Finally Racing Saturday

[ZX2Racer]

Our season is finally getting started this Saturday. Heading out to the track about 10:00 in the morning, gates open at noon. Have a full afternoon of practice time and qualifying before the races start at 7:00 P.M. Finally got the car decaled this week and getting the cage finished up tommorrow. Will posts pics of the finished car soon. Forgot to get pics before hauled to my buddies with the welder. Anyone in the west Michigan area wants to come out and watch the race this weekend come out to the track at Berlin Raceway. Will posts with pics and results of the day on Sunday or Monday. Wish me luck.

[BernardZX2]

What kind of racing?

[s/rdirttrack]

good luck and kick some a!!.....

[ZX2Racer]

Racing on a 1/2 mile asphalt oval

[ZX2Racer]

Well the day was great, sunny and mid 60's to 70 degrees. Times were not great in the first practice and the car was really tight in the third and fourth turns. Couldn't get back on the gas fast enough. Towards the end of practice the transmission kept kicking out of third gear. That's how we run on the track in 3rd. Came into the pits and checked my top motor mount. It had been welded last week. Was able to tighten it up a little bit then went out for second practice and qualifying. Car ran a little better and no problem kicking out of third. Qualified 18 out of 46 cars. The split the field into two and ran a A and B feature. I made the A feature. In my heat race I started fifth of nine cars. I made some air pressure adjustments and got it handling a little better in the corners. Going into the first turn I was making my third pass of the race and got spun by someone who Kyle Busched me. Kept it out of the wall but lost a lot of ground and fell to the back of the field. Was a 5 lap race. I was able to pass one car by the end of the race and finished 8th. Was not real happy. During the feature I started 18. Had passed six cars and was running good when two cars got together right in front of me and spun. I lifted a little and looked for opening. As soon as I found one I floored it and shot through. Then the tranny problem struck again and kicked it out of third gear. I redlined the engine. Kept trying to hold it in gear and steer with one hand. The caution came out. All during the caution laps the transmission kept kicking out of third gear. When the green dropped I shifted into fourth. fourth gear did me no favors, I couldn't accelerate fast enough off the corners. By the time I got up to speed, I was entering the next corner. Was afraid to downshift into the third because speeds were too fast. Never got another caution. When I was in fourth gear I started dropping spots. I was able to pass several more cars and work my way back up to 12th at the end of the race. Gonna have to pull a few more motor mounts and weld them up solid and change the tranny fluid to syncromesh. Hope this will take care of my problems, but if anyone has any ideas glad to hear them. A hyuandi won the feature. The car has several more dents and paint transfers from the bumping. Next race is next Saturday. Lots of work to do by then.

[iceracer]

Your 3rd gear synchro is probably worn out.

[ZX2Racer]

Ok, second week of racing now in the books. Think I solved my transmission problem with welding my motor mounts solid. Still havin a hell of time trying to loosen the car up. It is extremely tight in the third and fourth corner. In my first practice session I raised the tire pressure to see how that would work and almost hit the wall on my first lap. Came in and lowered the pressure and put a spring rubber in the front right. I qualified 19 out of 40 cars. They split the features into two groups, I barely made the A feature. Started in the back row. Worked my way up to 9th place prior to a caution. Barely missed a huge wreck happened right in front of me. posting a link of the pic below. By then my front right was roached and I started hearing the rubber hitting the wheel well. My tire was gone and we had two laps under caution and then three more laps under green. Had to slow down to keep from blowing the front right and hitting the wall. Dropped two spots and finished eleventh. Looks I am going to find a stiffer spring for the front right this week. Looking at a ford Taurus spring. Going to buy some racing wheels with a bigger offset too to try and get a little more camber into the front end. Still looking for my first top ten of the year. My teammate won the A feature with 91 Escort GT. His car is fast and he hasn't had to change his setup much. Still trying to figure mine out. Starting to get a little frustaed. Next race is the 24th of this month. Will post more then.

Iceracer, welded the motor mounts and put a combo of Redline MTL and MT90 in, seems to have solved the problem. We'll see.

http://tomdevettephotography.smugmug.com/gallery/4963738_8bhPS#297164233_AqUC2-X2-LB