Rough weekend for the Castro Spec E30 at the California Crown

[priapism]

This weekend was the Norcal / Socal crossover event at Buttonwillow raceway. 35 Spec E30s in attendance! Some of those NorCal guys are FAST! Where do they get all that grip?

The Castro Motorsports Spec E30 was plagued with niggling issues all weekend long that limited my track time, mostly due to my own boneheaded wrenching. Saturday practice went fine, but my rear toe adjusters backed themselves out in the first lap of qualifying. When that happens the rear wheel is steering the car all over the place. Another shop put these in and I've been having a bitch of a time keeping them tightened up!

So Saturday's race I got gridded at the back of the pack. One guy got DQ'd so I started 34th of 35. I got a good start and made my way up to 25th in the race.

https://vimeo.com/44602091

Sunday qualifying was cut short due to someone stopping right in an impact zone. I got a whopping four total laps in: my out lap, one lap where I went off, one lap that ended up being my time, and my in lap. Once again I was near the back of the pack.

I made another good start and passed 8 or 9 cars but had to retire due to a brake failure.

https://vimeo.com/44638567

Good times. So much fun dicing it up with so many cars out there! There was no running solo, everyone was in a 2-, 3- or 4-way battle!

Thanks to Castro Motorsports, Midnight Oil, Royal Purple for the personal help, and to Sampson Communications and Mother's car care products for sponsoring the event.

[priapism]

Also I got to hang out with aclark and his spec E30 build in progress, hope you make it out soon mang!

[seatown88]

which rear adjusters are you running?

Sorry to hear about all your problems, but still sounds/looks like you had a good time out on track and that's all that matters!

[carnurd]

I know two of the NorCal drivers I can tell you they have plenty of track time in those e30s in dry and the rain. They had to find grip at thunder hill in bad conditions. If you don't mind me asking what did Nichols and or Ferrario start/place if you know jwing.

[Jonny Cash]

Yea I was gonna say- looks to me you had some good action. With that many cars on track, any race finished with the car in one peice is a good race! Thats crazy i wish we had that kind of action down here!

[priapism]

No idea where they finished. Don't even know where *I* finished on Sunday!

Not sure which adjusters were installed. Midnight Oil did the install after my crash (and three subsequent re-alignments...)

[jlevie]

I don't think it matters what weld in adjusters are used. What matters is having a means of preventing the toe adjuster bolts from turning. That keeps the adjusters tight and thus they don't move.

[priapism]

Some of those NorCal guys were busting out low 2:14s in the heat of the race, in the heat of the afternoon. I'm utterly baffled LOL

[SkiFree]

It also can mean something as simple as getting enough torque on the bolts enough to begin with (and a bit of loc-tite). I know Seth @ Midnight switched over to the IE hardware a couple of months ago.

Priapism - Congrats on making your way up the field. Be interesting to see how it plays out next year. As an off-topic side note, how did the T-shirts turn out?

A1 sent this picture yesterday morning...

[brian52555]

My mechanic tack welded the adjusters in place after setting them. Even with that, the driver's side has backed out driving through SF because of the potholes. On the track, (just HPDE 1 & 2) the adjusters have held up fine.

I hardly drive the car in the city anymore, and if i do i make sure to avoid the potholes. It's held up that way for a year now.

[priapism]

I'm putting a wrench on them, and if they turn, they're going in with the fireworks. I've had too many DNFs to deal with this. Buttonwillow is about as bad as the streets in most major cities

I didn't get a shirt :/

[aclark]

It was an awesome weekend!!!!
I wish I was running with you guys instead of just doing hpde. (soon)
Sean, thanks again for letting me use your tires for a session. It was nice to see how much more my car is capable of with good tires. Sorry to hear about your troubles, but even with those you made it through the field pretty well!

[priapism]

I actually had a blast! Just a bunch of niggly issues, nothing major. Come out and race with us already!

NP on the tires, imagine what they would do if they had some air in them LOL

[carnurd]

I found out my two friends finished 4th and 5th all the fast time you saw out of the norcal guys can be attributed to brand new tires on the cars. The top 7 were all on brand new tires for each race and that is a fact. The ra1 mandated is an identical compund to the r888 as the chemicals used in the ra1 are no longer allowed in japan manufacturing. And aparently the new RR that will be coming out is a 40 treadware slick. Which is about two seconds faster than the r888/ra1 compound. Grats though i heard it was a fun race!

[carnurd]

I'm putting a wrench on them, and if they turn, they're going in with the fireworks. I've had too many DNFs to deal with this. Buttonwillow is about as bad as the streets in most major cities

I didn't get a shirt :/

IMHO BW is the most technical track in california besides thunderhill. The surface isnt clean like everywhere else so all the drivers have to search for grip.