Ron and Alex headed up with the RASpec Impreza and the Pleasure Evo to New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Tuesday and Wednesday for event #4 of the COM Sports Car Club time attack.
Rons Recap
Tuesday practice sessions had 2 dry sessions and 2 rife with downpours in the first and last sessions, the latter being some of the hardest rain I’ve driven on track. Prior to this event, We had installed a Koyo radiator to mitigate the cooling problems seen at the Redline Time Attack in Chicago, but the weekend never saw temperatures above 70, so we couldn’t adequately test the cooling capacity.
Tuesday went well, a section of the track in corners #1, #2a and #2b have changed with new pavement and a slightly different line. I like this new configuration a bit more. I found a second through #2a and another second by changing my straight-line brake zone into corner #11.
Wednesday was mostly dry track all day, with periods of misting and sprinkles here and there. It didn’t effect grip much. I adjusted the DCCD controller to manual and moved the power more rearwards to get the car to turn in harder for corners #3, #6 and #2a where she had been pushing previously.
I encountered fuel starvation problems going into the uphill section after corner #3 when I was at 1/3 fuel capacity or lower. As long as I run with more than a 1/3 full tank, it never occurred.
There were 5 other cars in my class, an instructor-driven Legacy GT with a big turbo being my main competition with some other WRX STI’s and some BMW’s also in the class.
Overall the car ran really well in the time trial. Water temps never saw above 90C degrees and I ended up taking home 2nd place in my class – SPB.
Alex took home 1st in PB and Fastest Time of the Day (FTD) overall. He also achieved his personal goal of getting into the 14’s at NHMS.
After the time attack session, we had 1.5 hours of open track. I used about 20 minutes to try some new lines and adjust some settings on the car. The car felt powerful and was handling great. It started to rain and I was running low on fuel so I came into pit, and noticed an evil sound coming from the engine.
We pushed her onto the trailer and called it a day. Back at the Bat Cave we cracked open the oil filter to find bearing material. Looks like she spun a rod bearing.
We have 2 weeks and a few days before Redline Time Attack in TN, so hopefully we can find out what caused this an rebuild her.
Funny, I had fuel starvation problems with a third of a tank in my STI last week. Same place too… Obviously mine is not a built race car, but I find it interesting that we had similar issues. Mine ended up throwing a knock sensor code too.
Good luck sorting out the car man, and a belated congrats on the podium finishes!
-V