 |
| The Civic on the streets of Trois-Rivières |
After a frantic 3 weeks involving an engine
change and the valves hitting the pistons on the new engine, we managed to make
it to Trois-Rivieres for the Touring and GTU races with zero testing on the
car. Carl was running in the GT-class race with 40 other cars of up to 700 hp
(Porsche 935). I got to see the street circuit at low speed the night before
the event started, which made me less nervous about running a new track,
especially one lined with armco.
Carl practiced first and all went well. He
was around 25th out of 40 cars, despite having one of the lowest powered cars
out there. Later in the day when I went out, the alternator light came on in
the dash, first at high RPM, then all the time. The alternator belt was toast
yet again. It turns out the crank pulley and alternator pulley don't line up
since we put in the new block. I managed to run within 2 seconds of Carl's
time, which was about right given that he was on Kumho V710 race tires and I
was on Hankook K104 street tires. We had 2 extra batteries with us and Carl
qualified on battery power only. He managed a 27th out of 38 cars still
running, which was not bad at all. The next morning, I qualified 20th out of 27
cars, which is consistent with how I've been running all year. I was within 1.7
seconds of Carl's time, so I was happy with myself... it meant I was learning
the track well.
We hoped Carl would last the 40 minutes of
his race with no alternator and we had a spare battery in the pits just in
case. He was having some good battles in the race when he pulled off the course
after 27 minutes. We were wondering what happened because usually you have some
warning before the battery dies. It turns out the motor let go. I guess that when the pistons hit the valves the week before at a track day (when the timing
belt skip several notches), it had weakened the wrist pins under the shock.
We knew it was a risk going in, but after
four trouble-free sessions (engine-wise), I was quite shocked and a little
depressed. It cost 500$ to sign up for this event and I hadn't even turned one
race lap. When all seemed lost, my crew member and friend Roberto offered me
the use of his car for the race the next day. He has a Touring car as well but
took the weekend off to save some money. I had driven the car the week before
at a lapping day and found that it had evil handling characteristics... but I
accepted anyways, figuring I could take it easy, drive conservatively and have
some fun. His car is similar to mine on paper: it's an Integra with a stock Type
R engine and tranny, about the same weight and spring rates. He runs the fat
Progress rear sway bar an I run none.
We went to Montreal and got the car back to
the track the same night. They had added a morning warmup session to the
schedule (thank you!). I had my buddies disconnect the rear sway bar and they
noticed the front one was loose on one side. Carl adjusted the Koni shocks to a
setting he said I would like (if there's a guy who knows how to set up Konis on
an Integra, it's Carl Wener) and I went out for 2 laps before a car caught fire
and ended the session. Well, 2 laps is better than 0.
I was gridded last for the race, which was
24th. I had qualified 20th, so it wasn't a huge drop. The start went well: by
the 3rd lap or so, I had passed 5 cars and was getting into a battle with the Carrier
Jetta that I've been fighting with all season. The guy who qualified 19th was
in front of me, so I was where I was supposed to be all along. I could not keep
up with that guy and exchanged position with the Jetta 5 or 6 times. Carrier
had seen his own problems with the Jetta, as he blew his tranny in qualifying
and was running an open diff (with big VR6 power and torque) in his spare
tranny for the race. We were both handicapped then, and still running together.
I got caught up lapping a slower car and lost a lot of track position to the
Jetta in the final laps. We were getting lapped by another white Integra and
the Jetta was blocking him, thinking it was me! The fast Integra lapped the
Jetta and I was close behind on the start finish straight. I was only a couple
of feet behind the Jetta, thinking I would try to out brake him for turn one...
when the checker fell. I hadn't known it was the last lap (although had I
known, I doubt I could have done anything differently, as I had already made up
a huge deficit in two laps). We ended up 13th and 14th, and I was quite happy
with that, since I haven't finished better than 13th all year. I had gained 10
positions from my last place start with a borrowed car, so I can't complain. My
lap times were less than a second off my qualifying time, which shows that I
was probably not pushing as hard as I would have with my own car, since Rob and
I are usually very even in the series. At least I had made the car handle
safely (if not conservatively). I can't wait until they show the race on TV, as
apparently our battle was featured heavily on the jumbo screens (assuming they
use the same shots to produce the TV version). Usually, you never see me at all
unless I'm getting lapped.
 |
| Back in action after swapping to Rob's car... note how I used white tape to make his 89 into a 00 |
 |
| There was also pro racing at Trois-Rivières, and teams like Speedsource were in attendance |
 |
| Civic on track |
 |
| Battling Carrier's Jetta in the race |
 |
| The Touring race, just after the start |
 |
| Thanks to Rob and his trusty Integra! |
 |
| The Civic just after unloading all our stuff |
 |
| Carl poses with one of Gilles Villeneuve's old formula cars |
 |
| The crew working on the Civic |
 |
| Integra to the rescue! |
 |
| Another pro team, T.C. Kline, with a nice street car under the tent too |
 |
| Posing with the Civic |
 |
| Me and Stéphane Carrier after our race |
All in all, it turned out to be an
excellent weekend thanks to Rob and the rest of the crew, as well as Trac
Racing and TK Race Heads, who worked so hard so I could be there. Thanks guys!
Quebec Touring 2005 Race 5 - Sanair, September 10, 2005
Sanair, Quebec, September 10th 2005
The Quebec Touring championship took us
back to Sanair, a small but fast track about 40 miles from Montreal. This would
be our second visit to the track this year, this being a replacement event
because the series did not run as a support race for CART at Circuit
Gilles-Villeneuve as we had hoped. For those who have not read one of my race
reports before, the Quebec touring series is sort of like the Speed World Challenge
series or the U.S. Touring Car Championship, except every race takes place in
Quebec. I am one of the low-budget guys and I’m the only guy who drives the
race car to events. I had suffered some bad luck in the past few weeks, first
spinning a rod bearing, then changing blocks only to have the timing belt skip
several notches, bending all the valves, followed by a blown engine at
Trois-Rivieres. I managed a 14th place at Trois-Rivieres with a borrowed car
and was sitting in 14th place in the championship and 2nd in rookie points
behind Carrier’s Jetta VR6, mainly due to a DNF on my part at the 3rd event.
At our previous visit to this track, I
finished 15th and was the second placed rookie at the event. I had won a
race-long battle with my main rival in his Jetta. I didn’t know until the last
minute whether I would even make the event. I decided to have Patrick Boyer, a
fellow racer whose season had ended prematurely after a huge crash at
Trois-Rivières, help me rebuild my B18c1 with the spun bearing. I had very
little budget for this. I bought some used B16a pistons, new rings and bearings
and had the crank balanced and the cylinder walls honed. Apparently the crank
was barely salvageable. Tom from TK Race heads again helped me with the head by
changing 4 more bent valves and checking the head (the head that allows me to
have great torque for a Honda, thanks Tom!) Patrick finished the engine last
night and we drove it to the track together this morning. So much for a
break-in on the rebuild. He wanted to come to the race and I had no crew, so it
worked out well for me. I revved to 8000 on the highway on the way there and
the alternator light briefly came on. Bad omen. The (brand new) belt was
slipping on the (almost brand new) alternator. I had alternator problems at
three of the previous four events due to wrong brackets, old parts and poor
alignment. As a precaution, I brought two extra batteries to the event, in case
I had to run with no charging system. Since there was one practice, one
qualifying session and then the race, I figured one battery per session would
suffice. When we got to the track, Pat checked the tension on the alternator
belt and found two things: one, it needed to be tightened, two, the grooves in
the belt were V-shaped and the grooves in the pulley were square. No wonder it
was slipping at high RPM.
There is a long straight which is actually
a drag strip, where a car like mine hits about 185 km/h (8000-8100 rpm in 4th, USDM ITR tranny). This
leads into a double apex hairpin to the right with a little kink to the left on
its exit. There is then a left-right combo that can be taken flat out but
demands concentration so that you can end up on the right side of the track for
the bumpy braking zone before a 90-degree left onto a mini-oval. A small lift
before turning right on the small flat oval, another lift before another right
which takes you downhill into another bumpy braking zone before a right under a
bridge leading onto the drag strip, which is lined with cement barriers
awaiting those who understeer, oversteer or early apex!
For the first session, Pat instructed me to
use part throttle and shift at 7000 rpm for the first 5 laps. I had my ECU
reprogrammed to cut at 8400, so that this new engine would last until the end
of the year (2 races left, both at Tremblant in 2 weeks). I did as I was told
and settled in behind a Geo Storm that usually runs about 2 seconds a lap off
my pace, figuring I could still follow him. It turned out that I could. The
alternator light was coming on at about 6000 rpm and I was glad I had 2 other
batteries waiting in the pits. After 4 or 5 laps, I decided to push the engine
normally. Surprisingly, I could not easily catch and pass the Storm on the long
straight. On the following lap, I decided to pass from quite a way back,
figuring he would see me and leave me space on the inside of the wide hairpin
so I could pass after the braking zone. Unfortunately, I locked up in the
braking zone and was headed straight for the Storm that had now turned in. I
punted his rear bumper at a 45-degree angle, then pulled off the track. I had
spun him and he had recovered and got back on the track. My car seemed to have
some damage and I wasn’t sure whether I had a flat. This was an error in
judgment (that I could pass that driver in that spot) combined with driver error…
basically 100% my fault.
The corner worker let me back on and I went
straight to the paddocks. The Storm had headed in too. I went straight to the
driver to apologize for my bonehead banzai move (in a practice session).
Fortunately, his car had light damage. The bumper cover didn’t break, although
a lot of paint flaked off. The rear fender was also slightly bent. However, I
hadn’t touched his wheel and the damage was purely cosmetic. He had a great
attitude and was not as angry as one would expect, saying “that’s racing”. I
know he doesn’t read this site, but I apologize yet again, Eric.
When I got back to my car, I saw that the
damage was worse than I had thought at first… The nose of the car was bent up.
The driver-side headlight was in pieces, the bumper cover was all bent and the
hood too. We got the hood open and removed the bumper cover, then the bumper
beam just fell off. The holes around the bolts had deformed. The other
headlight was broken where it met the rad support. The rad was intact but had
popped out of one of its support holes. The worst part was that the rad support
was bent all the way back to the power steering pump. A fellow racer named Yvon
had an excellent idea to pull out the rad support. Instead of using a 2x4 or a
pry bar, he told me to go find an OEM-style scissor jack and insert it between
the block and the rad support, then expand it. This worked unbelievably well!
We were gradually bringing the rad support back to its original location and we
could adjust it gradually and precisely. We then attacked the hood and managed
to make it line up and close with the hood pins. At this point, I felt relief,
knowing that I would be able to get back on the track. We bent the holes in the
bumper beam back into shape and bolted it back on. I taped together most of the
shattered headlight and attached them both to the rad support with tie-wraps.
We got the bumper cover back on and the whole setup looked remarkably good… A
racer buddy who arrived late didn’t even notice any damage when he first saw
the car. Did I mention that Pat’s family has a body-shop? Boy was I glad to
have this guy with me today!
Although I didn’t have much practice, I was
looking forward to qualifying since I knew the track quite well. Although I had
no chance to qualify that well (I’m not a great qualifier), I wanted to see how
I would do in comparison to the other three rookies who could potentially beat
me:
Stephane Carrier’s Jetta VR6… the guy leading the rookie points. In the 3 races I finished this year, I beat him in two of them after long battles in the race, losing at Trois-Rivieres by 0.3 seconds. We have become good racing buddies and I feel very safe in close racing with him. He has a much bigger budget than me though and keeps improving the car between races. He dyno’d 192 whp last week according to my sponsor Trac Racing. That’s quite a bit more than me!
Babu’s (one name, like Madonna) Tiburon V6, one of four identical cars, Babu is a VJ on a Quebec music station and a DJ on the radio as well. Although I had beaten him at the first event, he beat me at the second and was kicking my ass at the 3rd event by 7 or 8 positions before I DNF’d. Unfortunately for him, he had a serious motorcycle accident on the street and missed the 4th event. He was still only three points behind me in the rookie standings, so if he beat me by three positions today, we would have been tied in points.
Manuel Bastien, a late-comer who has no real chance at the rookie title, but he beat both me and Stephane at the previous event. He drives an H22-powered Integra.
Basically, I wanted to qualify as well as
possible against these guys with the hopes of improving my position in the
rookie and overall standings. I felt good because I managed to follow Babu for
most of the session and last time we were at Sanair, he had qualified 10
positions ahead of me. However, the stopwatch indicated that the session was
not that great for me. I managed a 1:02.9, only 0.1 seconds off my best lap
last time we were there, but all three other contenders qualified ahead of me.
Bastien was 0.2 seconds ahead and Babu, 0.6 seconds and Stephane was 1.1
seconds ahead. As I had expected, it was getting harder and harder to hang with
him as the season went on. There were only two cars qualified behind me: the
Storm and a Neon, both over two seconds back.
When we checked over the car, we noticed
that the axle had crapped all over the inside of the wheel. We managed to
borrow one from a fellow racer (the eventual winner) and his crew even helped
us install it. One of the members of that team running in the GT class had
blown his engine in the morning. As an exchange for the CV-joint and labour, I
offered him the use of my car in the GT race, which came after my own, as long
as he used his own wheels, tires, pads and discs. He seemed pretty jazzed about
the offer, but eventually declined, worried that he might damage my car. I owe
these guys a beer then (and an axle). We finished the install just in time and
headed to the false grid. I was sitting in my spot dying of thirst as I hadn’t
had any water all day. I felt so stupid, realizing I was jeopardizing my
performance… when you start a race this thirsty, imagine how you finish it! I
spotted a ½ empty bottle of water on the roof of a car a couple of spots ahead
of me on the grid. Despite the fact that we were due to leave momentarily, I
popped out and headed over to the car, whose driver I knew (Bastien’s brother,
in fact). I asked his girlfriend if I could take the bottle and she said “sure,
it belongs to Bastien and he doesn’t want any more.” I felt much better and
hopped back into my car. We then heard there would be a 15-minute wait as the
cleanup crew was putting oil dry in every turn as someone had left a trail of
oil on the racing line for a whole lap! Ironically, Bastien, who was gridded
beside me, asked his brother’s girlfriend for water and I had to tell him that
I drank it… ooops.
I figured my strategy would be to pass (thirsty)
Bastien after the start in the braking zone for the hairpin and then try to
attack Babu, who I still thought I could keep up with. We were given two warmup
laps before the rolling start. Bastien was not keeping up with the pack and I
was hanging back a little, feeling guilty about starting so far ahead of a guy
who out-qualified me. When the flag dropped, I was a little bit behind the pack
and Bastien was yet further back, but due to the difference in our gearing and
power, he cruised right by me way before the braking zone. I went into the
hairpin with only the Neon and Storm behind me. I managed to claw my way back
up to Bastien’s Integra and passed him under braking. I saw Babu pass the Jetta
after he blew the braking zone (you can still turn, but you usually lose a
position) and they still seemed within reach. I slowly caught them and the car
was feeling good. I was running on the battery only (I had changed it just
before the race) and had been granted permission to run with my lights off due
to my mishap in the morning which damaged the lights, but the car was handling
well. The Jetta and Tiburon were pulling away in the straightaway and I would
catch up dramatically under braking and through the hairpin, only to lose more
ground in the flat out esses before getting close again in the mini oval. I
figured if I kept up the pressure, someone would crack.
It turned out Babu cracked first. He
slightly botched the braking zone at the hairpin and as the Jetta squeezed by,
so did I. We managed to leave him behind after a couple of laps and it seemed
that his heart wasn’t in it, as I think he could have tried a comeback with
such a well put-together car.
The yo-yoing with the Jetta continued and I
got quite close on some laps, but not close enough to make a move (except maybe
a desperate one). When we caught the Storm and Neon to lap them, I made sure
not to waste any time, since at Trois-Rivieres, I had lost a lot of ground on
the Jetta by not being aggressive enough in lapping back-markers. We were both
through at the same time. I was watching for the “1 lap to go” signal at the
start-finish line (another mistake from Trois-Rivieres, I hadn’t known we were
on the last lap because I was too concentrated on the battle). After a straight
where I’d had an especially nice exit speed from the last turn, I managed to
get close to the Jetta in the braking zone, then get on the inside of him in
the hairpin. However, the Jetta pulled beside me while exiting that curve and
cut off my line through the esses, forcing me to lift. or use the grass at
almost 160 km/h. I was yelling and swearing in the car, but it was a fair move
on his part and I would have done the same. A couple of laps later, I saw the
signal… one lap to go. I was not particularly close to the Jetta at the time,
but hoped that I could brake off line, later than him, and pass before the
hairpin. Then I realized that the 2nd place Golf that had been catching me to
lap me, was passing me on the straight. I couldn’t pull out to try to out brake
the Jetta, as the Golf was in the way. Luckily, he finished passing me just
before the turn-in point, and as the Jetta left room for the Golf at the apex,
I made it through as I stuck to the Golf’s bumper. I was ecstatic, but Carrier
hadn’t lost much ground and he out-accelerated me again and cut off the racing
line in the esses. I was pissed! I decided that I could out-brake him for the
90-degree left into the mini oval and I went for it. He was forced to leave me
room and I turned in from the inside of the turn, cutting off the apex for him.
To actually make the turn, I had to go pretty slow as my line forced me to turn
quite sharply. When I got on the gas at the apex, I realized I was way out of
the power-band and I quickly grabbed 2nd without lifting, carrying me onto the
big turtles at the exit of the corner. I was checking my mirrors like crazy,
praying he could not pass me in the next three turns before the straight.
Somehow, I kept him behind me and as we headed out onto the straight, he was
right behind me. I swerved off the line, leaving him no room near the wall and
trying to make the way around me more of a pain. When he moved out to the right
for the pass, I held my line, as I don’t think it would be fair to make several
moves to block him. I crossed the finish line 0.138 ahead of him… fortunately
the finish line was not that far down the straight.
I couldn’t believe it. I think this was
probably my single best performance ever. I managed my race properly and waited
until late in the race to make a move. I also used the car lapping me correctly
and timed the last pass as well as possible. I had managed a 1:02.6 as a fast
lap, and most of the others had gone slower than in qualifying (maybe the oil
dry made the track slower).
I ended up 10th overall, my best result to
date. I was also the top rookie and moved closer to Carrier in rookie points. I
also won the hard charger award as well for moving up the most spots from
qualifying. I think I’ve also moved into 10th overall in the championship. I’m
still on the high as I write this. Sorry it was so long!
Next event: season finale double at
Tremblant in two weeks. Stay tuned…
Quebec Touring 2005 Races 6 and 7 Tremblant Fall Classic, September 23, 2005
The last two events of the Quebec Touring
season took place this past weekend at Tremblant. Friday was a practice day
with 2 sessions and there would be a race Saturday and another Sunday.
I was on the second race with the newly
rebuilt B18c1 bottom end and the engine had worked well at the previous race,
where I got my best result of the year, which was a 10th place. I had done some
testing last Monday at St-Eustache and it looked like my alternator problems
were finally solved (no more slipping or throwing the belts, nor more frying
the regulator).
The first session went relatively well. I
was not pushing too hard in corners 1 and 2, trying to build up speed there
gradually. There was no transponder timing in the session, but I could see I
was faster than the Subaru 2.5 RS and I slowly gained on the H22 Integra during
the session, so I was satisfied, as that was where I usually placed in races. I
knew I could go couple of seconds faster in the next session.
Before session 2, I went to talk to
Stephane Trahan of Trac Racing, who is a veteran who knows the track well. I
asked him where I should be braking for turns 1 and 2 and he told me not to
brake at all, just to lift at 1 and come back on the gas to power through 2,
decreasing the period of lifting as my confidence grew. This sounded like it
would be A LOT faster, but also quite scary, as turn 2 is a blind apex over a
crest.
I went out for the second session and on
the second lap I tried not to brake for 1, then power through 2. It was not as
hard as I thought, although I was not full throttle all the way through 2. I
figured I would be able to steadily improve throughout the session and the
weekend by following Stephane's advice. A little while later, I was following a
Prelude uphill towards Namerow when the engine just let go... no mis-shift or
anything like that, just popped at about 6000 rpm. I started to make the turn
and spun in my own oil. I used gravity to roll away from my position in the
middle of the track and then down into pit lane.
There was a hole the size of a tennis ball
in my block. I didn't have money to buy a block that evening, which is too bad
as three separate teams offered to do the swap with me (again, I can't get over
how helpful the other racers can be!). I tried to borrow or rent a car from
Trac Racing, but the cars were already rented by people with more money than
me. I know Stephane would have let me drive their ex-SWC Beetle if he could,
but there were paying customers who obviously got priority over me.
I spectated all day Saturday, watched my
race take place without me in it, saw the battle between an RSX and the H22
Integra in which I probably would have been involved... the whole day was quite
depressing. At least the day ended nicely with my wife surprising me and
showing up at the track. We had a nice dinner and went home a day early. That's
it for 2005... A season of ups and downs ends on a down.
 |
| Pitted near the Echo Cup cars |
 |
| One of the track owner's lovely street cars |
 |
| Cool Abarth race car |
 |
| There were a few Ferrari Challenge 360's on hand |
 |
| That's the hole in the block |
 |
| Can you tow a Lotus with a 4-cylinder Volvo? Apparently yes. |
 |
| A Cool Lotus 7 |
 |
| The Civic left on a flatbed |
 |
| Cool British duo |
 |
| More cool vintage racers |
 |
| 914 looks surprisingly good with Revolution wheels |
