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Pacific Raceways, Kent WA 6hr Enduro Race reports
Mike Holland AKA Crash
The Mendeola Transaxles, Hawk Brakes sponsered Team PDG, Factory Five Racing GTMR number 4 had just about as good a weekend of racing as we could have asked for.
As many of you may have figured out from visiting the PDG website, the team has made over 60 changes to the car since the 25 Hours Of Thunderhill last December, and one of them was the addition of a real race dog ringed Mendeola S5 transaxle.
The team thought it would be prudent to go test these changes before we ended up in an actual points race for the WERC series that starts April 17th at Buttonwillow.
This race in Seattle Washington seemed like a good opportunity to stress test the changes and to also get some data on a rain setup.
I can confidently report that, so far, all the changes were beneficial.
We arrived on Friday and really didn't do much except walk the track a little with Team PDG driver Rod Powell who resides in Washington and considers Seattle to be one of his "home tracks". Very interesting track with lots of elevation change and slow speed technical stuff in the back section and a wickedly fast front straight.
Saturday we set up everything and I got my first chance to try out the new Mendeola transaxle. It is a standard S5 except for the fact that, since the team bumped up the schedule on Ian at Mendeola, the correct gear sets were not quite yet available. The team came knowing that we would not have the top end needed if some of the really fast cars decided to show up, but that wasn't what this weekend, and this race, was about.
It was about beating on the equipment, especially the gearbox, learning how the Mendeola acted, and testing the other various modifications that were made.
Let me tell you, we held NOTHING back.
I have driven dog boxes before, but only briefly in test sessions and the box I primarily learned on was a Weismann. The Mendeola was a whole nother animal. Where the Weismann didn't like me using the clutch at all, the Mendeola shifted with the clutch almost as smoothly as a synchroed box, but easily twice as fast.
However, given my previous experiences, I went into the test throwing no clutch shifts at the Mendeola box, and while most of the issues I had can be attributed to my not getting the timing right on the shifting sequences, I was not feeling real happy about the learning curve that was before me after my first session. I did, however, provide some good entertainment on the first shift to second without a clutch and on cold tires. I almost looped it right in front of the crowd that had gathered to see what we could do. Not a good start.
After speaking with Ian, the next session out I tried the clutch and was most pleasantly suprised that the gear selection became a no brainer. It shifted in the same foot sequence as a standard H pattern synchroed box, but it did it much quicker, and of course, there was no looking for gates. We also tried on my second session out not turning the trans pump on just to see where the temp would go to, if it would level out at some point, and any ill effects the higher temps may have on the gearbox.
I'm telling you, saturday was a real "stress the gearbox to the max" and do everything bad we could have invisioned, and see what happened.
The answer was NOTHING!! This box took everything in the way of abuse we could throw at it. My first session out the shifts were so harsh that it would break the rear tires loose almost every shift. I missed countless shifts and pretty much did exactly what both Ian and Mike Mendeola warned me would be the only things that would cause the box grief....those missed shifts. Combine that with a follow up session where we basically tried to cook the thing, and I really was astounded that the box was in one piece after Saturdays stress test session. This S5 is a VERY VERY strong box. Not only that, but I shifted it over 1200 times in the first half of the race, only missed one or two shifts, and DO NOT have a sore hand after all that shifting. It was very smooth.
Sunday comes around and the team gets it's first opportunity to run some rain laps. We had three 30 minute test sessions in the morning before the 11:00 AM start time for the race. We didn't want to wear the car out, but Rod runs at this track in the rain all the time, and since it had been about 20 years since I had run in the rain and I only had two thirty minute sessions the previous day when I was trying to sort the gear box, we decided to send me out to get a feel for the GTM in the rain. I never spun the car, but all I will add about the rain is that we learned a lot that morning and we're changing some of our thoughts on the rain setup because of it.
So the start of the race is coming around and we are trying to make a decision as to what to do as far as tire and setup selection as the forecast called for 100% chance of rain in the next couple of hours. We were looking at satelite images and talking to locals right down to the deadline for making the grid. Ultimately we made the correct call and decided to switch to the dry tires as everyone was already on the grid. This caused us to be late to the grid and have to start from the back. 17th out of 18 positions. Seeing as turn one-two is extremely fast and the locals were balls to the wall right out of the gate (three wide, locked up tires, multiple body contacts, and cars ALMOST flying off the track) was the show I was witness to, I was plenty glad I wasn't in the thick of it. I let the car warm up for a couple laps and then went to work.
I wanted to be cautious as there are a lot of pretty solid objects close to the track surface including trees, armco, and tire barriers not far off the track surface and concrete barriers that we come VERY close to while apexing at over 100 MPH.
I picked my points and made my clean passes whenever the opportunity arose and pretty much had the field covered as far as handling was concerned. Within the first hour I had made my way up to the #3 position and was just closing in on second every lap while not taking any risks.
Nicely enough, a full coarse yellow soon came out and with the pace car out, we all got sorted and bunched. We were now within two car lengths of the lead BMW and the car was fresh and unscathed.
The restart was a replay of the start and all the locals made dive bomb moves on the three of us going into turn two. I went in a little cautious, as did the two in front of me, and all of a sudden we have BMWs, Miatas, etc, flying past us sideways and with wheels locked up and smoking. I'm sure they were asking themselves what the heck we were doing braking so early in the same moment I was asking myself what they were trying to prove in the first corner. In any case, we all got back to our "correct" positions in a lap or two and I settled in to watch the show between the LS powered 240 Z and the winning BWM. It soon became apparent that the Z car just couldn't handle the way we could, and as the Z car and the GTMR began to get distance between us and the BMW I decided I needed to catch up to the leader.
We then experienced another full course yellow and on the restart, the lead BMW didn't want any part of the frakus that had insued previously and the three of us in the front checked out when the BMW got on the green flag as soon as possible and the three of us quickly put 15-20 car lengths between us and the rest of the field.
Again, it became painfully apparent that I needed to dispatch the Z car quickly or risk losing site of the BMW.
I'll tell you, this PDG team has the GTMR set up so well, that NO ONE, and I do mean NO ONE including the winning BMW had anything for us through ANY of the corners.
After getting past the Z car it was only a couple laps before I had caught back up to the BWM. Under braking and through just about every corner, there was nothing I couldn't do better with the GTMR. Where he was sliding and hung out, I was rolling through the corners and watching the show waiting for a mistake. Where he was working hard and dropping wheels trying to put the power down, I simply rolled on the throttle and experienced a slight drift all the while closing in on him. In both the front and back straights I would close on the BMW with 5-10 MPH and simply have to lift because we would run out of gear.
On the front straight it was so bad that we had to lift off the rev limiter in top gear before we were even 1/3 of the way down the straight away. Had we had a taller gear there would have been no touching us. We could easily have been 30-40 miles an hour faster down the main straight and there really would have been no contest.
In any case, the BMW had to pull off for fuel about 30-40 minutes before we did, and when I ended up having to bring the GTMR in for fuel and a driver change we were comfortably in the lead.
The BMW went back out and proceeded to drop the race lap fast time by about 3 tenths of a second, as I had set that pace early on, but within a couple laps Rod had managed to drop it even further and we were back on top with the fastest race lap, in first place, and pulling away from the BMW.
Then about 45 minutes into Rod's stint, it started to rain.
I'd like to say that the BMW just flat out beat us in the rain, but in all truthfulness, we had a lousy pit stop to get the rain tires on the car, and probably lost the race in the pits.
We went three laps down to the BMW by the time we got the tires changed and a splash of fuel into the car. We made the right call as Rod was immediately 5-10 seconds a lap faster than the BMW, but they too soon came in to take on rains and got it done before we could regain the lead. They came out of the pits about 45 seconds ahead of us and, unfortunately, at this point I had to leave to catch my plane home so hopefully Rod or Richard can continue the story from here.
I just want to say, that while we didn't win this 6 hour race, it was very exciting and fun to compete at Pacific Raceways. The people there were friendly, we had a lot of fun, and we accomplished everything we really set out to do this weekend.
Unfortunately I was so busy with driving that I didn't get to shoot any video, even though I put a camera on the car for the race. We were so rushed by the last minute tire call that we didn't get the camera turned on.
I know Jim had a camera in the cockpit for one or two of the test sessions and he may post that on the www.PDG4.com site, but we really didn't get very much video. It's too bad, because this is really a beautiful track and the chase with the BWM would have been great to have. He was frequently on two wheels when he'd bump the curbs in the back. Quite entertaining.
Special thanks goes out to Richard and Yvonne Migliori, Hawk Brake Pads, and Mendeola Transaxles as their products worked virtually flawlessly and I couldn't have asked for a better car this weekend.
Richard “Good Time” Migliori
It is hard to add anything more to the first hand story by mike. He told the story as if he really was there, but I think it was more like he was on top of the world! Back to reality here. For David Borden, who has been a great help in advice and helping us get our program in the ECU and a test driver, YES!, we no longer have to "Select" and not "Shift"! It is apparent that this is our answer to the "weakest Link" for the GTM-R. For what we have experienced in the last three years of this car, I have always doubted the application of the g50 vs. applied horsepower that the current builders are choosing. My experience now (self proclaimed expert), that I have seen the results of the new gearbox in action that it will be the box of choice, be it a standard synchronize or sequential application. (exotics need sequential to live up to their mystique). The team arrived at Denny Olsen's street-rod shop Friday morning and he gave us the cook's tour and let us touch some of his tools. We got to do some suspension tuning and threw a fast alignment on the car. He walked us through and showed us that he paints all his own work and has a paint mixing room to boot! His paint work is the best I have ever seen! Our work was done and clicked a few photos of Denny and invited him for a ride through the neighborhood if his neighbors didn't mind. Of course, he said "YES". When he returned, it was hard to explain that it was time to put the car in the trailer and get going to the track. It was fun to put a face to the name and again thank Denny for the hospitality and help with the 25 hour entry. Saturday. We arrived at the track and picked up the trailer. The paddock was kind of a scattered placement of trailers and cars so it was difficult to find a good spot. Looking around, I spotted a place next to the "SNAPWARE" Nascar stock car entry for the race. The car qualified about 9 seconds faster than us at the 25. "Why are we pitting next to them?" the crew asked. I'll tell you, Keep your friends close and your enemies closer! We unloaded the car and their whole team surrounded the GTM like Indians to a wagon train. Our first session was about to stage and we were running in their group. Mike went out and was learning the box while the Snapware guys were trying to lay down some fast laps to make sure we were not going to be a threat. Minutes later, they are limping in and broke the motor. They loaded up and went home. I learned there is some truth to that saying and unfortunately, I didn't apply it when it came to the Frost Engineering Bimmer that won the race. I have used this thought on several occasions and one comes to mind when we were 2 laps behind Troy in the 66 Pro truck when we pitted next to him and while he was pitting, they spilled fuel and the marshal didn't see it, but I did. Of course I told him about it, they were penalized and we won the overall and class win that race. The engine cooling system redesign by Mike's idea and Don's application worked perfectly and is simple to do, easy to service and practically a no brainier for reliability. If your GTM build has a lot of electronics and or upgrades, going to the 130 amp Avalanche alternator is a must have, it worked now in the rain, in the 25 hour with all our stuff. We are running about 125 amp load right now. We reduced a little wing area and the car continued to out perform anything on the track in the corners. In the rain... My advice is.... BE CAREFUL! The GTM as it stands even as a race prepared car, is not a friendly ride on a wet surface. After the race, Rod said it got so scary that he was going to quit and pull in. The car would not stay straight and wouldn't turn (even with rain tires). Miata's and Hondas were passing him like he was on blocks! I learned that from Stockton to Seattle is a long tow. WE drove it non stop, ( our first ever long haul out of state) sharing the driving task with Don Vaught. Don had just got his class A driver's permit that morning and he helped drive. It wasn't planned, but Don got to take over from me at Redding and drove to South Washington. BORING....NOT Don had to drive through rain, mountains (steep), more rain, and snow. It was like the old saying: if you are going to steal something, make it worth it and rob a bank! He got all the things nature could offer and did a great job. The car was well received and always a crowd around it. Lots of people got the chance to sit in it and take pictures. I learned that "just when you think you have had about as much fun this car could offer, that ain't so" WE met lots of people and made many new friends. One thing I know for sure is that it is "always an adventure wherever we go"
Our next adventure is the WERC Endurance Series opener at Buttonwillow, Calif. April 17.
(sometimes, I think we have to much fun!)
See you at the races,
Richard
