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Notes from the Road - 1989 Chevrolet Corvette - #37
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05/04/03 - Sunday
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Day 2 started out a little better than day one. The Corvette was having some idling problems that were making the transit sections very interesting, so we were thankful that Phil and the guys from DynoTech Engineering (DTE) were going to meet us at the track to help get the cat purring again. We got to the track just in time to get a splash of racing fuel and John suited up for our first run.
The DTE Vette was feeling very strong, but John had not run this track before and it hurt our time. We finished 33rd for the event. He knew he would make some time in the afternoon run after getting a feel for the track. Phil brought a crew down to the track. Thanks go out to Jeremy, Tim and Jackie for the help. Phil disconnected some automatic sensor that disables something else and manually set our idle control. Bottom line - the car idles now without blipping the gas. DTE set up a tent and passed out some "freebies" for the on-lookers. Lunch was provided by GMAC - thanks - "freebies" are always welcome. They were raising money for Habitat for Humanity. One of the One Lappers is affiliated with the program and helped organize the fundraiser. We knew that John would have a faster time in the afternoon and he did not disappoint. He was almost 10 seconds faster over the three laps. This bumped him to 20th spot in the afternoon event. After the session, Phil made a final once over of the car and declared us fit to continue. We then loaded up the truck and moved out. We had a short run straight north of Indy to South Bend, IN. The car again demonstrated the idling problem. This was getting ugly because the trip from Indy was on a regular highway with many streetlights. We were stopping every few minutes and the car would quit. We pulled into a gas station to see what we could mess with. I noticed that the A/C condenser was sweating and shut it off to see if that would help. Viola - turn off the A/C and the car would idle fine. It might get a little warm in the car, but the car now idles - a fair tradeoff. We are noticing many little things like that. We have figured out the car is definitely female. She likes to run, but on her terms. We are working on a name for the car. We had a quick event at the Tire Rack in South Bend called the "Skidpad". A skidpad is a 200 ft diameter circle track that tests a car's grip. Each car lines up and makes two laps around the small track as fast as possible. The lap time is then converted to traction measurement or G-force. Time to unload the car - again. The best measurement for the event went to John Boos at a 1.07 G. I got to run the Skidpad for the team. I ran a .85 G measurement. A bit of a disappointment considering the big rubber we have under the car, but I did my best. I placed 5th in our division. The Tire Rack bought us box dinners. I love this free food thing. Time to load the car - again. Off to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. A very easy ride for a One-Lap night. We blew through Chicago without any traffic - a small miracle - and headed north past Milwaukee. We got into the Super 8 motel at about 9pm. Even though is was a pretty easy day, I was beat. I downloaded some of the scores from the events and checked the weather. We are a little nervous about the weather tomorrow. It looks like it will be wet. John made a quick run to Wal-Mart for some plastic bags for our gear and batteries for the XM radio. Keeping it shiny side up,
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The
2003 Tire Rack Cannonball One lap of America Schedule is as follows:
You can also learn more about the Cannonball One lap of America by visiting their website by clicking, http://www.onelapofamerica.com/ where you will find links to the different tracks that the competitors compete at, amongst other useful information. |
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DynoTech Engineering Inc.
815 Lawrence Drive
Fort Wayne, IN 46804
(260) 407-5455
info@dynotech-eng.com