Saturday, Fizzball Racing fielded one of our MGBs -- Andy
Banta's E Production GT -- in an SCCA race at Laguna Seca
near Monterey, California. Don, Craig and I were also
present, as was Larry Colen, who got the fun job: since
Andy's foot is still in a cast from an excess of Frisbee,
Larry got to drive the car to check out some modifications
we've been making to the package. I also got to see the
tires and wheels from my EP car (for which I've acquired a
drivetrain, to be installed over the next couple of months)
driven in combat.
The format of this event was that there were four run
groups running on Saturday, meaning everyone got to do
practice, qualifying, and race on the same day. This
meant that I got up at five-something and drove to the
track -- next year I'll be leaving on Fridays like the
real racers, but then Laguna Seca is a great place to
camp.
Larry did some respectable times on Saturday, getting down to
them within the first couple of laps. The car was consistent
and reliable, though the cooling system improvements weren't
what we'd hoped for given the amount of work Andy had put into
the radiator, but the headers seemed to work. (No doubt due to
the spectacularly professional job of wrapping them; and I
think most of the fiberglass pieces are out of my wrists now,
Andy.) Most of lap times were in the 2:05 range, with a couple
that I timed around 2:02 and change. For the record, I think
this now makes it the fastest car in Fizzball (at least till
*I* get out there! :-)
Larry did have the good grace to give the car owner a thrill
and spun on the exit of 3 during the practice session; this
was the right place to do it, because of course we were
paddocked right there, so Andy got to see his car go off course
in one direction, then swing back in the other before Larry
got things in hand and motored down the roadway.
Biggest problems were with the brakes: Larry actually *won a
drag race* up the hill from 11, and no, not against a 948cc Sprite
but against a 914! But he was passed a couple of times under
braking into 11, and commented after the race that the soft
braking was throwing off his rhythm; he'd have to hit the brakes
once, then a second time to get them to stop, and this was
pushing his braking points too far back to get much faster.
I figure there's an easy couple of seconds a lap if we can
add ducting from the headlight sockets to the front rotors.
For those who haven't driven or seen the track, Laguna Seca
is a 2.2-mile road course with lots of elevation change at several
points on the course. In clear traffic, you use your brakes
hard at the entry to 2 (a left-hand 180 at the bottom of a long but
shallow hill), the entry to 5 (which is almost the fastest
part of the track, as 4 is an increasing radius right-hander
that most cars take flat-out), and especially the entry to
11, which is at the end of a long downhill section and just after
the very fast turn 10. There are other places that require
a touch of the brakes, but these are the ones I remember as
needing the most serious stopping power.
In the meanwhile, I'm going to get the street B out of the
garage this week (the suspension piece comes back from the
shop soon) and then it's time to tear into the underpinnings
of my own race car. Paint things, rebuild the hydraulics,
clean up anything I can see and some things I can't, and
then start installing drivetrain bits. Capri Club school
on December 2 or bust!
--Scott "Aw George, dontcha ever get tired of just readin about things?" Fisher
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