Chump Car - John Allen Special USFail1 Race Team Build

[Nygdup]

Would now be a good time to mention we have some John Allen Special t-shirts for sale? Hit me up with a PM if you'd like to get one. $15 each, $17 for 2XL.

[dinanm3atl]

ROUND TWO...


ROUND TWO...


ROUND TWO...


Gateway Motorsports Park. 14 Hours. Towing to the midwest for a trophy.

We fixed the car. Over prepped it. Brought a ringer. Ready to podium.

10492618_10152811787806501_60170936131858159_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


906326_800445103321985_3298093884389784130_o by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


I started. P10. P3 within 19 minutes. And make a shift into 4th and the dreaded sound of a broken rocker arm. First one in years... sigh. I was extremely pissed off and pulled into the pits. We confirmed the rocker was broken and I need an ice bath to cool down. Most everything was thrown(minus helmet and HANS of course) and put a dent in the roof of the car. Oops. 19 minutes in and the race is essentially ruined and over.

10356164_10152815675361501_2098204521311508646_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

We have dealt with this before and we fix it on pit lane in ~50 minutes. Back out...

10496015_800457653320730_7920627748423859059_o by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

And guess what? ANOTHER rocker arm breaks...

10464245_798791280154034_3203032803202473073_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

So we fix it. We start to discuss what is going on. We are not revving it hard. We are all being cautious on down shifts as we were racing for a win here with a weaker midwest ChumpCar field. We just needed to finish. Can't figure it out.

10413386_798791203487375_6890619924423639561_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

10486014_10152816065616501_5470704168111444237_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


GUESS WHAT? Yup... third one breaks...

10464318_798674083499087_7745635719683933663_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

Fix it... again. And we are underway.

10538513_798697443496751_7305961622695372932_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

10467046_800445516655277_6064609055975251283_o by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

10507121_800445599988602_3159032992444467988_o by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

We finish the race. 11th place still. So not all bad. I had an epic battle with another E30 which was great. With 35 minutes left... a 4th rocker arm breaks on the day. I drive on 5 cylinders for 35 minutes. Getting sick in the car from the unburned fuel exciting the tail pipe. We had done a full 2 hour stint on 5 cylinders before when we didn't care so said screw it. Rock it... and the old girl finished.

So next up in AMP in November... and the head is getting completely rebuilt. New valves, springs and cam. Full rebuild. I am not sure why it was breaking them so much :(

10521841_806698106030018_2077608957974584335_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

10406744_806698069363355_8517827660995701064_n by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

[dinanm3atl]

UPDATE! Two races worth!

So we forgot to update. Daytona 14 Hour and 14 Hours of Gateway. Daytona First.

We rolled down with a skeleton crew and a new driver. Many team members could not make it due to previous commitments. We had an overall good race until someone took us out in turn one. Divebomb gone wrong... by a Miata. We retired once it started raining because while the positive camber wasn't terrible during the dry it was downright scary during the mist and mixed condition. Sigh.

_74A2431 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

_74A2435 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


Close racing!


_74A3735 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

_74A3850 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

WOOOOO NASCAR!

_74A5897 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


This is NOT how you navigate the Bus Stop...

_74A7642 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


Pit Stops. Team Effort.

_74A7912 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


See driver side front... POSITIVE CAMBER!

_74A0084 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr


And last photo as we drive it behind the wall to retire :(


_74A0584 by Halston Pitman | MotorSportMedia, on Flickr

[dinanm3atl]

Love the huge photos... so easy to see and enjoy.

[Nygdup]

Just to clarify, the race was back in February. We just took the month of March off from working on fixing any issues from that race.

And all things considered, the only thing that kept us from finishing the full 12 hours of the race was the coolant leak. If we'd had it at any time that wasn't 30 minutes before the checkers, we'd have fixed and kept going.

[JCarp90]

I saw your Facebook update. Brutal weekend!

[Nygdup]

So.. you got the Road Atlanta recap, and have an ideal now of some of the trials we encountered during that race. Well, this past weekend we finally got a few of the guys together for the first time to really start assessing and repairing damages in preparations of our next race in May at Daytona.

How the poor girl looked when we rolled her out of the garage.

John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr

First we addressed the bent studs that happen from contact early in the race. Big thanks to Ryan Castro and Motorsport Hardware for hooking us up with a new set. For those that are real observant, you'll notice that our Kosei wheel is missing it's centering ring. Sometime during the race, the centering worked its way through the center hub of the wheel. Time for a new wheel and ring.


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr

Once the wheel was off, we did a quick visual inspection checking for other damages. Yep.. found some. Broken sway bar link


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr

Pulled off the bumper to check for damages there. Broken shock mount.


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr

If you remember from our post race recap Halston felt that something was amiss in the rear suspension, thinking it might be a bent trailing arm. My suspicion is this busted coolant hose instead. I believe he was driving through his own fluids, causing the car to feel REAL uneasy.


John Allen Special Daytona Prep Day 1 by RichE30, on Flickr

[Nygdup]

Maybe we'll have an update this weekend. A few of us are getting together tomorrow to begin repairing the Road Atlanta damages.

[kingston]

I may end up starting my own team. The rest of the team is on the opposite side of the state from me, 250 apart. Need to find some like-minded peeps in Kansas City! LOVE reading posts from your team!

[dinanm3atl]

How so? We run nowhere near the SCCA budget. 5-6 people get to drive per race.

[M-technik-3]

Chump is jumping up in $ required to run these days not sure how much longer that is going to continue before going to a SCCA for nearly a like budget.

[dinanm3atl]

We are all claimed and legal. Some stuff was removed.


Drove someone else's E30 at VIR today. Did 4 of the 12 hours.

[kingston]

I haven't gotten to run our car yet this year. With the new season, we've de-contented it a fair bit. You guys didn't have any trouble running the rear aero? We ditched our front splitter...maybe it should go back on...

[dinanm3atl]

It's parked. Will have a work day soon. We race in Daytona in May.

[JCarp90]

I demand updates.