VIR Revisited

False Grid at Dusk

Virginia International Raceway is one of the East Coast's best road courses. Located just off the North Carolina state line in middle Virginia, it's a 3.2 mile long track with huge elevation changes over the circuit. The pro's race here, including NASCAR folks who use it for testing as it's not too far from their Charlotte base.

I've been racing there since it reopened in 2000 and it's been a couple of years since I've been back. The last time was the 2009 944Cup Nationals. It's always been one of my favorite tracks. This time it was round 3 for the North region of 944 Cup. 2 sprint races for points and a 90 minute enduro were on tap.

A boring  - the best kind  - 6 1/2 hour tow brought me to the paddock. As much as I love the track, I hate the paddock. A giant sand box that becomes the gift that keeps on giving. I'll be sweeping out the sand from the trailer, the race car, my suit, my truck for the next several weeks. I made the best of it, setting in with some SmuttyNose Porters to be shared with my paddock mates, Sharon and Dennis Wasser and Mark Weining.

It was a hot weekend. Canopies, fans and cool suits required!

Being a PCA race event, the days followed the typical PCA schedule. Friday was 3 practice sessions followed by the fun race and practice starts for the rookies. Saturday brought qualifying and 2 sprint races. Sunday was the 90 minute enduro.

Compared to my last visit, the paddock seemed barely populated. Unlike the Glen event, the VIR race only had about 100 racers. A BMW race group of about 20 cars plus an advanced drivers education group rounded out the attendees. Outside of the big races like Sebring and Watkins Glen, event organizers need to be creative to break even these days.


I've done a couple of changes to the car following the Glen weekend. I replaced the stock rubber transmission mount with a Lindsey Racing solid mount to address the balky 5th gear issue. I'm running stock motor mounts up front, so the solid rear shouldn't vibrate my fillings out. I added the oil cooler back in since I knew it was going to be hot and didn't want to stress the motor. 

LR solid tranny mount in the carrier

 Using a tranny jack, a floor jack, and my lift, I was able to replace it without dropping the tranny. 

snug and at home. a nice bit of saturday afternoon work.

Practice 1 (P1) was fine, doing a 2:26 lap with my old 15 heat cycled Hoosiers. I ran without my cool suit for the session, but that was the last time for the weekend. By 10 am it was hot, in the 90's and muggy.


P2. Well,you remember that stumbling issue I had at the Glen? Well, its back! I had replaced all the ignition wires, checked all the grounds and connections and it all seemed fine. But late in the session the car would stumble while exiting a turn. Best time was a 2:25, so I dropped a second.


P3 more of the same. Toward the end, on the last lap I barely made it around the track, the best time was a 2:31. Arghh, this was frustrating. Meanwhile, other members of the 944 tribe were experiencing issues also. Dave Gibson was having tranny issues, missing 5th gear, and then more. Eventually he was able get back all but 1st, so he could race.

Dave Gibson's #52

Meanwhile, back in Virginia, Steve Randolph and others were in the middle of one of those crazy racer trashes trying to get his car to the track. Steve had a ball joint break at the Glen race in the middle of the esses - one of those life experiences that I would rather hear about than experience. The resulting crash trashed the whole left side of the car, very close to just totalling it. On the Wednesday evening before the race weekend, thinking he had things well in hand, he got a call from the shop that was finishing the race prep: The frame is cracked, we need to either find another car or replace the front clip. Steve went with plan B. The front clip was removed and a new one welded back on. I'll leave it to the reader to imagine how much work that entailed. Steve and Bernie finally made it to the track Saturday morning. Heading out for qualifying, the rear axle broke. So much for that session. A dead fuel pump killed race 1. Starting at the back for race 2, Steve made it up to 2nd. Go Steve!

Steve Randolph's #3. Crew chief Bernie in the background.

For me, while it was bright, sunny and hot, the prognosis was fading. I replaced the distributor cap as there were some slight grooves in the contacts. But I was just grasping at straws. In the warm-up session, I had trouble making the first lap. The car wouldn't go over 4000 rpm. I brought it back to my paddock spot dejected. There was no point in racing the car, I would just be a hazard out there. 


I had received plenty of opinions and advice from other racers but a lot of it was contradictory or didn't really help. As I was chatting with another racer John Behe turned up and asked what was going on. After explaining the symptoms, he thought for minute - I can almost see the decision tree in his head - and he said: That's got to be the Air Flow Meter. I said I had a mechanic look at it and it looked fine. He said, he didn't care, that was probably it. We went back to my pit and John fiddled with car for a minute. When's your next session? Qualifying in 10 minutes. Lets replace it if you have a spare, it will only take 2 minutes. Go get dressed and I'll change it out. And so I did.


And lo and behold, the car ran great!

John Torgersen's work in progress SP3 car

Sprint race 1, the car ran great. I started 4th and had a fun race. John Beasley, Al Cohen, Bob Page and I all left the rest of the pack behind and battled nose to tail for most of the race. I gained some and lost some. Toward the end of the race we had a full course yellow. I was running 3rd behind Bob. We were the last cars on track as the leaders had lapped the rest of the 44 group. The green flag came out as we were bombing down the Hog Pen, the VIR equivalent of the Laguna Seca's Corkscrew. I had a jump on Al behind me and was looking to hunt down Bob. Going though the tricky turn 17 I left foot braked and rotated the car, but this time the rear kept on going and tossed me off the track into the weeds. By the time I made it back to the racing surface, Al was long gone. For the last 2 laps I caught a glimpse of him occasionally, but that was it. I brought the car home in 4th. That was at least the 3rd time at VIR I had gifted a competitor by going off in turn 17 over the years.

Since my fast lap was a tick faster than Bob in Race 1, this is how he
prepares for Race 2. It worked.

Several hours later it was time for sprint 2. Grid position was based upon fast lap in race 1, so I started 3rd. At the start, it was a repeat of race 1. Fred, Bob, Al, myself, David Mann, and Dave Gibson stayed tight. Fred disappeared into the distance. I stayed tucked to the tail of Bob and Al, but soon they started gapping me. They had more motor and kept adding a couple more car lengths at the end of each straight. Next thing I know, David Mann who was behind me a bit is filling my mirrors. He sticks a pass on me at the top of the back straight,but I get it back going into turn 1. Steve Randolph who started at the back appears and motors past me and David like he's in another class. Later in the race I check my mirror and see David go flying off at turn 3 and that's it for the remaining laps of the race. I come across Al who had gone off and damaged the bottom of his car, parked in the grass and pick up another spot. The race ends with me in 4th, just where I started. Fred took 1st, Steve 2nd, and Bob 3rd.

It even looks like a beach. At home in the paddock, where
shade was at a premium this weekend.

With the small car count compared to the Glen, I was worried that with the normal attrition over the weekend, the 2 enduros would be combined into one. It would make sense for the organizers. I thought it was a very good possibility and I've made a vow not to run one of those again. Combing 944's with Cup cars is just not a good idea. The speed differentials are large and while most Cup car drivers are good, talented and courteous racers, my experience is that there are a few who are just douchebags. And it only takes one or two to make your day miserable. So no combined, all classes enduros for me.

After the event dinner I retired to the trailer where the A/C was blasting away for a good nights sleep and headed back to Pennsylvania the next morning. While the race weekend looked like it might be a disaster, in the end it was fun, exciting racing with friends. Just the way it should be.

Our paddock mates were Speedwerks from NY, supporting
their fleet of 944 and Spec Boxster drivers.

Watkins Glen PCA Race Weekend

Looking over part of the paddock

Despite the gloomy weather - the sun only came out a couple of times - it was pretty much dry running for the weekend, enduro excluded.

Thursday
After an uneventful 5 hour tow, I settled in the lower paddock behind the grandstands on the front straight, paddocking with E class racers Mark Weining and Denny Wasser.

Mark's 911 Euro SC reflected in his new trailer

Even though I haven't received my formal letter about my 13/13 "violation" at LimeRock, I was required to attend the Orientation Meeting aka Bad Racer School on Thursday night. The classroom was full and after an hour we were released, while the Rookie Candidates stayed for more info about racing with PCA.

Just a little cosmetic surgery after LimeRock. Nothing to see here, move on ...

My paddock mates had headed on out to the Seneca Lodge for dinner earlier, so I retired to my trailer for the evening where a nice Wolaver's Oatmeat stout was calling my name.

This was a big weekend for 944Cup. We had 48 racers in SP1, SP2 and SP3 signed up, with 37 in my class alone. At the driver's meeting it was announced that PCA Club Racing was putting on a greater emphasis on technical compliance at the racers and they have brought a big team of techs and their focus this weekend will be the 944 cars.

Hear! Hear! I say. I'm all for that. There were a lot of 944 Cup cars which we had never seen before. I'm racing for year long points where we have sealed DME's and it would suck to have somebody come in with a non-stock car as a one-off race and take the wins away from the legal cars. And since we're racing with PCA mostly this year, we'll never see a dyno at the track.

Action down in turn 1

Friday
Practice session 1 was damp, but the track had decent grip. The car developed a miss in the session, which came and went. Full power, and then it would start bogging, and then back to full power. A bit disconcerting indeed.

Back in the paddock I fiddled with spark plug wires, pulled the distributor cap and checked for loose connections but didn't find anything. I found a real mechanic - I only play one on the internet - and Jerald laid hands on my motor, sprinkled holy water from an empty Wolver's stout bottle and beseeched the gods to deliver this racercar from the pit of despair. "Go forth and see if it happens again." advised Jerald, and he wandered off.

Practice 2 and the car ran fine. Thanks Jerald! That blessing really worked. At the end of the session as I was passing the black flag station I was told to go to impound. Not just me, it turns out but the rest of the 944's. Looks like this is the start of the compliance checking, I'm good with that. I ended in the last row and waited to be called for 45 minutes.

Finally I'm pulled into the garage. The PCA tech guy said "Open your hood and remove your j-boot", handed me a screwdriver and started to walk away. I said "How about a hand here, I don't have any hood shocks." He said "Use your head to hold it up" and walked away to go bullshit with some other folks. Gee thanks PCA. I know you're a volunteer, but come'on. If you don't want to be here, why are you here?

A bystander was nice enough to give me a hand with the hood and I pulled off the hose. I found a tech guy and he measured my throttle body diameter with a caliper, said I was good, and sent me on the way.

Practice session 3 was next. Since we were having 2 races on Saturday, the times from this session were going to be used as our qualifying times for the 1st race. I put on some decent tires but didn't really improve my times, being a good number of seconds off the pace. The car occasionally stumbled, but for the most part ran okay.

At the end of the session, another call to tech. This time, they were doing safety inspections and the experience was much more pleasant. The tech gal was helpful, pleasant and chatty. 5 minutes later I was heading back to my paddock spot.

The next and final session for the day was the Practice Start and Fun Racers. No Way was I doing those. I may not be too bright but I am trainable. With a 13/13 from my last Fun Race appearance at LimeRock, I see no reason to participate. No points, no upside. I was done for the day.

Saturday
The night was cold sleeping in the trailer but when I opened the trailer door Sat morning, the sun was up and shining in the east. An hour later the clouds had moved back in to stay for the rest of the day.

Race one started in the morning. I got a good start in the race picking up several spots. There was a good group of racers where we were all grouped together and the battling was great. Plenty of good racing was to be had all over the track. I had an occasional misfire but generally the car ran strong. I ran my best lap of the weekend, getting into the 2:22's (BTW which is still way slow for some reason). Van (Svenson) of the orange Jagermeister 944, started in the back and managed to pip me toward the end, moving up to 9th with a great run through the pack. I started 43rd overall and made it up to 28th overall, 10th in class.

Cloudy, cool, windy but dry was Saturday

Afternoon brought the 2nd sprint race. Unlike the morning's race, the result wasn't as good. Though the racing was close, intense and fun. Which is why I'm here.
On the start I did well, picking up 3 positions on the first lap, and another 3 on the next lap. Lost some and then got it back on the next. And then my race took a turn.

Going up the esses, I grab 5th gear just after the apex to turn 2 as I straighten the car and head up the hill. This time though, I couldn't find 5th, it just wasn't there. I fiddled and fussed but couldn't get it into gear. This meant instead of powering up through the essess, I was basically just coasting up the hill off the power. In a class like 944Cup where we are all close racers, this was very similar in result to throwing out a boat anchor behind my car. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh as all those cars cars I had passed went flying past me.

I finally found 5th going down the back straight but with the limited speed I lost some more spots going into the bus stop. The rest of the lap I clawed some of those positions back again, but once again in the esses, same issue, same result. I started dropping down the leader board with a thud. I changed my strategy to going for 5th after the esses, running the car at redline which was making me cringe in the car. This compromised my speed onto the back straight leading to more lost spots at the bus stop. But at least it stopped the hemorrhaging, converting it to merely a slow painful death. I'd lose just one or two spots, instead of the three or four. I could then get one or more of those spots back elsewhere in the track. There were a pack of us, about 10 or more cars, where we were going head to head, door to door all around the track. It was pretty intense and fun racing. Toward the end, a double yellow came out and we got a Nascar style Green/White/Checker shootout to finish the race. The battling became even more intense in our local pack with cars going 3 wide though the corners trying anything to get ahead. On the last lap and last corner (11) there was an opening at the apex, I dived down under braking and then saw the other car come down and start to shut the door on me. Don't hit me! I lifted momentarily as he came about 3 inches from my door and then was back on the power.

But it was just enough to kill my momentum through the corner. I passed him, but a gaggle of cars behind me weren't balked and I watched helplessly as they slowly motored by at about 2 mph and beat me to the checker. Argh!!!

So I tumbled off the 1st sheet of the results. I ended up 40th overall, 17th in class. Not the result I was hoping for, but the racing was awesome even with the mechanical difficulties. Now it was off to the Seneca Lodge bar where Guinness is on tap and a nice filet was calling my name.

Sunday

In the warm-up I tried a new approach for 5th gear, shifting before the turn in at turn 2. This gave up just a little bit of speed going up the hill, but not much, and also meant I didn't have to run at redline though the esses. I was hopeful for the upcoming race.

Swiss Army wrist watch duct-taped to roll cage for in-car timing- when
to come in for my mandatory 5 minute enduro pit stop

Our enduro race was scheduled at about 10:30, finishing up around noon. About 10 it started to spit rain, but not too much. By 10:30 the track was damp, but it still wasn't raining heavily. I had hope that it would dry up so I left my dry (slicks) tires on.

On the pace lap it was lightly raining but not too bad. If it stays like this I have a chance. Everybody else has rain tires, and if it clears I'll clean up as they cook their tires. I get to use my rain light for the first time and notice a couple of cars with them. As we head onto the front straight the rain intensifies and now rooster tails start appearing behind the cars. I do a lap, conditions are getting sketchy, the next lap and the rain is coming down pretty good and it obvious that the best decision is to bag it. So I came in and loaded up. And it turned to be the right decision. Within the first 15 minutes I watched as several crunched up cars were brought in on a tow hook. As I was packing up and leaving, I kept on hearing about double yellows on the PA, so it must have been a mess out there. Congrats to Tyler and Bill Comat who took 1st in Cup but the overall win also.

But my car was still in the same shape it arrived in. I need to find out my electrical and tranny problems but that could wait. I headed back home in the rain. I had some great racing with friends and good weekend at the track. It's all good.

Bill Comat's brand new Michael Mount built motor - must be ok, as Tyler
brought it home 1st overall in the enduro.

Interior Decorating

I'm finally feeling that I'm making forward progress with the rebuild of the BMW. I've stopped taking things out or apart and moved into the additive phase of the project. Case in point, the interior.

The rear seats had a non-stock re-covering, of which I'm okay with. But not with the color, a light blue out of place with the dark blue interior panels, the black front seats. And with the new carpet and the dark metallic blue outside paint accents, it looks horribly out of place.

Lighting makes it look darker than it really is.

The only thing to do then is to dye the fabric. Off to the kitchen!

Navy Blue and Black dye cook job

The seat cover was removed from the seat frame.

And then for an hour long soak in the washer with the hot dye solution.

This is probably best done when your wife or girlfriend is out shopping.

And finally after a couple of rinse cycles and a day of drying, attached back to the frame using the built-in sharp points and crimped hog rings. Repeat for the top half of the seat.

Ready to be stuffed back into the car.

While the seat job is in progress I have been dutifully sound insulating the interior, covering most of the surfaces with FatMat Rattletrap. This is a aluminum foil back sheet of tar which will dampen sound and harmonics. Once I ran out of the FatMat, I headed off to a local Lowes store and picked up some Peel and Seal which is basically the same stuff, used for roofing.

Looks like something from NASA in the 70's

 Once this is done, it's time for my new carpet set from Esty.

A fair chunk of time was spent test fitting, adding more sound padding, etc to get it all to lie smooth, especially around the transmission tunnel. Eventually it was glued down using some 3M interior adhesive.

The rear panels, rear seat, e-brake cover, seat belts and hardware in place. I've started with some of the quarter window seals - what a PITA! Starting to look like a car and not a shell.  I'm nowhere anywhere close to finishing, but it's looking pretty sweet now.

You say Spaghetti, I say Klippan

The bad taste of the Lime Rock weekend is still lingering so I left the 944 in the trailer for a future date and went back to work on the '02. One of the 'quirks' of my car was it came with the infamous Klippan seat belts aka Spaghetti belts. The design is kind of a set once and forget since it's such a pain in the ass to ever change them again. Since I'm the driver and my size if pretty much fixed, the lack of adjust-ability mainly affects any passengers. This usually led a to 5 min adjustment session or just the 'hell with it, just hold on!' So a set of retractable belts was in my future. But I did like the vintage elegance of the main clipping hoop and didn't want to loose that. I bought some new AutoLoc retractable 3 point belts from Amazon, removed the belt tongue and some other bits. Next disassembled my Klippan's and re-threaded the harness through it and riveted it all back together. And ta-da. Stylish, vintage, comfortable and safe.

1970's safety technology

Klippan receiver loop just behind the e-brake

New retractable belt cassette mounting in original anchor point

Shoulder belt mounted in original belt anchor point

And clipped to the receiver loop

And released, now tucked up and away on the B pillar instead
of flopping around the seat and floor.

Well that sucked

Back from the first race weekend of the year at LimeRock. How did it go? says the dear reader. On the bright side it didn't rain. But it was fricking cold with a nasty wind all day long. Steve and Bernie found a great restaurant in Torrington with 24 craft beers on tap, and another 50 bottles on their beer list. Harpoon Black IPA. Yummy. I still haven't forgotten how to drive, dropping 1.5 seconds each session, down to a 1.04.2 in the 3rd practice session on crappy tires, enough to get me close to the front once I put decent tires on. But I still haven't learned to listen to my inner voice when it says something is a bad idea. Like doing the practice starts or even going to Lime Rock in the first place.

Al Cohen and his totally refurbed 944

So the practice starts. I had done the 3 practice sessions and was looking forward to the racing the next day. Should I bother doing the practice starts and fun races? They are for the rookies and there's no benefit for me other than putting my car at risk for a 13/13. That's what the little voice said to me inside my head. "But I'm a racer, and this is what I like to do" I countered.

Should have listened.

Dan Ostrower's pretty 944 turbo

There would be 3 practice starts for the rookies to get used to the starts. We would race to the uphill, reform back into line for the next green flag. After the 3rd start, we get a short 5 lap or so fun race. I lined up for the next session and wait for the green flag. I'm toward the back of the pack. When the green flag flies, I pick up a couple of spots on the outside into Big Bend, cross the track so I'm on the outside of turn 2 - the only left hander on the track - but will be on the inside for turn 3. We're still 3 wide at this point, I'm just maintaining my position, not trying to be agressive, figuring it will sort itself out, when .... bang! and I'm going around in a spin. I put both feet in and head backwards off the track as the rest of the field barrels past. WTF? What just happened?

Vito Valentino and his 924S

I didn't hit anything off the track, so I head back and try to catch the pack. They throw another green flag for the 2nd start but I don't really try to go racing, I just want to see if the car is okay. It seems to be missing when I go full throttle. I do another lap and then head into the pits. I'm immediately called to the black flag station where I'm told I have a good size dent in the car, and by the way, here's a bunch of paperwork to fill out, and you need to go see medical, and then the chief steward. Great.

Back in the paddock I look over my car. My right fender, which has been hit numerous times over the last several years is now sporting a bright shiny dent. Very noticeable, since it was mostly bondo, and it all cracked and fell off...

I guess I need to paint it black first, then bondo it, so if falls off it will be less noticeable

An hour later, the paperwork's done, I've been to medical and talked to Bruce the steward. He said nobody's come forward and they're looking for the other car. I really said I couldn't tell him much other than I was motoring along when bang, spin, etc. Nobody was being aggressive that I knew of, and it's only a dent. No big deal and off for dinner.

The next morning I'm about to jump into the car for the morning warmup when a scruit grabs me and says I need to see the steward before I go out. Uh oh, not good. They tell me they found the driver and a video. They say the video looks like I hit one of Lime Rock's wonderful apex curbing and it bounced me right into Vito's rear bumper, causing me to spin. They said I didn't really do anything wrong, but I hit somebody and caused damage (to my car), so I was done for the weekend. No racing for you. Take my car and go home. You'll get your 13/13 letter in the mail. As I leave the office I find Vito coming up. He said it wasn't a big deal, just scuffed his rear bumper a bit, so he didn't bother to come in. It was just racing.

But this is PCA racing. Even though it was my car that got (barely) hurt, I get the penalty, don't even get to race and I'm on probation for the next 13 months. Personally I think the track should be getting the 13/13 as what kind of race track puts up curbing that can bounce race cars back into traffic. But it is what it is. It's PCA's playground and their rules.

They say never say never, but I think Lime Rock is done for me. It's not a happy place for me. I don't think I'll be back. So next time I'm going to listen to that little voice in my head. It seems to be smarter than me.

Hershey Swap Meet

Just back for the Hershey Swap meet. For once, the weather gods smiled, and it was a beautiful day. I got to see a lot of folks that I haven't seen for months. This event seems to bring out a lot of folks just to socialize and look at the cars in the Porsche only lot,.

I got what I was hunting for: 2 turbo fenders, turbo nose panel, and turbo headlight covers (still attached to the headlights, but those are destined for the trash). Now I have enough parts to add the turbo nose to my car and stay legal in my class.

Also scored the typical side purchases, some oil filters for $3.50 each, specialty tools like a compression gauge and piston ring expander, and some other bits. The nice thing was they all fit in my Subaru WRX.

An almost a complete turbo front end in my trunk

You never know what you are going to find at Hershey. Here's a nice 356

And a not so typical 944

As Long as We're Here (part 2)

Remember that whole thing about Living in the Land of Well, since we're here ...., and another essay on Scope Creep, all I can say it's way of life.

You would think now that I have my Bimmer back from the paint shop I'd jump right into re-assembling it, but nooooo... That's not the Alpine Garage way.

One minute I'm standing there admiring the shiny exterior and the next, frowning over the carpets. Carpets that only a few months ago seemed perfectly adequate, now looked dirty and worn. Well's there nothing to do but to pull the seats and pull out the carpet. A good washing in the home washer (don't tell Maggie) resulted in a clean, but still stained and faded carpet set.

I sprang into action and ordered a new set from Esty, one of the BMW2002FAQ.com regulars, choosing a nice blue, gray blend to replace the brownish salt & pepper.

And since we're here  .... seats and carpets removed ... now would be great time to put in sound acoustical sound deadening material. Sixties era cars aren't known for their high NVH values and the car is pretty noisy at speed. That is part of its charm of course, but it would be nice to be able to not shout at a passenger or listen to my ipod occasionally.

I cleaned up the tub, removing what's left of the carpet foam and began apply the FatMat RattleTrap barriers that I got off Ebay. This is basically a tar base with a aluminum backing. By applying it to most of the  interior surfaces it should really help the sound quality.

All that brown stuff isn't rust, but carpet glue.

It's applied by cutting pieces from the roll, peeling off the paper backing and then using a wooden roller to bond it to the surface. Tedious but satisfying work.

Tomorrow is the Hershey Swap meet, the largest Porsche swap meet in the US if not the world. I'll be up there early looking to score some turbo fenders and front panels so I can do a turbo nose conversion on my racecar. So far it looks like it might not rain .... so I'm going to retire for the evening and watch Formula One with a nice Yuengling Black & Tan to start.