Mid-Ohio Aug. 16-17

[BigSandwich]

Are any of the spec focus cars going to be at this race? I am thinking about coming up to meet some of you road race guys. See how you drive a focus with all the swaybars connected.

What time do you recommend I show up on Saturday. Never been to Mid-Ohio sorry for the noob question.

Cheers,
Andrew

[SVTBuckeye]

Glad you asked.

You are very welcome.

Craig "Champ" Capaldi, Matt "8000RPM" Marks, and Chris "C Money" Kisner, will be racing.

I will be there as a witness.

http://racenasa.nasamidwest.com/seas...p?eventid=8056

Go here and click on the event schedule.
Which as I write is tenative:

Warm up 8:20
Qualification 11:05
Race Group B 3:05

Race group B is Spec Miata, Spec Focus, Performance touring D and E.

Look for the black trailer with Ford Racing signage, and the Foci collection. That should do it.

See Ya.

[BigSandwich]

Cool, thanks for the information.

[mzemnickas]

I'll be there, in one of the HPDE groups...still tbd as to which one.

[sleeperlove]

I will be there in HPDE 4.

[SVTBuckeye]

Update
Saturday, Craig Capaldi was on the pole.
Big wreck in turn one on first or second lap where two Legends cars tore each other up. About a twenty minute delay.

After passing the wreck, there was no yellow visible at the next turn (two), Chris K made a move to the right on Craig. Craig was thinking there may be a yellow.

As Craig moved to the left for Chris, Matt was making a move to the left and ended up passing on the grass. (No problem, he has practice doing that on me.) lol

So they stayed in that position for the double yellow. On the restart Mr. CC got by both fellow FS guys and was heading for home.

Then the overheating that has been there all summer came back. Craig pulled over to the wall after turn four, just as Matt came past me in the bleachers with a motor sounding like.....blah blah blah he went into the pits. More overheating.

Thus, Sonic Blue SVT Chris "C Money" Kisner motored to the checker.

There were no results posted Saturday?? The three muskateers are wondering if they all three were DQ'ed for passing under a yellow.

Racing sure is complicated.

Everyone sure had fun, except the 2.3L boys are still trying to figure out there over heat issue. Craigs may be a crack in the expansion take that was discovered after the race. The Stop Leak was "leaking" from the tanks seam leaving a visible trail.

MAtt, doesn't have either the top or bottom panel from the top and bottom radiator installed, thus air is escaping over and under the radiator. Could be the reason??
Weather was perfect 80, low humidy, light breeze. Who could ask for more?

[BadIdea]

Cool, how did Sunday turn out?

[SVTBuckeye]

Sunday
Once again Mr. C was on the pole. SF was in the fast group again, but this time the SM's were the lead group. Faster cars were going to race through them. SF were of course at the rear of the fast group.

Capaldi pulled out a six second lead. Marks and Kisner meanwhile held a nose to tail dance around MO for lap after lap. Marks in the lead and Sonic Blue right there.

Then about mid distance, NASA put out the pace car because of two cars parked on the outside of turn 5 (top of the hill in five). Side note, it took minutes for a yellow to be thrown at 4 or five and by then the pace car was out and douple yellows just as the two SM's in question drove off????

So, the pace car is in on the same lap and race was on. Again CC drove away and Matts 2.3L lead the SVT. One, two , three, one two three car lengths. No more or less.

Finally Matt pulled over to the left side into the grass between one and two (keyhole). He had been having over heat and computer going into limp mode all weekend. Same thing as CC. Was that happening again?

Thus, Sonic Blue driven by Chris "C Money" Kisner finished second.

Meanwhile, CC was turning off his master kill switch breaking into turn four, then letting out the clutch in third gear to restart the car. Reseting the computer from failure mode. He made it to the checker.

Matt's car was towed to the Paddock, and refired after a necessary fluid was added. !? ooops.

Perfect weather, lots of fun. CC and M.Marks have to find the overheat issues and resolve before Sept 11-14, or there is going to be some big disappointment in river city.

New owner of Mr. Yellow( Mark) had lots of fun learning his new car and MO from inside a car rather than the open but low view from a shifter cart. He found the limit at least once.

Mark's issues with oil all over the engine, (black flag Sat) were resolved with an o ring on the dip stick. Lots of oil will come up that tube man.!!

Looking forward to seeing everyone Sept 11.

[lapp4sm]

I think that they should just leave the cars alone, the overheating will go away on its own. Don't worry about it overheating during nationals next month, I'm sure it will be fine .

It sounds like a fun weekend, even with the problems. I can't wait until next month, to see the famous Mid-Ohio and to meet everyone.

[SVTBuckeye]

Quote:<<<I think that they should just leave the cars alone, the overheating will go away on its own. Don't worry about it overheating during nationals next month, I'm sure it will be fine .
>>>

I couldn't agree more. This is not a problem as much as an opportunity.

[Matt Marks]

Interesting weekend to say the least - lots of car troubles on the 2.3's. On my car - the main return hose from the head to the radiator had slipped a little. The factory clamp (the one where you squeeze with pliers to loosen it) didn't have enough tension. Replaced it with a standard worm gear style, and that solved the main problem. The next issue was the fitting where the hose to the header core was capped off. The fitting is so small that it was tough to get a small enough hose clamp tight enough to really seal it. A little fiddling and some surgery by lowell, and the temps were under control. I think that craig had had a similar issue with the same problems in the past.

I was slow all weekend by 4+ seconds than last year. Couldn't figure it out until I put the car on the dyno. I'd lost 18 HP (!) since the last time the car ran! Looks like the culprit is the actuator that opens the butterflies in the intake manifild is not working, choking the motor above 4K

Other than the pass in the grass - my highlight was a terrific scrap with Chris. Managed to keep him behind me for a good portion of the race until I "broke" the motor. As Lowell pointed out - it seems to run much better when there's gas in the tank! Racing is such a cruel mistress....

So, it's off to see what can be done with the butterflies, and another race this weekend at Summit Point with Mid-Atlantic region.

[BigSandwich]

It was nice to meet everyone on Saturday. The cars looked good on track until silver sedans stopped coming around. Craig parked his right in front of us at the end of the back straight. Hopefully you guys get the cars sorted by nationals.

[SVTBuckeye]

Dude
You gotta convert that mud machine into a flat tracker. Think of all the time you could put towards making it faster if you didn't have to clean it so much.

PS
Hope to see you and your better half at the National Championships.
Nice to meet you and talk Foci.

[BigSandwich]

Yeah, I have thought about it. I think the sticking point might be the extensive rally cage. I think I will bring the car out for a HPDE early next season and see what the powers that be say about the cage.

Unfortunately we will not be making it out to the National Championships. Her grandmother is turning 90 that weekend. Gonna be tough to talk my way out of that trip.

[68 Touring Car]

Originally Posted by BigSandwich

Yeah, I have thought about it. I think the sticking point might be the extensive rally cage. I think I will bring the car out for a HPDE early next season and see what the powers that be say about the cage.

Unfortunately we will not be making it out to the National Championships. Her grandmother is turning 90 that weekend. Gonna be tough to talk my way out of that trip.

If you want to get it checked out when you have time bring it up to our shop and we can do a NASA tech. Then tell you what if anything you will need to do and issue you a SF log book.

[Silonius]

Originally Posted by BigSandwich

Yeah, I have thought about it. I think the sticking point might be the extensive rally cage. I think I will bring the car out for a HPDE early next season and see what the powers that be say about the cage.

That's my plan too, once I actually start building my Focus, that is. Track days are great practice for tarmac rallies anyway. They're a lot cheaper and usually closer than rallies too.