King of the Hill Report, September 20th 2008
Sometimes warnings should be heeded, ominous signs of the fickle finger of fate nipping at your heels, hints of up coming events. Birds chirping strangely, crickets silent in the evening all play a part in determining the course of up and coming events. Some indications are more subtle, some more pointed, and others deliberately blatant putting clues square in your face. Friday the 19th had several of these blatant clues. Other events forecasting the future were more subtle and manifested themselves in almost a subliminal manner.
Backtracking the week’s events laid a trail similar to the games kids used to play. Putting little hints in front of you follow the trail of rocks until you reach your destination. But in this case, the destination was not a fun game on a merry go round, rather, a racing event in Barrie Speedway, neatly located in the hearth of Oro, Ontario. The Nascar race track used in the Nascar Wheelen, Canadian Tire series.
The omen:
Friday evening after work, was just like any other day. Arrive early enough from the office to leave a bit of daylight, in order to change tires, and prepare for the “abnormally early” event the following day. Saturday was the season finals of the Barrie “King of the Hill” event. Large format changed, greater adrenaline levels, and higher level of competition. Meanwhile, in preparation for the event, normal process would be to park the vehicle closest to the driveway to facilitate the changing of rubber. One of the blatant clues that manifested themselves was the inability of the car to start under it’s own power. Strange, straight to Canadian Tire to purchase the funky new spiral cell battery to replace the 7 year old battery in the car, thinking it’s about time anyway. Problem solved… NOT. Next day, the car started, but only after charging overnight, and after a short 40 Km trip, the battery was depleted to the point that the battery didn’t have enough energy to crank the engine over.
Hummm.. Change the alternator, purchase a 110amp alternator to replace the 90 amp version. Not cheap, but a good investment otherwise. Same result, measurements taken from the terminals showed 13.3 volts, just barely enough to maintain battery, yet the engine ran, and ran well. Met the folks at the usual spot, this time an SVX, a WRX, and Me headed up to the speedway. We were representing Davenport Subaru, and the WRX was provided to a “supplied” driver in order to increase the AWD count at the events.
The Drive:
The drive up to the speedway was uneventful, maintaining a save 115 kph, temperatures were good, a bit of abnormal surging in low throttle (more hints) but nothing major. Engine ran smooth, temperature normal and kids were quiet, wife was listening to music.
The event:
Upon arrival at the speedway, we noticed that we were the only KOTH competitors there (more clues), none had arrived, and I decided to open my hood to see if I could spot anything obvious. One thing to note was, there was only 1 fan working, and it was turning quite slow (more hints). This was ignored since the conception or misconception was there is enough airflow through the FMIC and Rad at speed not to need a fan (WRONG).
On with Racing:
KOTH drivers meeting was called and all 14 drivers / cars went to the meeting. On the grid were:
Corvette
Jeep Cherokee
Mazdaspeed 3
Cavalier
Grand Am
RX7 (Turbo)
SVX
WRX
Legacy
Mustang, driven by a professional
And a bunch of cars I can’t remember
Eliminations format was changed to a 2 lap race. What a fantastic format, a single change provided greater challenge and provided the fans with close quarter racing to the likes never seen before at the speedway.
Cavalier vs Corvette this race was amazing, the Corvette sported Hoosier tires in the rear, while the Cavalier with 75 shot of nitrous ran Toyo RA-1’s all around. The 2 lap event saw the lead change 4 times, resulting in the win of the Cavalier.
Eliminations went off one at a time, each providing the spectators and drivers with extreme entertainment. The racing was done cleanly, no rubbing, no one into the walls this evening. Everything went well.
Legacy vs WRX
This was the elimination rounds, the legacy is to run a 2 lap elimination against the WRX. All this time, during the eliminations round (40 minutes), the legacy idled in the pits, because if the engine were shut off, there wouldn’t be enough power to get it started again. Anways the WRX and Legacy were lined up, this round was to decide who the money winner was in the AWD competition. The WRX was being driven by one of the top solosprint drivers and an Ian Law racing instructor, Steve D. Countdown 3-2-1 the flag drops, and 4 black patches were laid on the race track by the legacy, jumping immediately in front of the WRX, by turn 1 the gap between the 2 were about 2 cars, by turn 3, it was 8 cars, by turn 4 and heading back to turn 1, it was practically ½ a track lead in this 1/3 mile oval. 2nd lap only extended the lead.
Interestingly, after looking at the water temperature guage, it was nearly pegged at full hot, this was not normal (remember the 1 fan working at ½ speed), under normal circumstances, the heat would only climb a bit higher than ½ hot, not more than that. The format of eliminations does not present enough time to cool down the engine, and coming up was a 15 lap finals, in the form of 3 x 5 lap pursuit races. Not good for a car with only ½ working single fan.
Round 1 eliminations, tried to nurse the car and go just fast enough to keep ahead of the RX7, winner of the 2 wd cars. Slight miscalculation resulted in the RX7 winning by a nose. On the way back to the pits for round 2, both Andwer and Steve motioned for a “full out” attack to win the round. The motivation and the adrenaline provided enough clouded thought to throw caution into the wind. Temperature of the ending now as pegged at “HOT”, no gap at all, totally pegged. Caution to the wind, adrenaline took over, and reason was sidestepped, we can not lose to an RX7.
Lined up on opposite side, 3-2-1 and 4 of the longest black patches were laid on the tarmac, the announcer giggled and laughed as he mentioned this on the PA system. Full speed ahead was the plan, and no holds barred. Within the 2nd lap of the 5 lapper, the Legacy was within 1/3 closer to the RX7, by the 3 rd lap, the Legacy had caught the RX7 and was on the same side of the track. The remaining laps were just to maintain distance and back off in hopes to save an engine that had been running pegged for the past 3 laps. Lap 5 came by and the checkered flag came out indicating the win. Announcer and audience noticed the headers glowing brightly, along with brakes smoking and glowing in the night. At that point, there was no air going through the engine, and things went downhill. Oil temperatures were high, coolant temperature over the top, then the telltale sounds of connecting rod bearing failing and the unmistakable sound of clacking.
At that point, the driver motioned to the steward that the race was over and he’d hand it over to the RX7.
Overall, a fantastic night full of adrenaline, but that’s racing, the rest is history. Gremlins in the wiring, minimal fans, and no cooling took their toll. Funny enough, the same occurrence happened back in 2002, when the car was 2 years old. The bridge wire that controlled the relays to the fans also controlled the windows, which also controlled the alternator charging circuit failed, and a new bridge wire was put in. Looks like the same gremlin came back to visit. Lessons learned, rewire the fans to the Autronic ECU and forget about the stock ECU controlling them.
Linkback: https://www.canadianracingonline.com/smf/index.php?topic=8699.msg57143#msg57143
