|
In preparation of the upcoming L.A
2000 Pro Racing Series on July the 14th thru 16th,
Team RPM took its two ponies up to Laguna Seca over Memorial Day
weekend. The first running
of the PRO Racing Series 2 hour enduro at Laguna Seca was a success!
Both Team RPM’s Mustangs
dominated the field. Although both cars look the same they are built
quite different. The #20 Mustang driven by Michael Noval has an experimental
endurance RPM Engines 302 c.i motor. This engine combination is being
tested for next years 12 hrs. At Sebring therefore reliability and high
horse power are the building blocks for this motor.
The # 26 Mustang driven by
Edward Inclan has a different approach, RPM Engines is testing its 351W
power plant for road races. This engines due to its size and weight
makes the car less stable therefore suspension set-up is very important
in this car. The amount of torque that this engine produces is so broad,
that once the car is well balanced and the proper suspension set-up is
found this motor and car combination could be a great candidate for GT2
car racing.
Both Mustangs ran very similar
times around the track, 1:50’s that isn’t a track record but very
good lap times
for Mustangs.
Also, shows that the small motor produces lots of HP and is
easily driven around the track compared to the high torque motor that
produces understeer.
In comparison, car #20 with
the 302 is easy to drive thru corners but has a hard time drag racing to
the next braking zone on short chutes.
Car #26 with the larger motor has a wider span of usable power,
the track felt too small to really open it up! Stopping the car and
driving it out of the corners due to the extra weight was keeping the
car from better lap times. But there was definitely more room to work
with.
So how did the weekend go?
Terrific! There were 3
Mustang Shelby’s that were beautifully prepared, but only one was
faster than we were. Which unfortunately had a bad incident during
Sunday’s sprint race. He missed a gear on turn 9, locked the rear and
went straight into the wall…..oops!
The other 2 Shelby’s put on a great race but latter retired
with damaged motors.
For the enduro we decided to
run only the #20 Mustang as this will be our endurance car for next
season. Edward would start the car for the first 40 minutes of the race.
We started on the 3rd row and had to slowly work it
up. The car ran flawlessly
until the 30-minute mark, the front left caliper froze and locked the
wheel causing the tire to blow! In
a BIG way! I drove the car around and back into the pits for repair, but
once the tire came off Nick Burr, our crew chief and Phil Gonzalez
noticed that the caliper had actually broken from the boltholes.
|
