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TEAM
RPM At The LA Street Race
What
a fun event! This was the
sentiment throught the weekend. The LA Street Race is definitely getting
bigger and better and the PRO Racing Series is probably the next World
Challenge Speedvision Cup of the west coast.
The
weekend began on Thursday early in the morning in order to set-up the
entire paddock. Friday was
media day and opening ceremonies. All the local media was present to cover
this event. RPM Engines car
#26 represented the PRO Racing Series.
The Mustang “Eleanor” from the original movie “Gone is 60
Seconds” made its appearance. Also Bobby Ore Stunt Driving School drove
its Ranger pick-up on two wheels on the front straight of the track.
Another attraction was a real size Speed Racer Mach 5, boy did it bring
back some memories!
After
all the interviews and photographs, we got a practice session.
The track was very slippery so nobody was really pushing their
cars. Car #26 had a severe rear wheel hop into corners, something we had
never experienced before, but based on the changes we had made to the
brakes we came to the conclusion that the front struts were too soft. By
the same token the brake pad compound was also too soft therefore causing
rear wheel lock up. Lap times: car#26 108.14 car #20 1:23.81
Car
#20 driven by Michael was over carbureted needing a 650 cfm vs. the 750cfm
we had on the car. Other than
that car #20 felt very strong!
Saturday
after replacing carburetors on both cars, we had only 15 minutes to
practice and do more dialing in on the cars.
Car #20 although better, still needed less fuel, as it had a hard
time coming out of the corners. Car
#26 driven by Edward ran better as far as carburetion went but the wheel
hop was still an issue.
During
the qualifying session car #20 broke 3rd gear on the weak T-5
transmission. Unfortunately
this didn’t allow for a good qualifying time.
Car #26 stayed out regardless of the wheel hop.
We needed to qualify well as it is crucial for this track, but
under braking the car would just slide and not stop properly.
Lap
times: car # 26 1:06.51 car # 20 1:07.77
That
afternoon, Buzz Guilbault’s crew from Bob Beatty Ford stepped up to the
plate and were able to find us a fresh World Class T-5 recently built for
only $750. Michael had to buy
it if he was going to race. Between
Nick Burr (our crew chief), and Jesus Perez (crew member) the old
transmission was out and the new one in under 2 hours!
Man these guys work fast!
In
the meantime, Michael Noval who had brought a filming crew was all over
the track interviewing and filming the entire PRO Racing event.
All this because we had the opportunity to give KNBC footage of our
race to be used as fillers during the NASCAR live broadcast.
The RPM Engines garage had become a full repair bay and complete
editing studio. 15 camera people were in and out of our trailer dropping off
tapes while Bruce and Michael would edit all the footage.
This was impressive! The filming crew got so into it that Brent the
sound guy, changed his shirt and got under the car to help Nick.
When
we finally started the car, a strange noise was coming from the motor
while shifting. After tons of different opinions and ideas as to what it
may be, Nick decided to remove the transmission and measure input shafts.
Well you cannot swap transmissions between the SN95 and the fox body
Mustangs. Panic mode… what to do? Again
the Bob Beatty Ford crew volunteered to swap the input shafts from the
transmissions, all we had to do was to pull the transmission again.
Nick to the rescue!
It’s
now 8:30 pm and the transmission swap is completed, and the crowd from the
Metallica concert at the Coliseum (next door) was getting loud.
At least we had lots of back ground music while we worked.
While
all this swapping was taking place we have discovered that the Track Link
on car#26 had ripped the floor of the car at the tunnel. A combination of wheel hop, traction and rough pavement must
have done it. There had been
some damage at that spot due to traction but now it was ripped! Just like
a can opener.
We
still had to figure out what to do with car #26. We talked to the guys at
Griggs Racing and they gave us lots of ideas on how to fix it.
At this point time was running out in order to fabricate all the
parts needed and weld them in place in order to fix it correctly. They
definitely know their Mustangs! The only way to get the car on track by 10:00 am would be to
remove the Trak Link and install the stock upper control arms back on.
Sunday
6:00 am we brought out our convertible Mustang and decided to remove the
control arms and use them on car #26 to race with. Nick finished the car
just as our group was ready to grid for the race.
Both
RPM Engines Mustangs were grided way back due to bad qualifying times so a
lot of work had to be done in only 45 minutes. “Green flag, green
flag” Nick calls over the radio and into turn #1 we go.
Team RPM follows each other thru the first portion of the race
until car #20 breaks the new transmission all over again. The clutch on car #20 has 0 slippage and the next weakest
part was the transmission, Oh No!
Rules
for the race mandate a 3 minute pit stop which could be done during a
yellow flag. One of the 944 Porsches plows into a wall after 10 minutes of
racing and it’s the opportunity for car #20 to make its pit stop. The
car was running perfect so far and we were working our way up in the
field.
As
soon as its time to re-start the car….it wont start! The battery seems to be dead.
The car gets pushed started and it drives to the end of pit road
where it waits to get a green flag. While idling the car stalls and yeap,
no start. Corner workers jump
out to try and push start the car but no luck, Team RPM’s crew ran up to
the car by now and pushed the car back to the pit.
Nick scrambles to make the car start and sure enough he gets it
started.
Unfortunately
several laps had been lost by then, but at least we were back in the race.
Fighting thru traffic we manage to move up some spots.
Edward had to make up so much ground that at one point the car got
so squirly that it actually brushed up against the wall.
Before
you know it the race was over and not enough time to make up for the 3
laps lost during the pit stop.
The
LA 2000 PRO Racing Series at the L.A Street Race was a total success. RPM
Engines proved that their motors are tough to beat
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