The DMS motorsports team drove up to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri for a Champcar race the weekend before last. The drive down was uneventful, if long and rainy. We did have some interesting challenges maneuvering our enclosed trailer down the narrow lake roads leading to our AirBNB. Luckily, the delicious food and sassy southern waitresses at Val’s diner 5 minutes down the road from the track made up for the stress.
]
We were all pretty intimated by the track, it’s brand new this year, very long at 4 miles and incredibly technical with multiple blind crests and tons of elevation change. It’s the most technical track I’ve ever driven with the exception of the Nurburgring. Luckily Cooper gave us our first run around the track and masterfully showed us the racing line.
Unfortunately, lightning storms shut down the first half of the test and tune. So we had limited time to learn the track. Additionally, our new front air dam was limiting radiator air flow and we were running a bit warm, we removed it for the race and we’ll have to develop a version 2 for our next event. Due to that and a brief radiator leak scare (turned out it was water splashed up from the track), I didn’t get a chance to drive on the track during the test session. I was going in blind for the start of the race, in the pouring rain.
4 Likes
My first stint in the first race was a little spicy to start with, but the rain on the ground was a good reminder to take it easy on a brand new track. We had a little visibility challenge after I closely followed another car for a few laps and got some oil mist mixed with the rain, but we brought squeeges and RainX so the team was well prepared.
Lots of crashes and mechanicals and the fact that the new track had no service entrances meant we spent many laps behind a safety car, but it was a good reminder to keep the car in one piece. The whole team drove really well on the second day, I’m particularly proud of our first-timer, Wes, always hard to jump into a new car on a new track with a new team having never raced wheel-to-wheel before and he performed admirably. Some other cars weren’t so lucky.
The scariest corner on the track was turn 1, coming off of the pit “straight” in 4th gear, you had to make a left-hander, off-camber and downhill, with a wall 12" off the track if you mess up. We had one close call…
2 Likes
It’s called building suspense…
1 Like
After a solid race 1, we were feeling comfortable on the track and confident in the car. We decided to go to 2 hour stints in order to be more competitive with fewer pit stops. The forecast was great, sunny, windy and in the 70s.
Our first drivers had great stints, everyone was putting up much faster and more consistent lap times. Our best lap Saturday was a 3:13, and best on Sunday was a 3:02 (David was flying! But everybody was getting similar gains,). In an even better bigger boost to morale we managed to un-lap ourselves from fellow Nissan-driving DMS rivals Killerbasa racing (well, once, they were still 6 laps ahead…)
I was pumped up when I got in the car for the final stint. Our tires were holding up, and thanks to great driving and an excellent effort from our pit crew, we were in 25th place out of 67 and 3rd in class, and if I got some open track I was gonna see if I could compete with David’s hottest laps. As I started to push I was getting some vibration, I figured it was the tires as we were worried about them making it all the way through day 2. But then as I braked from ~90mph into the uphill turn 16, it started to feel like the car was shaking apart. I went into the next low-speed corner complex a little tentatively until I heard and felt a CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK, and my right front wheel fell off the car.
The wheel hub had completely given up, if you’d like to see the aftermath up close, I put the front wheel in the lobby. We traded some beer for a wheel dolly and pushed the car up into the trailer, which is where it currently rests.
If you’re interested in racing adventures, or in helping us put this 240sx back together. We meet in the automotive area on Thursdays around 7. Come on down!
7 Likes
Good save. Looked like a blast.
But Wow that is a sloppy shifter. Is that a 240 thing or is it worn out?
I have no idea what it felt like stock, but it’s been through a lot of races so it’s probably pretty worn out at this point.
1 Like
