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In The Driver's Seat
By: Ethan Shippert
(Fontana, CA) The weekend began early; Tuesday
night. I was finishing up
the final touches in preparation for the test day at Sears Point early
Wednesday morning. The plan was to test, load the car back up, head home to
pack up clothes and other big spares for the race, and head down to Fontana
that night to arrive early Thursday morning. I had been pushing pretty
hard to get the car done, and since there were to be no on-track activities Thursday, I thought Bob and I would arrive in Fontana about 8 in the morning,
unload, set up the paddock spot and alignment pad, prep the car and hit the
hotel by early afternoon to sleep the sleep of the dead. It didn't quite work
out like that.
So that fateful Tuesday night, I was sitting in my shiny
new car, setting the seatbelt lengths, and pedal heights, and the clutch pedal
locked up on me. It had depressed as normal, then clanked loudly, and while
the pedal came back up, it would not move when pushed upon. I got out of
the car, and considered lowering the chassis on myself as a final sacrifice,
but as if a sign from the heavens, there was a knock on my garage/bedroom
door. My dear friend Travis Lewis, ex-Toyota Atlantic, Grand Am and Vintage
Trans Am mechanic, and all around good guy was stopping by just to say hello,
and see if I needed a hand loading up.
"Well, hell, dude, let's back half this thing and get
it fixed," says Travis.
"Sigh," says me.
Having had the back of this particular car on and off a
number of times in the preceding months due to the fitment of a new-super-zoomy
5.5" AP clutch donated by Veloce Motors West (and all the machine work on
the release parts that were to contact said clutch) I and my friends had
become semi-pros at pulling the back of the car apart. 20 minutes later,
Travis and I had one 1997 Van Diemen on high stands, split in two, and
were gawking at how the release bearing had wedged itself into the center
of the clutch fingers. This was all part of the kit that Craig Taylor had sent
me to fit a 44mm I.D. AP clutch to a 97-98 Van Diemen. HOWEVER, the
I.D. of this particular AP clutch happened to be 46.1 something MM and the
surface of the bearing that was to push on the fingers was something like 46.3
something MM. It worked the first 25 times I had pushed the clutch, but
the 26th time it decided to get stuck.
It's now about 10pm and about the time I had planned to
get to bed to get a good nights sleep in preparation for the all out test day
assault on the Sears Point FF lap record (yeah right) and I was on my way
to work for a repair to this issue. Dave Vegher (my boss and pal) and I worked
away to get a "hat" made that I could press onto the outer edge of
the release bearing to give it a larger purchase on the clutch. About 1:30 am,
I arrive at home, and begin to put my car back together... Now, where did I
put that clutch alignment tool?
6:45 am the next morning I'm at Jim Russell Racing waiting
for someone to open the doors and let me at my clutch alignment tool. (a long
story, for a longer report) I get said tool, haul ass back home, and by 8:30,
I've got the whole back of the car back together by myself, with the exception
of my roommate Max's girlfriend Jessie, whom I woke out of a deep slumber to
help me bleed the brakes and clutch. I know, I know, I'm like some kind of
junkie.
So the car was on the ground, it got loaded in the
trailer, and off to Sears Point we go. The initial report on the car is good.
Thanks to a decent set of take-offs from friend to the Formula Ford community
Ron Chisholm, I was able to do a test day on a good set of tires, without
having to break the bank. (Ron also helped with testing fees. Ron, you rule.)
The lap times were less than impressive, but the throttle was sticking
chronically. I guess when you replace 99% of a car, you're bound to have
issues, but a sticky throttle is less than desirable when you're first
trying to see what a now-waaaay-too-expensive-Formula-Ford is all about.
Travis Lewis was once again there to be my guy in the pits, and tended to
all the various shakedown issues.
Long story longer, I got loaded up from the track
following a semi-successful shakedown (nothing fell off, and only one
spin) and headed home. Bob and I ended up leaving at just after midnight.
Arriving at the track at around 8:30 am, we were told that since the race
staff weren't there, we couldn't enter yet. So after some breakfast we pulled
into the California Speedway parking lot, dropped the trailer door, and began
to look over the car from the previous day's activities. The fancy SPA digital
tach wasn't working, so a cheap Auto Zone tach was installed to get us through
the weekend. It never worked either. Electrical noise was the bane of our existence
this weekend.
Whilst bleeding the brakes and clutch, the clutch bleeder
(yeah, that stupid 6mm bulkhead bleeder assembly that I've seen for soooo
many annular release systems) decided that it didn't want to play anymore.
Actually, the bulkhead fitting that the bleeder screws into made the decision,
and broke off on the outside. So the gearbox was removed again, repairs
were made, and the car was re-assembled, in a record 1 hr 30 minutes (it's
just a personal record, I'm sure we'll get faster...).
Friday we ran quite a few laps, made quite a few changes,
and got closer on the gearing; tough with no tachometer (based upon my highly
sensitive Formula Ford ear.... right...). We added a substantial amount of
ballast (try finding an ammo store in Fontana, good luck) and tried to find
some noise suppression plug wires, but to no avail. Saturday we mounted up the
stickers, ran the car on the pad again, and set the driver switch to
"kill." Pole was captured by 2 tenths. The competition wasn't too
strong this particular weekend, but it still felt good to be up front in my
first FF National.
Sunday dawned cold and damp, with a mist in the air, but
the rain that was promised never materialized. The small bore formula cars had
been moved out of the group including FA, CSR, DSR, FM, FB, etc... and moved
into the SRF group for the race. The Spec Racer guys only agreed to this if
the split start had the formula cars behind them. Not a great decision on
their part; we were diving through them on the second lap, and half their
field got lapped twice anyway. I took the lead going into turn one and dealt
with slippery conditions left by an FA engine explosion on the bottom side of
the banking, while the second place guy was trying a Cole Trickle on the high
side. I managed to put in three quick opening laps and worked out a lead, only
to have it evaporate when lapping SRF's in the infield. Second place had
caught up to me and then some and was trying like mad to get by, but through
dumb luck and "stick-to-itiveness" I managed to stay ahead. I was
diving in and out of Spec Racer Fords trying like crazy to scrape him off on
one, and three laps from the end I succeeded. He got hung up on the last
twisty section coming up onto the banking, and I managed to have a good draft
from some more lappers to stretch out a lead, and he got spun later that lap
by another Spec Racer Ford that didn't see him and put him up on some curbing.
I was still watching my mirrors for that white nose to come reappearing later
on the penultimate lap when my engine started to sputter. Here's a quick tip,
when calculating fuel mileage, always add a half gallon more than you
think... The engine died completely coming into the infield on both of the
last two laps, and I could see the Second place guy starting to mount another
challenge from a little ways back. The gods smiled on us however, and I
crossed the line in first, with a win, fastest lap of the race, and leading
every lap. Next race is Willow Springs, let's hope for more of the same...
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