ran hotter than 215 in 2011. Well, the rebuilt original engine STILL runs hot - 225*F. The water level does not decrease, so I am going to just live with it.

[Brett Lane]

I pulled my engine in January due to an overtemp-250F plus watertemp at shutdown. Sent it to George Dean, and it was Ok, but was freshioned anyway.

Sounds like everyone had water temps above 230. On a seperate issue, I heard of DSR engines running entire seasons with oil temps at or above 250F. Is everyone going to pull their engines?

AI Daytona in May, I had temperature issues again, around 235F water, oil above 250F. The engine is(was) fresh, and ran Amsoil. I am going to leave the engine in, but am going to do everything possible that I haven't already done to improve flow through the coolers and pray for surf. I know about precautionary measures, but to pull an engine everytime it gets a little hot, and as in a previous thread, where do you draw the line?

[Jnovak]

Brett, Van Dieman FB cars need a splitter in the rad ducts. Contact me by email and I will send you a drawing.

Thanks ... Jay Novak

[Brett Lane]

Ok- Thanks Jay.

[Brett Lane]

Just to clarify, the January Sebring event was due to loss of coolant, Daytona seems to have a higher than normal track temp for a given ambient air temp, and you spend all that time at high RPM on the NASCAR oval...

But the car cotinues to make me smile

[glenn cooper]

I pulled my engine in January due to an overtemp-250F plus watertemp at shutdown. Sent it to George Dean, and it was Ok, but was freshioned anyway.

Sounds like everyone had water temps above 230. On a seperate issue, I heard of DSR engines running entire seasons with oil temps at or above 250F. Is everyone going to pull their engines?

AI Daytona in May, I had temperature issues again, around 235F water, oil above 250F. The engine is(was) fresh, and ran Amsoil. I am going to leave the engine in, but am going to do everything possible that I haven't already done to improve flow through the coolers and pray for surf. I know about precautionary measures, but to pull an engine everytime it gets a little hot, and as in a previous thread, where do you draw the line?

250 Oil? No big deal, a little high, but do-able
250 Water? Kerblamo