One Lap of America May 5 to May 12, 2007
Article provided by David Goodman

Introduction & Car Preparation
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8

Day 6, Thursday, May 10, 2007
Day six of competition brought us to O’Reilly Motorsports Park in Indianapolis, Indiana. With the class points tied and the competition reeling from the stomping we delivered yesterday, I saw this day as a perfect opportunity to put those guys on the defensive. There are 4 events today, 2 road course time trials, a low elapsed time drag race and a bracket drag race. Given the observed straight line speed of that Datsun 280Z, I figured at least the low ET drag race was lost and our best success today would be on the road course. I know those guys were tired, yesterday they had to change that flat spotted tire and they ran out of Nitros Oxide. Before they left Hallet they were trying to figure out if they wanted to wait the two hours to get a fill in Tulsa or ride to Indiana in hopes they could find some there. Tough call. One way you’re two hour behind, the other you worry all night and the first session of the next day if you are going to be able to procure a main element of your competition strategy.

It can’t be overstated the importance of establishing a good transit rhythm and getting to the next destination with time to spare. As the week wears on, the psychological element of the competition becomes an ever increasing factor. Small mental mistakes can add up to big scoring gains or losses. That’s why the 2 hour stop in Tulsa was such a big deal. An extra 2 hours of rack time on the 5th day of competition is invaluable. I won’t say this was the reason for the wheels coming off the bus at O’Reilly, but that is exactly what happened.

Things were going so well for the first two hot laps of the morning run. The car felt great and any remaining winter rust was worked out of my system. It was around turn 8 on the third lap when things went badly. Now when I say badly, of all the possible off track scenarios this is the one you want. As I ran over the pavement transitions in the left hand turn, I lost just enough grip to cause the rear end to take a lazy right hand drift and point me into the grass on the left side of the track. It is a preferable off track excursion because, in this scenario, there was absolutely nothing to hit. In most cases the best way to handle the situation is to bring the car to a controlled stop, point it back on the track, and resume the run. Something I unfortunately didn’t do. Instead of being patient, I stomped on the throttle as soon as I had the car pointed back at the track. This caused the car to immediately loop around into another spin. I must have added an extra 15 seconds onto the time lost in the original spin.

I was completely off my game for the afternoon run session. The perfect opportunity to put some ground between the Murray/Hubbard team and us was lost. Instead, we were 10 class points down going into the low ET drag races. To make matters worse, the engine appears to have sprung a fairly significant oil leak and upon inspection, I discovered that I had a torn CV boot. With the bracket drag races cancelled for the afternoon because of track delays, there were only four more scoring opportunities left in the event. It didn’t take much math to ascertain that we would need to win three out of the four remaining events just to have the chance to tie the 280Z in class points and have the contest come down to the team with the most overall points.

With the prospect of winning the Vintage Foreign class for the third straight year slipping away, I decided that it might be time for some desperate measures. When I built this car I installed an electronic boost controller which allows me to control the amount of manifold pressure the turbocharger can deliver. The effect of higher manifold pressure is a significant increase in horsepower. The problem is that as you increase the boost to dangerous levels, there are many things that can cause catastrophic engine failure. I called Rick at Autobahn Performance to ask him if he thought I could safely jack up the boost. To summarize a 20 minute conversation, since I was running 110 octane fuel, had a larger than stock intercooler, and I could deliver more fuel to the engine with the fuel enrichment system, he thought it would be fine for a short drag race.

While I adjusted the boost, Neil went to the concessions stand and bought a 20 pound bag of ice to put on the intercooler. This has two effects. The first is to increase horsepower by further cooling the air charge that the turbo delivers to the intake. The second is to help prevent detonation that can destroy the motor.

Bob and Matt thought it would be fun to line the Datsun up with me for the first pass so they waited for me to approach the starting box. Neil pulled the ice off the intercooler and shut the rear decklid as I approached the starting line. The light went green and I achieved a spectacular launch. As I rowed the transmission through the gears, I looked out the left window to see where Bob was. To my amazement he was a good distance behind but gaining fast as we approached the finish line. This one was going to be close, I thought as Bob roared past just at the end of the quarter mile. One of the fun things about drag racing is that you get almost instant gratification in the form of a results slip that is handed to you as you pass back down the service road toward the starting gate. In this case the results couldn’t have been sweeter. I had beaten that V8 powered, nitros oxide charged monstrosity by a solid two tenths of a second. Now that doesn’t sound like much to the casual reader, but in drag racing terms that is a very good margin. Whatever psychological advantage they thought they were going to get from spanking me on the drag strip had backfired horribly. One down I thought, three more to go.

I knew the quarter mile time of 12.44 seconds was good, but I didn’t realize how good until later that evening as we drove the transit to Mid-Ohio Sports Car Complex. George called us on the two way radio to say that we had taken sixth overall in the low ET drag races right behind a Ford GT. The Datsun had come in eleventh. We were now 5 points out of first place in Vintage Foreign, tomorrow at Mid-Ohio would be critical for both teams. continue>