Buttonwillows report

[addictionMS]

Just a short report on the weekend...

First a BIG THANK YOU to MMARSH for all his help, boy offer to come out and help crew an enduro and end up doing this....



So the story is, I had just intalled my new trani, the 7:31 I had put together, ran great in the warm up, but I noticed a leak from the input shaft after session, so I looked and it was not too bad so I figured I woudl fix it later. I went out in the qualifying session and after one lap I was smoking badly, and coudl see the smell the trani Swepco oil so I pulled int to the pits. It is right about then that Mike showed up.

This time the oil leak was significant, I had brought the spare trani just incase, so I decided to swap out the trani on the spot.

[addictionMS]

Started the trani swap at about 11am maybe? with the help of Russ and Andy, and mostly Mike, we got the old trani out, found the problem was infact the input shaft seal had been sucked into the trani case. Found a coat hanger, pulled it out, luckly Jeff Stevenson had a spare, so we slipped in, and put it all back together, and by 2:30pm I was ready and back on the track for my race.

Not quite an Audi R8 4 minute swap, but not bad.

The race was good, lots of learning due to a new track and and new trani (7:31 so new shift points and locked rear so more push).

Exhausting day, only to have a three hour enduro that night at 6:35pm.

I started the enduro (now in Russ's car) got a good jump on a few cars, and wanted to get as many as possible early so we were not held up early. However, there was a course change from day to night, eliminated star mazda and added a sweeper.

[addictionMS]

BIG surpirse as I was passing on the inside of the newly added sweeper on the first lap, it was a decreasing radius turn!

I managed to loop the car in the turn badly and endded up at the back of the pack, managed to miss the apex of sunset two turns later. So there I was two offs in one lap.

So I cooled it down and started to settle in, or so I thought, the lights we had were not that good, lots of visibility close in but no big light 100 ft out. This made for a lot lf guessing where you are, for example, coming out of taledaga (SP?) a 100-110mph right hand sweeper, you accelerate and turn left at full throttle. There is no berm or paint to show you where the apex is, so you had to guess where the apex was and hope you were close.

[addictionMS]

Well, I was pretty wiped out after the day, and nver really got the groove, infact I looped it again in the same place, so I called in after about 30 minutes and had Russ get ready, so we swapped drivers early.

I did not feel good about having looped twice in someone elses car

Russ finished the race with one more stop for gas, and managed to put us in P2 for our class E0, and based on that we are leading the E0 class in the series.

Again Mike Marsh was a huge help inthe pits being the fuel man!

Sunday was un-eventful compared to Saturday, never did find the pace, but got faster as the day went on.

a few more pictures of the cars

[widebody911]

How did the a-arm pickup repair on Russ' car hold up?

[Jeremy Cottrell]

Is that Mike's car #996?

[addictionMS]

Thom, the front end is still attached so must be good,
Jeremy, no, Mike did not bring a car up, he was there only to help us out.

jim

[MMARSH]

Saturday was a heck of a day. I'm still amazed we were able to drop the motor, pull the tranny, fix the seal, get it all back together and not even miss a session. We are good. It was alot of fun. The plan now is to do the July enduro and PRC race. That should be fun, even though you'll have home court advantage.

The 996 car was a really nice car. Looks like mine did before I sacrificed it to track duty.

[ted]

thanks for the recap guys. Soory about the trans swap, nothing like a good transaxle thrash before some precision endurance driving!
I have seen offs and both Sunset and that Sweeper too.
Not ideal when you are forced to over drive the headlights.
That whole night racing thing with headlights in the mirrors, not really my thing yet. Maybe having the best headlights would have been the unfair advantage there?

Mike way to help out. if I could get both you and Risvold for a weekend I'd be set. Maybe we should just take turns being pit helper for each other, so on your race weekend you could have the chance to feel relaxed and ready like a big bucks arrive and drive heavy hitter.
Mike lemme know the dates and places you might race.
Are you thinking of doing a Toyo Cup race?

[Tyson Schmidt]

Hey Marshall, you're looking very fit and trim! You been working out, Amigo?

Way to help out!

And Jim, congrats on the race! Sounds like quite an experience. I guess now you know why they ran all those lights on the front of the 911's for nighttime enduro's, despite the aero disadvantage. You have to finish the race to win!

[addictionMS]

Amazing how much a difference little thing like vision can make, plus local knowledge is huge. We run this same car at Thunderhill a year ago in the 12 hour, but Russ has a 935 style spoiler with a second set of H4s, what a difference, no troubles at night then. But I have driven Thunderhill so many times I can do it in my sleep, so seeing less at night was ok, because I knew the track. It had been two years since I had driven Buttonwillows.

I have even done BW in the dark before in our RX7, but we had lights like crazy on it, and they had put reflectors on every apex, guess they did not have the time or money to replace the missing ones this year, would have helped.

[MMARSH]

Originally posted by ted
thanks for the recap guys. Soory about the trans swap, nothing like a good transaxle thrash before some precision endurance driving!
I have seen offs and both Sunset and that Sweeper too.
Not ideal when you are forced to over drive the headlights.
That whole night racing thing with headlights in the mirrors, not really my thing yet. Maybe having the best headlights would have been the unfair advantage there?

Mike way to help out. if I could get both you and Risvold for a weekend I'd be set. Maybe we should just take turns being pit helper for each other, so on your race weekend you could have the chance to feel relaxed and ready like a big bucks arrive and drive heavy hitter.
Mike lemme know the dates and places you might race.
Are you thinking of doing a Toyo Cup race?

Ted

I really like the enduro thing. I would like to do the Nasa 3 hour enduro at Thunderhill in July. If I'm able to do it, I'm gonna also try to do the PRC race also. I would have to change rims/tires but that is about it. You should do it too. we could caravan up there. Thunderhill really is a fun track.


Tyson, I still need to lose another 25 lbs and I'll be happy. what's the status with your car? Do you have Joe's motor in it yet? I should have mine buttoned up by the end of the next week.

[Tyson Schmidt]

Originally posted by MMARSH
Ted


Tyson, I still need to lose another 25 lbs and I'll be happy. what's the status with your car? Do you have Joe's motor in it yet? I should have mine buttoned up by the end of the next week.

Yes, Joe's motor is in my car. Scruffy lives! I've been working on other little details on the car, since there's a lot of down-time between now and the April event at Willow. My new (2.5 liter, so I can run VARA as well.) motor is going to take longer than expected due to financial hardship. I'm sure you can empathize.

[RSupdate]

Originally posted by ted
....Mike way to help out. if I could get both you and Risvold for a weekend I'd be set. ........

CFoS was yer trackside Freebie Mikey !!! I hope to have my car back together before I have the urge to pit for three days straight again

But it was a ton of fun too....

[Vintage911Racer]

Jeremy,

#996 Belongs to a freind of mine. His name is Kevin Mosesian. He just baught it. He runs with us in VARA. He was there trying to shake down some overheating problems. I dont think he got them figured out so the motor is coming out and being torn down. The previous owner is picking up that tab. Are my door hinges there???

[MMARSH]

Mark

Is he going to run that in VARA. if so hmmm. I diddn't look at it real close, but from what I saw, it was nicely prepared. I also noticed that it was a 72. Can that run in the same class as your 67?

[MMARSH]

Originally posted by Tyson Schmidt
My new (2.5 liter, so I can run VARA as well.) motor is going to take longer than expected due to financial hardship. I'm sure you can empathize.

Ain't that the truth.The funny thing is the last couple of missed events have been entirely my mechanics fault, maybe alittle of mine because I hadn't been pressuring him. well, I think as of last weekend, he officially is feeling the pressure. I will be at Willow at the end of the month.

[Vintage911Racer]

Mike,

He does run that with us in VARA. He is running in the same group as us but in a different class. I am CP he is CP3M (modified) because of his 2.7L engine and wide wheels. Once he gets a 2.5 in there and the right size tires he will be CP3.

[ted]

Originally posted by MMARSH
I will be at Willow at the end of the month.

and it better not be in the Vulva.

I'd like to go to TH this year.
If you guys have links to the race group holding the Enduro or other events you plan to race with at TH please post them.
Thanks ,
mg