2010 One Lap of America
Toto, We’re Here in Kansas
So after the last minute wheel bearing change on the Galant, the RochesterDSM team made it’s way to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a fun filled day at the Hallett track. The weather is perfect at a low 80′s and not a cloud in the sky. The weather gods ( so far ) have blessed us with great weather. We seem to be following a huge weather front through the midsection of the country. Everywhere we go, there’s puddles and indications of rainstorms but by the next day, out comes the sun and warm temps.
Hallett is a fun and fast track. Some long straights with 2 very tricky turns. They probably could rename this track “Blindsides Raceway” as there is quite a few blind turns all over the track. Makes for some fun pucker factor if you aren’t 100% sure where you going, which as this is the first time ever we’ve seen the track, it definitely is in the mix. Chris is driving the Evo while Tim is driving the Galant for today.
The Evo is still performing well. We tweaked some shock settings at Mid America and played with them a bit more for today and the results were encouraging. Chris drive it like he stole it and channeled Tim a bit and please the grandstand crowd by throwing the car sideways through 8 and 9 which is an uphill offcamber blind corner. Not to be outdone, Tim came through the same corner and put on a show on how it really should be done. Brakes are solid in the Evo and we are just making minor tweaks at this point.
The Galant is somewhat better but still feeling a little ill. We found a thrown rocker earlier this morning and we reseated it after re-torquing the head bolts one more time. The brakes are still a bit soft but we were only able to swap out one bearing yesterday before we had to leave before the rain hit in Iowa.
We have the afternoon run left then on to the dragstrip for the 2 drag events. Fun times had by all.
1Brake Fading and Bearings
The first time I drove the car was at the wet skid pad. After taking the first lap of turns, I came out to the turn around and the pedal went soft when I went on the brake. I blew it off at the time and didn’t listen to the brake pedal, blowing it off as the brakes are wet.
Tim found the same scenario out at Road America, that only by pumping and pressing the brakes a few times before hitting a turn, will you ensure they are there. When we hit Mid America, we made early morning efforts to bleed out the system, thinking we must have some air in there. It wasn’t air.
The brake pedal would go soft, and it seemed to get worse when I threw the car around. While I could run the big stretches and get the braking somewhat sorted, tossing the car back and forth in the twisty left me with a mush pedal. It created quite a pucker effect somewhere in the drivers seat when you go to stab the brakes and they don’t respond. The result, was some pretty terrible times and some worse driving lines.
We mentioned the problem to Will with the GTR and he instantly said wheel bearings. Man I hate it when that guy is right, but that was the valuable advice we needed to see the problem.
To the feel or even the tech inspection, the wheel bearings felt great. Add a little heat to the mixture and some track level forces on the wheel and it was enough to allow the brake rotor to push the calipers back out when you turned hard. We couldn’t have fixed it by the second run, so I adjusted some painfully long braking zone and took it out anyway.
We did however make an effort to change them out before leaving the parking lot and daylight, which made for a very long drive into Tulsa. We have one front wheel bearing changed (passenger front) and have to run the car this morning to see if the other one is affecting the problem just as bad.
Successful day at Road America
Just a quick note that both the Galant and the Evo had good days today. Running hard, fast and strong. Chris did a great job on both the long and short tracks. Tim, in true Tim fashion, has become a crowd favorite. The track and weather were beautiful and the times were fast.
The GalantVR4.org guys came down to support us which was fantastic. They brought cold drinks, good brats, and great friendships with them to Road America. We are lucky to have them as supporters on our One Lap endeavors.
In a “pay it forward” moment, the other EvoX piloted by Paul Seto and Barry Stewart from Edmonton, Alberta discovered while pulling in to the track, that their serpentine belt started shredding. Being the other Mitsubishi Evolution X in the event, they came to us for help. How could we not, afterall the the amazing thing about One Lap folks is that once you are on the path, we are all in it together. While Chris prepped for his run, Sean helped out by working on isntalling a new belt. After getting it installed, aligned and tensioned, it was discovered there was at least 1 bad bearing in a pulley. Unfortunately this meant Paul and Barry’s day was over, if not their One Lap endeavor. Once again, the brotherhood ( and sisterhood One Lap ladies out there ) came through as more and more people came over to lend a hand without being asked. Even the GalantVR4.org guys reached out by phone trying to find a new belt, new pulleys, and any mistu dealer in the area that was still open on a saturday. Eventually, Paul and Barry got on the rode to a mitsu deal a few hours away. I just got off the phone with them and the dealer went way out of their way to get them going. They didn’t have the parts in stock, so they took parts off a showroom new EvoX to swap over to get them back moving today, instead of having to wait to Monday for new parts. They will be back and meet us in Iowa tomorrow! Fantastic times!
We’ll post more when we aren’t on the road and have some pictures and results to share.
On to Mid America!
0Big Laps at Road America
It was a big day at Road America, which if you don’t come there with some nuts, they hand you some at the gate. (no really a can of nuts)
The track feels very much like Watkins Glen with the change of elevations and the scenery of which they design video games around. It also has some big long straights which don’t do us any favors against the big horsepower cars which were meant to go 160+.
There was a lot of anxiety as Tim and Chris were sitting on the grid, as the front runners ripped by at almost blistering speed.
Tim will have to describe the actual race report. The car held together well and besides pushing most of the coolant into the overflow, it didn’t have any major setbacks. There was a bit of hesitation from the standpoint that nobody has driven the car with this setup before.
We have begun to see the signs of One Lap take their toll. The Mitsubishi Evo X from Edmonton shredded it’s serpentine belt, leaving him unable to run in the morning. Sean spent all of Chris’s run getting that belt back on. After he started it up, it instantly jumped a spline. Sounded like the idler pulley had seperated, so he limped off to hopefully get that replaced before it really came apart.
At the end of the first session the Cadillac went off the course and through the fence on turn 12 I believe. To hear anybody go off course where it requires safety crews to go out is a rarety.
We had some fans from GalantVR4.org show up and they came in force. Most of them saw our exhaustion last year and came equipped with lunch and a tent to get us out of the sun. It is amazing how nice it is to hand you some grub when you have a tight schedule to fit it in.
The Evo X team is doing great. I watched Sean go through the same camera frustrations that I did last year, meaning they are maturing in the realm of One Lap.
I couldn’t get the Race-Keeper running on the skidpad and spent time between sessions har wiring the setup with constant power. If all went well, it should have grabbed the afternoon runs.
