Goin' Racing.

[42]

Originally Posted by CodyY

We're within a second of the fast guys after two sessions today. Jordon says he doesn't have the stones to scratch the car and this is a big gnarly fast sumbitch. Still burning up our takeoff tires while others are on stickers.

Should make for a good showing if the drivers can keep em on the track.

A few pics or a short vid would be appreciated.

[CodyY]

http://world-challenge.com/news/story.php?story=2282

P2 for Jordon, Alec having some strange brake issue. Long story, will fill in details later.

[CodyY]

Bump. New season, new car.

Still with Alec Udell Racing and Motorsports development group.
Now in a Mustang.

@St Petersburg Grand Prix this weekend with the Indy Cars. #16 Mustang Boss 302R

Ferrari Challenge here too


I'm surrounded by the bastards.

Tech today, qualify tomorrow.
www.World-Challenge.com

[EvilGenius]

!

[FPGT72]

Is world challange on TV any longer?.....I did see the Grand Am continental sports cars on TV over the winter. Not too keen on the rolex series....Daytona Prototypes do nothing for me.

[CodyY]

That's cuz you've never driven one.

World-Challenge is on the web and on NBC sports channel, formerly Versus

[CodyY]

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/m...1646-vi-26529/

We made the news. Im the dood in the snazzy shorts.

[Gummee!]

Originally Posted by CodyY

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/m...1646-vi-26529/

We made the news. Im the dood in the snazzy shorts.

Those are certainly snazzy shorts.



M

[CodyY]

Home.

Kinda. Still gotta drive from Houston to Ft Worth

[NICO]

Originally Posted by CodyY

Bump. New season, new car.

Still with Alec Udell Racing and Motorsports development group.
Now in a Mustang.

@St Petersburg Grand Prix this weekend with the Indy Cars. #16 Mustang Boss 302R

Early thoughts on working with the Mustang over the Camaro of last season? Better or worse vehicle to bring up to its potential?

[CodyY]

Originally Posted by NICO

Early thoughts on working with the Mustang over the Camaro of last season? Better or worse vehicle to bring up to its potential?

Alec prefers the turn-in on the Mustang, however as a Karting racer he has a more point and shoot style of driving that the Camaro's superior torque works better with. I had to put "Smooth is fast" on the Mustang's steering wheel with the label maker. The Camaro is better off the corner with big power and the independent rear suspension, however the Mustang can be "drifted" and throttle oversteer'd a little easier with it's 3-link and solid axle.



Speaking of solid axle... we qualified 3rd first time out with the car at St. Pete this past weekend. YAY US!


I hoofed it up to the start where we got the drivers out for a parade lap and a little fanfare.


I got the kid all strapped in, and we got the call to start engines and take a sighting lap to let the temps get up.

However, on the sighting lap Alec comes over the radio and says something's jacked up in the diff. Fortunately, Alec was able to coast the car thru the last couple of corners and get it to pit road. I hauled ass UP pit road with the fourwheeler and towed him to our pit stall just as the green flag dropped. We knew it was the diff from all the noise as I towed it. The guys with Capaldi Racing were pitting with us and had been assisting us with setup on the new car, they had a spare rear end.... hmmmm (insert fore-shadowing music here).

Stuart (Team Manager with the spikey hair) made the call to try it. He and "big Joe" from Capaldi head over the Honda Footbridge to get the spare diff. Once the pit vehicles and cars are across the track, you can only cross over by about a 3/8th's of a mile walk across the footbridge over pit exit.

I get the car up on jackstands, and all hands are on deck. "Hollywood", Brian, MattB, and I are thrashing to get the fucked up diff outta the car. SCCA official comes over and tells us we can't work on the car until he gets approval. I concede, but slide under the car to unhook the driveshaft. He comes back over and tells me that if he doesn't get approval, we'll be DQ'd from Sunday's race too.

Mark Wilson from Ford Racing really wants us to be successful, as the kid is bigtime marketing material for Ford, so he is impressed with our "can-do" attitude and has the look of amazement on his face when we start the trackside repair.

I can honestly say this is the most ambitious repair I've ever seen on pit road (during a sprint race). You will see this kind of stuff at LeMans, Sebring, and Daytona; but on the Streets of St. Pete? No effing way.

Stuart and Big Joe carry a 150 lb rear axle assy nearly half a mile, over a footbridge, and halfway down pit road by hand. 10 minutes into the start of a 50 minute race we finally get approval to do the swap from the SCCA, I dive under the car and start on the drive shaft. Three impact guns are buzzing off of the Nitrogen tanks on the pit carts, and I've got the cordless impact zipping away at the driveshaft hardware. Every 5 minutes we get a time update, and it only took 15 mins to get the diff out. Killer.

As we start bolting the new diff back in the car, Alec dons his helmet and the rest of his kit. Those of us under the car are working with a certian Chi and efficiency like you've never seen before. It was like a jam session of great blues musicians. Four REALLY good, highly experienced mechanics. All of which are familiar to the system they're working on. Nothing out of place, nothing under-torqued, everything in sync. No yelling, no screaming; just a calm, cool attitude of "we will accomplish this".

You might ask why it's so important we swap the rear end? Why go to all that trouble when we have another race tomorrow? Well, dear reader, here's why. We qualified third after making changes during the Q session, we made a couple more changes before the race. Mainly a front spring change to give the car more grip mid-corner where Alec was experiencing some understeer. I also had some swaybar hardware with mis-sized bolts that was causing us to lose initial bar effect on turn-in. All of this got resolved between Qualifying and the race, along with a setup verification and small rake change. Sounds like jibberish to most of you, I know. But a few of you know that this makes a big difference to the driver and especially one from a karting background. Basically, we had a faster car for the race than we did in qualifying. And your Fastest lap of the race on Saturday dictated your starting order for Sunday's race. See where I'm going with this? Several cars were off pace or had been damaged early on in the event. If we could get Alec out and on-track for even three laps, the kid is fast enough we'd start mid-pack at worst. That's a long way in a 50 car field with 20 in your class.



At the "ten minutes" call we finish the last of the major hardware and start to position the rear brake calipers onto the new diff. Little known to us, Alec had mistakenly placed his foot on the brake pedal when positioning the seat and belting in. This caused the pistons in the rear calipers to extend ever so slightly. Normally not a problem. Normally in MY book, that is, where you grab some channel-lock pliers and compress the piston back in. However, the new Mustang's rear calipers are similar to a Mazda or Honda design. Where the only way to retract the piston is by turning it. And that requires a tool. You may have seen them at the auto parts store, it's a little square with a bunch of nubs on it and square holes for a rachet. Like this:


Yeah, we call it the "knuckle buster". Piece of shit.

Long story short, we are installing the final caliper and running down the lugs on the other side as the checkered flag flies.

Shit.

We start dead last on Sunday, maybe even from Pit road behind the TC cars.

Shit.

[seriousracer]

Originally Posted by CodyY

However, on the sighting lap Alec comes over the radio and says something's jacked up in the diff. Fortunately, Alec was able to coast the car thru the last couple of corners and get it to pit road. I hauled ass UP pit road with the fourwheeler and towed him to our pit stall just as the green flag dropped. We knew it was the diff from all the noise as I towed it. The guys with Capaldi Racing were pitting with us and had been assisting us with setup on the new car, they had a spare rear end.... hmmmm (insert fore-shadowing music here).

Shit.

Ah come on Leo is not a bad guy ..Hell I still know where his old Spec Ford Pro motors are... With the "seals" still intact.

LOL

Leo is a good guy Him and Riehagen (dean martin) have some friendly competition ..Listen to what either one says but understand neither is giving you the full story and both will use you as a test platform.

Leo(production consult) has some back door help at ford as does Dean(was an SVT engineer can you say ford lightning..) Both get stuff you will only dream of ...

Dean got us 5.7 stroker 32 valve to put in the 001 cobra r car we had(yes the first production car) My god was that a beautiful sounding motor.

[CodyY]

Capaldi's trailer on one side, Dean and the Rehagen boys on the other this past weekend.

Both good guys, and good wrenches working under both of em. Jesse, Matt, Luke, Brian, Brian, Joe, Craig... etc. All SUPER helpful to us (me) especially since we had ZERO spares. nothing. Car, truck, trailer, awning, and some tables for hospitality. Dat's it.
Gotta love first event with a new team. Took me two years to finally get all the shit I needed for the Camaros, and now I gotta start from scratch again.

"That's Racin".

Sunday's update tonight or this afternoon, I got tired of typing.

[CodyY]

and for those of you not on my Facebook page....

It was also a Ferrari Challenge weekend. I was surrounded by em for 5 days. Rich bastards.

CAUTION: SOME OF THE FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE QUITE GRAPHIC IN NATURE




Ferrari Challenge: like spec Miata with lottery winnings







and the SEAFAIR. Docked at the port of St Pete: It's the size of a shopping mal.

http://www.expoships.com/index.html

[RocketJohn]

Keep us updated... great thread!