Firebird Double National
Weather has been exceptional for the first two days of the Double National here in Phoenix at the Firebird Raceway Main track. Mid-70's and sunny and the weatherman says more of the same tomorrow. We are running the Phoenix F1K.07 prototype (the silver one) and we're trying a few new things on the car based on data we've been collecting over the past few months.
I decided to run the test day yesterday (Friday) because we thought we might be chasing the car a bit with all the changes we made. Fortunately, we were wrong. The car came out fast right out of the box...on left-over Goodyear's from the January race at PIR...thanks to Dustin's and Chris Harrison's expertise. Within the first 55-minute test session, I already was under the FB track record I set last year (58.4) and was only a tenth off of my best-ever lap there (57.5).
Knowing that the car was good we tried a few aero tweaks in the following sessions, but in the end we went back to our initial settings for the final session. We bolted on a new set of tires to scuff in for the weekend and once I turned a 57.1. Dustin urged me to not over-cook our brand new skins and we parked it for the day. The only negative from the day was a nagging clutch issue where I would have a good clutch for the first few laps and then it would go away....mushy pedal and little or no clutch. Since I use the clutch on downshifts, it was causing me some grief.
Saturday brought a fairly cool and overcast morning, but by mid-day the sun had dominated the sky and the temps came up. The faulty clutch plagued us for most of the morning, but I really focused on trying to get in a fast lap early before it gave out. I did manage a 57.7 for qualifying.
The only spare part I brought to the track for the clutch system was a new master cylinder so we changed it out prior to the race....hoping it was the issue. Another negative was a cracked header.....again. Kevin Mitz fired up his welder for us and within a few minutes Dustin had it all patched up. We're developing a new stainless header, but until it is ready I hope our old one survives.
The race saw 8 total cars take the grid (pathetic). Rumors of another FB running at this event have so far proved just that....rumors....so we were the only FB. I started 4th behind a well-driven FA (Selznick) and two CSR's, Harvey Goldman and Don Simons. The start was pretty uneventful, but Don got by Harvey down the dragstrip and the battle was on. Those two were either nose to tail or side by side for the next 10-12 laps...and made fairly heavy contact coming off the final turn on one occasion...leaving broken fiberglass and carbon fiber right in the exit line for the corner. On about lap 12 Don caught the tire barrier going into the final turn and Harvey had nowhere to go and was collected as well. Don's weekend is probably over as the car sustained major left side damage. Harvey's car was also pretty banged up but it sounds like they may make it back out tomorrow.
The new master cylinder fixed the clutch issue (luckily) and I managed to be real consistent and turned 10 of the first 13 laps under my previous track record....with a fast lap of 57.7. The car had a slight push, but was pretty damned good. The black flag following the previously described incident had us in the pits for about 20-25 minutes, but the race resumed and we were actually able to complete all 30 laps as scheduled. The car in the second race iteration was just as good (or better) and I was able to clock 5 laps at 57.5 or under with my AIM dash showing the best time of 56.985. Timing and Scoring was having some issues so offical times weren't available before we left, but I'd be a really happy camper if I got under a 57.
One more race day tomorrow...more then.
Matt Conrad
Phoenix Race Works, LLC
Reply With Quote
.
Originally Posted by Matt Conrad
