August 28th we were out at National Trail Raceway outside of Columbus, OH
bright and early for the Import Face-Off race. The overall turnout for this
event was crazy, a lot of people came out to this race. More spectators
than we have seen at any event so far this year, all full classes except
ours (Forced Induction Pro) which only had 4 total. We knew a few of the
guys out there from talking to them at other races (they live nearby) and
they were telling us how bad prep was at this track. This was the kick I
needed to finally try making an adjustment on the HKS suspension and made it
a hair softer. The first pass out, after hearing how bad the track was
prepped from all the regulars – 9.3@147 with a 1.375 60ft! – with the boost
controller off and lifting at the 330ft! This put us at the fastest import
car at the event.
Decided since there wasn’t really anyone fast there that we’d skip the 2nd
qualifying pass and just nail it in the first round. We had a few things to
change around in the ECU, got on the phone with Ray @ PFS, had him make me a
new calibration fixing a few issues and trying some additional changes to
see if I could make the trans shift correctly. Turned the boost controller
on and went up for the first round of eliminations, the bad track prep was
showing here – spinning to a 1.49 60ft and a 9.3@150mph pass.
Back in the pits, I made a few more changes to the ECU based on the
datalog from the previous run. We were quickly called back up for the
second (final) round of eliminations. Ended up winning with a 9.5@133mph to
an 11.5 from the other car. But more importantly I was able to use this
race to capture some very useful datalogs, helping track down the issues
we’ve had with the transmission.
Back home in MD this week we’ve been going over the log data and
brainstorming on the transmission issues we’re experiencing. We believe we
have discovered the problem and Ray @ PFS is making a custom part for the
transmission that we think will eliminate the issue. If the weather holds
out we will be taking the car out to do some test passes Monday.
Video:
9.32@147 qualifying pass – 9.54@133″>www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRbf1hNPssE
9.54@133 finals – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilyy7_j6mwQ