# Finally, a write up of the Phoenix BMW CCA Club Race event



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

Hi All -

Sorry it took so long to get this, and I'm still waiting for better on track pictures, but at least I have something to post.

First of all, let me just say WOW! I'd like to thank the Roadrunner chapter for their hospitality and for having us at such a well run event. And to be coupled with the Grand Am and Daytona/Rolex series races just simply made this an awesome event. All the SoCal people that did not make it out this year should mark this on their calendar for 2005. :thumbup: On to the write up:

Zolti made to my place about 12:30 AM, Thursday morning. We threw a few things in the truck and off we went as I drove through the night (not fun) to have us at PIR for the track opening at 8:00 AM. We made it fine, figured out where we were supposed to be, got our passes, un packed and unloaded the car. It was my first time to PIR and I wasn't sure where we'd be. Turns out they had us paddock outside of the oval (because the pro teams took up the infield) back around where Turn 9 is. It was that parking area near Gate 12 at the top of the map where it says no infield access:








That was actually okay as far as the racing went, because there was access on an off the track back there, so the cars had to go very little distance to the paddock once off the track. The only problem was if you want to visit the infield paddock, you had to drive up to the front gates and get in that way. But other than that, we had a good close place to watch some of the racing (the BMW CCA viewing tent was just a little to the left of our paddock on the diagram (once the cars were on the oval, but it was a nice high vantage point to see a lot of the track). Here is the road course map for PIR - we used the same course that the pro races were run on. Going counterclockwise, Turn 2 is where the cars come off the oval onto the infield and Turn 9 is where they go back onto the oval. About a minute a lap and no place on the track to take a break - PIR has claimed a lot of damage to BMW Club racers over the years (and I've even heard of one fatality), so no place to take lightly. This was Geoff's first time at PIR, first time in the car and our first time using the Yokohamas.  









The weeekend would go with 2 practices on Thurs., a practice, qual. and Race on Fri. and a race on Sat. Started out with Geoff running a respectable 1:14 in the first session but coming off the track, we had sticking shifter linkage and had to do some in paddock repairs involving a drill to get the car driveable for the afternoon session. And it was, but Geoff now had a sloppy shifter to deal with. We also starting figuring out tire pressures on that hot Phoenix track. Geoff didn't like the amount of low speed understeer in the first session, so Lex Carson, co-founder of Moton :yikes: came over to talk about shocks to us and go over our shock settings. We made the rear less stiff to see if we could reduce understeer. Went out in session and ran slower  (but it turns out the track was gaining heat and losing traction). We took tire readings, and Billy A. made some suggestions for Friday.

The first session on Fri. was the last practice session, so during the session, Geoff came in and we bled the tire pressures down to 42 psi hot. That seemed to help as we almost got back to our best time on Thursday during the qualifying. But now we had low speed understeer (which must mean it's an e36  ), but now high speed oversteer  I bumped the rear shocks back up one setting stiffer.

The race on Friday was at 4:50 PM and the track had been heating up all day. We ran about the same lap times as earlier in the day, but a lot of the cars were getting slower. Geoff started 13th, finished 11th (with a great move to split two cars and jump up 2 positions by the 2nd trun) and once the field strung out, was pretty much alone on the track for much of the race. But Geoff got a class win in H Stock in his club racing debut! :banana: This was our view for most of the weekend as we got to see a lot of the action behind a tire wall at Turn 9.









For the Saturday race, feeling better about tire pressures, Zolti went a notch softer with the rear sway bar (still trying to reduce oversteer under throttle). The starting position was based on Fridays finish. Again, on those Yokohama A032R S compound tires, which heat up almost instantly (sold as an AutoX tire), Geoff was able to jump 2 or 3 spots on the first 2 turns. That put Geoff at the head of the best battle on the track for that entire race as he fought to hold off a D-Mod e36 and an A-Mod 6 series car through most of the race. Time and again, they'd take a peek, but couldn't get a good enough run at Geoff, who was enjoying the braking power of those Pagid racing brake pads and would not let the other cars out brake him. Finally, with about 2 laps to go, the A-mod tried an ill advised pass in the left hander leading to the carousel and gave us a love tap in the left rear corner :eeps: The A-Mod spun, but Geoff was able to keep it on the track (whew)! Unfortunately, with Geoff taking it easy for a few turns to make sure the car was driveable, the D-Mod got by, but still another class win for Geoff :bigpimp: 








All in all, a great weekend as we got to do some testing in the car for Geoff, testing out the Yokohamas, seeing some great pro racing and getting a couple of class wins to boot. :thumbup: It was a great learning experience (as Geoff will verify) and half the battle at PIR I'm finding, is surviving the weekend and getting out of there with the car pretty much in one piece.

More of the story and pics to come.


----------



## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

Great write-up Scott! 

Hopefully next time some of us will be able to go watch too... Sounds like it was a lot of fun.


----------



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

doeboy said:


> Hopefully next time some of us will be able to go watch too... Sounds like it was a lot of fun.


Heck with watching - there's plenty to actually DO  But it was a lot of fun. It will take quite some time to wipe the smile off my face. One of the highlights was having Geoff's family come hang out with us in the paddock. Geoff's parents, Gerd and Brigette, Geoff's wife, and of course Bill and his SO. All great people and it was a blast having them visit. (you should have seen the other club racers flocking to our car when they were there  ). They really enjoyed the chance to talk racing with Geoff and Bill.

Here's the results for the 2 races:
http://www.bmwccaclubracing.com/2004 Series/Races/results/040410_phoenix_results.pdf

After the last race we found out why, even though we got a little better with the car throughout the weekend, we hadn't gotten faster than our first session on the track. It turns out that in the first session, Geoff had stayed in 3rd for more of the infield and in the rest of the sessions he had done a lot of it in 2nd. And that also explained the back end wanting to come loose under throttle. Bill told Geoff later that could have cost about 2 seconds a lap. So that was a good lesson learned for future trips to PIR. That would have put the car around 1:12 which would be very good for that class car (and tells me that Imad's change of the VANOS unit was the right move :thumbup: ).

Here's the team at PIR. Zolti (on the left), a mechanic at RennSport, did a great job that weekend making repairs and verifying the car setup before each session. We definitely would have had a much tougher weekend without him. Thanks again for the great work :bow: 








http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=1331&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=3063


----------



## M-Builder (Feb 23, 2004)

*Fun Weekend!*

Hey Scott, Congrats!

I really wich I could have gone with you to Pheonix. I had a few projects to finish up this month.

The car looks good! Let me know if you need more decals.

M-Builder


----------



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

M-Builder said:


> Hey Scott, Congrats!
> 
> The car looks good! Let me know if you need more decals.
> 
> M-Builder


Thanks - hey, I thought you didn't do on-line forums 

How to make the car look better? It's helpful in the sun and heat of Arizona to have an umbrella girl keep the driver cool while sitting on the grid. In this case, Eunice, courtesy of Pit Bull Energy Drink :bigpimp:









For large version, click:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=1334&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=3063

:str8pimpi


----------



## Emission (Dec 19, 2001)

Thanks for the write-up. I wish I was there...


----------



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

Emission said:


> Thanks for the write-up. I wish I was there...


Always more races coming up.  But these Club races that are matched up with GAC/Rolex races are definitely "don't miss" events.

Some discussion about tires:
We were running an interesting experiment at Phoenix. We had an opportunity to run on Yokohamas, but which tire to get? Well, we use 245/40x17 and the only DOT R Comp that Yokohama has in that size is the A032R in the "S" or soft compound. That is a tire that Yokohama introduced about the middle of last year and they re-named the plain old A032R as an "H" compound (hard). Yokohama markets the S compound tire as an AutoX tire, but we wondered if they'd be okay for half hour sprint races. We didn't know of anybody out there using them for road racing, but after talking to the people at Trackside and Yokohama, we decided to give them a try.

We took 2 sets (shaved) to PIR and put 3 sessions each on them (I actually drove each set on the street a little to heat cycle them a little before going to PIR - and maybe that helped) and from what we can tell, these tires work pretty well in a sprint race format. The track was pretty warm, but the tires seemed to run pretty consistent through the half hour session (after a small initial drop off) and from one session to the next. And they're probably a much cheaper alternative to the Goodyears or Hoosiers. Being an AutoX tire, they warm up very quickly and easily and Geoff was able to move up positions on the first lap of both races. And the grip seems good. The only question will be the long term durability, so we'll have to wait a while to comment on that. We may even try them in an enduro, where we can give some feedback on how they are when on the car awhile. But at least for club sprint races, once we got the pressures in line, we liked them. :thumbup: 








http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/showphoto.php?photo=1330&size=big&password=&sort=1&cat=3063


----------



## Emission (Dec 19, 2001)

Scott,

You were running fuel mixed with the TRICK Octane Booster additive. What did you think of it? 

- Mike


----------



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

Emission said:


> Scott,
> 
> You were running fuel mixed with the TRICK Octane Booster additive. What did you think of it?
> 
> - Mike


I like it. It's not that stuff you get at Pep Boys for $4 or $5 that only raises your octane something like .2 

This stuff is the real deal. Mike has more specific information on mixture rates, but basically I can throw in one can with 3/4 of a tank and it will raise the octane 2 - 3. Enough that I don't worry about burning up the pistons with crappy Ca. 91 octane.

What I really like about it is the logistical advantanges. Comes in small metal cans that can be transported/stored easily. Much more convenient to haul around one can of this compared to a 5 gallon utility jug of 100 octane gas.

And very cost effective. With the Trick, I can buy 91 Chevron anywere, take enough cans of the octane booster with me to get through the weekend and I don't have to raped at the track gas pumps (what is it now, like $6.50 a gallon for 100 at Laguna Seca and $3.50 to $4.00 for 91?  )

So unless you need to run straight 100 octane, I find this much more practical. Thanks, Mike for showing me this stuff because I will definitely be buying more cases. :thumbup:


----------



## doeboy (Sep 20, 2002)

scottn2retro said:


> I like it. It's not that stuff you get at Pep Boys for $4 or $5 that only raises your octane something like .2
> 
> This stuff is the real deal. Mike has more specific information on mixture rates, but basically I can throw in one can with 3/4 of a tank and it will raise the octane 2 - 3. Enough that I don't worry about burning up the pistons with crappy Ca. 91 octane.
> 
> ...


I need to try me some of that stuff...  I'm getting knocking with Crap 91 gas... :madrazz:


----------



## scottn2retro (Mar 20, 2002)

doeboy said:


> I need to try me some of that stuff...  I'm getting knocking with Crap 91 gas... :madrazz:


maybe Mike can post more of the details (mixture rate and cost, how much it increases the cost of a gallon of 91 octane, etc.), but if you use this stuff definitely get a decent sized funnel with a large opening. The design of the can makes it pour out a little sloppy, but it's a great product.


----------



## Emission (Dec 19, 2001)

scottn2retro said:


> maybe Mike can post more of the details (mixture rate and cost, how much it increases the cost of a gallon of 91 octane, etc.), but if you use this stuff definitely get a decent sized funnel with a large opening. The design of the can makes if pour out a little sloppy, but it's a great product.


  Yes, the can does have "surface tension" issues! I pour from the side of the can into a long transmission funnel. With practice (and those tips), it is simple.

I will post the mixture rates/technical this evening...


----------

