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From: Alan <nuh-uh@nope.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: OT: My 2024 BCHMR Day 2 (for all my devoted followers).
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2024 13:40:13 -0700
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On 2024-08-12 10:16, Alan wrote:

> Well, it was great to get back on track.
I said there'd be a follow up post and here it is!

Sunday morning dawned (very, very thankfully) under cooler temperatures, 
cloudy skies and even a very small amount of rain. The high for the day 
was forecast to be down from too high to something that was at least 
bearable. That having been said, it still ended up a day where hydration 
was key. I think I drank 2-2.5 litres of water.

I arrive at the track at about 8am with very little to do, and as we 
were going to be the first group out for warm-up, and as it was going to 
be a track just damp enough to need rain tires, but which would dry out 
quickly enough that you'd then destroy your rain tires...

....I just decided to give the warm-up a pass. I'd learned all I needed 
to learn about the track (where the new bumps were, where the organizers 
had added penalty cones for track limits violations, etc), and about the 
car (I need to add some rear brake bias.

So I thought I'd have nothing more to do than to add a little nitrogen 
to my tires (American Racers tend to leak a little—especially the highly 
cantilevered rear tires, and so need refilling at least once when the 
day begins), give the brake bias knob a couple of turns to "more rear", 
and unpack for the day.

But then I noticed a 6" diameter puddle of oil right below the Van 
Diemen's combined bell-housing/oil tank/oil overflow tank. What's more 
from the colour and odor, it could be gearbox oil.

I was all set to start looking at the bottom of the car for any 
indication of where the oil was coming from when my shared crewman, Tom, 
noticed the faint trail of oil from the sight glass of the overflow 
tank. Since I started running the car in 2018, I'd never seen any 
indication that the overflow tank was full, but it certainly was now 
(after we'd changed the engine oil and as all racers do: added enough to 
make sure that some would end up in the overflow tank).

No problem! (Are we sensing a theme, here? 😉). I'll just find a catch 
pan (my own having been accidentally left at the shop, take out the 
small drain plug, and seal it all back up!

Only no one had one close handy either. But Erle had what appeared to be 
an aluminum tray for baked goods (muffins or maybe cinnamon buns) that 
might do the job. It was certainly short enough to fit beneath the drain 
hole with the car only up on short stands.

I took out the drain plug, and out came the oil, and... ...that catch 
tank was pretty big. I started to get concerned that we might be 
overflowing the available vessel, but...

No problem!

....the flow started to slow as it got higher and higher in the tray, and 
I thought I was in the clear...

....when it became apparent that there was a hole in the tray a little 
more than half way up. And now I had a 3 feet in diameter puddle of oil 
in my paddock space. Lots of oil absorbents later, it was gone.

Let's get to the racing.

First race of the day, as the day before, the grid was set from the 
fastest laps done in the race before that. Warm-up was just that; not a 
qualifying session. So the FC was on pole and I was gridded next to him. 
This time, when the flag dropped, Chris had clearly learned a lot from 
watching me drive (his best lap this race was nearly 2 seconds faster 
than his best from Saturday), and there was no way I was going to be 
able to keep pace with him. And John, in the Mallock sports racer with a 
2 litre tuned Vauxhall engine was going to be my fight, and it ended up 
being a fair fight. He could pull away for a while, but only by using 
his brakes to the point where they'd overheat and he'd have to moderate 
his pace.

So the finish was: 1. Chris in the FC; 2. John in the sports racer 37 
seconds back; 3. me in the Van Diemen less than a second behind John.

Still a pretty good result for running on 2 year old tires.

The next race (race 5 of the event) at the egging-on of my crew, I 
pulled the restrictor to see if it might be possible to run with the FC 
and beat the Mallock. It wasn't—possible to run with the FC; he still 
had about a 12% horsepower advantage as well as downforce and Hoosier 
tires. The Mallock had problems and so didn't factor.

What WAS cool, though, is that there was an original Lotus 41 Formula 2 
car from the late 1960s that was being driven by Doug (not that Doug; 
another Doug) who normally drove a Dodge Viper. It had much more rubber 
than mine and while the engine was a 1.6 litre mill, it was a Cosworth 
FVA engine with WAY more horsepower than any Formula F; Ford or Honda.

The Cosworth FVA was a "proof of concept" engine designed to show Ford 
what Cosworth could do before they built the famous Ford-Cosworth DFV. 
It makes something on the order of 200-225hp.

The only saving grace was that this was Doug's first time running the 
car—his first time in any open wheel racer, so it was taking him a while 
to come to grips with it. This led to us having a super-fun dice with 
him leading off the start, me passing him for 2nd place, then him 
passing me again as he got better and better in the car. Our regular 
on-track photographer, Brent Martin...

(shameless plug: martinsactionphotography.smugmug.com)

....was at turn 3 and he must have got dozens of shots of the two cars, 
separate by at least 30 years, going through nose to tail.

In the end, Doug got the better of the battle, but it was so much fun to 
be a part of (and I wasn't bright enough to have had my GoPro mounted 
for the race!), and we finished:

1. FC; 2. Lotus 41 F2; 3. Me VD RF98-2 FF only 1.2 seconds behind Doug.

And for the last race... ...well... ...I was already gassed. It might 
not have been as hot as Saturday, but it was hot enough.

I simply decided to relax, and ease off to play with Erle Archer in his 
1979 Tiga. I left the restrictor pulled, but I played games with myself 
by going through corners in one gear too high, or not using all the 
throttle down the straight...

....and in the end...

....because this was the race for which you get a plaque as the 
"Abbotsford Trophy" winner in FF...

....I backed off coming off turn 9 to let a legal FF take the checkered 
flag.

As the race played out, Erle was leading as we started the final lap, 
but he left the door too wide open to pass up entering turn 2, and I 
felt I needed to get past him once more for the fun of it. Then I left 
the door open in turn 3, and he didn't pass.

So I did the only thing that seemed right.

All-in-all, a great weekend of racing just for fun; no points. We saw 
some people and cars that don't normally come out, including Ross Bentley...

(shameless plug: speedsecrets.com)

....an alumnus of racing with the SCCBC who went on to drive 
(occasionally) in IndyCar, and who has become a highly sought-after 
driving coach.

Now, there are three weekends left in the season, and I hope to make all 
three. I think I can win all 9 of the races, but I suspect that with the 
points lower (because there will probably be fewer FF drivers out), I 
don't think that I can win the club championship.

Still, there are some folks who didn't make it out to the "Historics" 
that I'd still like to see on the track.

Cheers!