Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

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Well this being the last Race weekend at Race City everybody once again returned giving us a good field of over 10 cars. The 2 not so friendly drivers that we race with didn't show up so it was a very fun weekend. Easily the most fun I have had racing we had tight battles all the way thru the field all weekend.

But before the weekend even began we had a car to put together due to that whole blown motor issue. So i got to spend my long weekend in the garage while the wife complained about not spending enough time with her and Junior.





Morning practice shook down the car to make sure the motor was okay seemed to be but we where pulling high revs at the end of the pit wall 6500rpm. Normally that kind of RPM is at the end of the straight away into turn 1. Since we just installed a new Tach we assumed it was out by 500rpm or so made for a fun weekend missing my shift points alot.

For Qualifying we threw on the new tires and went for it pulling in a lap of 1.19.3 good enough for 4th overall and 2nd in class 0.02sec behind the class leader.


For the Saturday races we switched back to the older tires as we wanted to save the new tires for the points race on Sunday. Our first race on Saturday we where locked in a 3 car battle for 2-3-4 with Wade(Red/White Car) and Bruce (Blue Red Bull Car) we swapped positions several times and by half way thru the race Wades and my rear tires where done and we where sliding all over the place. Bruce began to pull away from us but he has been having an issue with the car where it will lose its setup and go loose randomly this happened in turn 3 and me an Wade snuck by. I started to pull a lead out on Wade at about the 3/4 mark of the race but the car was getting very very loose until it decided to go left thru the chicane instead of right. I got the car re-fired and decided just to bring it into the pits. Right rear tire only had 9psi in it which explains the handling near the end of the race.







Plan for the last Saturday race was to over fill the tire and hope it would hold long enough as this race was 5 min shorter and that is about the time I spun in the morning race. But it wasn't to be as the tire was not holding any air at the time of the last race so we just didn't go out and would put the new tires on for Sunday. This left time for the usual Baby's and Girls pretending to drive race cars i don't know what it is but they all want to sit in it.


Sunday morning practice since i was getting destroyed in a straight line by Bill (Solid Red Car) at the starts something like 5 car lengths by the end of the straight we decided to try a low downforce setup on the car during practice.
Bad choice car was horrible track was cold it just didn't work was turning times in the 1.25 range 6 seconds slower than yesterdays qualifying. So back to the normal setup for the points race with the good tires on the car i needed to win my class to have any chance at the WCMA championship against Wade.

Start of the Race did not go as planned it was waved off as we had cars off on the warm up lap Wade had gone off before turn 1 when the rear wishbone snapped while he was warming his tires.
Missing cars


Hands in the air waiving off the start.


Real start this time Bill takes off with his extra straight speed and I am left fending off Bruce down the straight.




Manage to hold off Bruce and begin the charge on Bill


Good thing about having a narrow track old car is that i can smash over the curbs and the wishbones don't fold over like playdo this gives me a good run on the back straight.





Finally get away a little on Bill as he misses a shift and then pulls off due to a carb issue. A couple laps later we lose Bruce to his setup issue as he spins off in turn 2/3. My first class win and 4th overall it only cost me my steering wheel that broke in half at about the 3/4 mark of the race. (We flipped it upside down for the last coupe races)
Car repairs for everyone after the points race.


Second last race is the ARCA championship race aka: The Money Race. $300 for 1st $150 for 2nd and $50 for 3rd and with one of the radicals not entering due to mechanical issues we have a shot at 3rd. After battling with Bill for the first half of the race the second Radical has put on old tires and is slow in front of us/playing with us. I spend the next 10laps shoved up his gearbox trying to find a way by and i cannot as he is to fast in a straight line but 3rd place overall is good with me and as 1-2-3 we all donate our winnings to the track marshals after the race. Set a new personal best for me at 1.19.20 well under where i started the year at the revworks track day running 1.28.0 and smashing my Dad's record of 1.22.6.

Final race was not my best as I spun on the inside of turn 1 trying to pass Bruce but I managed to come back and finish 2nd in class and 4th overall. Jorgen did set a Track Record of 1.14.1 this weekend perfectly timed as no one will be able to challenge it.

Race Season was over for me and next year is a question mark with the wife not going back to work and there not being a race track within 12hours drive of here. Final Season points standing i lost by 3 points to Wade in the WCMA Formula Continental Class (The Points Races). Tied him in the ARCA championship for 9th overall (All races all classes).

Couple of the guys went down to miller last weekend and didn't end that well for Jeff in his Radical.


and another video of racing from the first weekend of the year.

[Stonewall]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

A good read. Thanks for sharing even though it is late

[Tuna]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

So out of curiosity, what are you going to do when the track closes? Will this type of racing move to Edmonton?

Looks like a lot of fun. Have you ever done the Allen Berg racing school?

[RSS]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

last word is that they have not even started paving the castrol track so the usual lie of we are building a road course from the edmonton raceway. We will have atleast one race probably 2 at cfb namao just north of edmonton then the rest is out in Gimli or down to the states for us. The new Calgary track i am guesing is 5-8 years away as they are working with the govt so bureaucracy could kill it or drag it on for ever.

I have not done allen berg but my dad has done the course says the cars are a little under powered than what he is used to and the tires are treaded so not nearly the grip we run. But he did like the data analysis side of it.

What i will do is probably retire for a while and just crew for my dad and his atlantic maybe take a couple long roadtrips down south to run it.

[RSS]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

Over a 100 views and very few comments i think you guys just like to look at pictures and videos.

Was at the awards banquet last weekend and there is talk of securing the Edmonton Indy circuit as a possibility for our races next year until a real race track is built.

At Castrol they had to redo all the land work as apparently 10 year old grading isn't good anymore. go figure! hence why they haven't started paving the road course. So the 1st one 1mile section should be done next year and suitable for track days and lapping but to short for any real racing.

[RONDAL]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

Roger great read as always

[Deuce]

Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

So does anyone know for sure what the deal is on a "new" Race City in Calgary yet? I heard the Balzac thing is dead but there might be something towards Cochrane that might happen?

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Re: Race Report 4 (The Last Lap)

Here is the website/blog for the group in charge of the new track they update very infrequently.

http://marcscalgary.blogspot.com/

They still haven't chosen a piece of land they had narrowed it down to 3or4 as of early Sept but as you read the blog the only words i read over and over again is committee which usually means nothing getting done. So in the current state it will be 5-8years if ever a track gets built with support from the City. It could be done in 2-3 years if someone decided to make a private for profit track. The one out near drumheler ( http://www.badlandsmotorsportsresort.com ) is not really going anywhere as Jay is going thru a divorce and i believe his ex-wife was doing a lot of work along with his dad.