Sorry for the delay everybody, we had a computer meltdown Sunday after the race at Desoto.
Things started out on the right foot as we showed up at the track with a new setup under the car after we worked with Dave Steele to fix a few things. We also had brand new springs on the car as well. Things were looking good in practice as we were right up there with perennial front runner Troy DeCaire - 4/100 of a second to be precise.
Then the rains came and all activity stopped at the track. Then the call came for anybody in the pits that wanted to help dry the track could take their personal car out on the track for some "hot laps" and of course one of our crew insisted on seeing how fast a 2002 Nissan Altima with entirely too many Nismo and Stillen components could get around the track...
Back to the matter at end - we slapped on a new set of Hoosiers for the heat races, adjusted the air pressures for the change in track condition and ambient air temperature. Wendy rolled off 3rd and finished 4th. Unfortunately Wendy was not pleased with the car at all.
"When I jumped on the gas in the heat race it was like I was driving a different car," said Wendy. "At once it felt like the car was pivoting on the right rear, but it was also feeling like it was rolling over on the right front. Either way the car was bad loose and it took everything I had to just hang on to it."
When we checked out the tire temps and stagger, it was clear something was amiss as the temps on the inside of the right front were way too high, though the right rear temps seemed to be relatively what we would expect to see. After a quick pow-wow, we went back to our original stagger settings, tire pressures and after a quick chat with Dave Steele, we decided to move the wing back.
Having made those changes, we pushed off for the feature starting sixth, hoping our changes would make the car more like it was in practice. Unfortunately it wasn't. The car was still bad loose and on each restart Wendy would lose a position. Then to make matters worse, another car got into her while battling for 8th, sending Wendy through the grass, but with a miraculous save Wendy kept it pointed straight and got back out on the track in one piece. Unfortunately our night was pretty much over and Wendy finished 12th.
"Tough, tough night," said Wendy. "I've never had a car do that before. I couldn't put the power down because it was so loose and rolling over on the front even worse which it should not have been doing given the changes we made to the car. My trip through the infield was just the icing on the cake for a rough night. We had such high hopes after practice and it just does not add up for the car acting like that."
UPDATE - We took the shocks off the car at the end of the night to have Dave Steele dyno them. Turns out the right front shock had no gas left in it. And we checked our Hoosiers and they were a tad harder than what everyone else had.
Good news - Wendy's not crazy, the car was rolling over on the right front, bad. Bad news - we had a great night go bad in a hurry.
Super big thanks to Dave Steele for all of his help leading up to and during the race. If you need help with your car, please call Dave at 813-238-2300 or visit his website at http://www.steeleperformance.com/.
Next race - New Smyrna.
Race on!
