Simon Hunter was again joining me on the grid, this time along side Michael Osborne and Sean Louisin. 4 cars isn’t bad, but we’re hoping to double that in the Great Lakes / Midwest region next year! We were running on Mid-Ohio’s “Pro Course”, which does not include the chicane between Turn 1 and the Keyhole. I’ve driven this format once before, during a Grand Am Cup weekend BMW Club Race in ’07. Not surprisingly, I had to figure out my line there again through the keyhole, and I found several different approaches to the turn.
While we were concerned about rain on Saturday, I was more concerned about my wallet, and hadn’t come prepared with any full-tread rain tires. The Toyo R888 tires that I’ve hated so much are probably the better tires, IF they have tread on them. 2 of mine absolutely did not, and the other two were mediocre. Qualifying went well, as I would be starting on Pole, with Simon in 2nd, just beside me. Before the race, I found a couple take-off R888’s from a SpecMiata that had a little bit of tread. I figured they’d be better than what I had, if it were to rain, so I had the guys at Phil’s Tire Service put them on my rear wheels.
After qualifying, I went to weigh my car, to see if I’d need to add ballast to ensure I’d make weight after the race. While waiting for the scales, the car began to overheat. It doesn’t have a cooling fan, relying on airflow from driving to cool the radiator, which works just fine when I’m moving, but there’s no airflow when I’m not moving! I pulled away from the scales and drove the car around the entry road a couple times. The coolant temp was reading in the 250 degree range and not dropping, as I would expect to see within a few moments of driving. I pulled back to my pits and let it cool. That was already a dangerously high temperature for an engine to see. I couldn’t find any leaks or reason for the overheat, so I refilled it and bled it, and then drove it again. It held 220 degrees when driving around off-track, which is a little high, but it was holding. I added some WaterWetter before the race, and hoped for the best.
On the race start, I caught a bit of a lead as Simon got caught in traffic. Mike was between the two of us and making me feel none too comfortable. I kept my lead going for 4 laps, checking my coolant temperature every time I grabbed an upshift. It had even dropped momentaraily, but wsa holding steady at 220. Between turns 1 and 2, it was still at 220. Then, when grabbing my shift to 5th on the back straight, my jaw dropped out of my helmet as I read the coolant temp at 288 degrees. I immediately pulled off-line, gave up the race lead, and pointed for everyone to pass on my left side. I pulled off the track before madness and parked it in the grass at the top of the hill. I was fully expecting catastrophic engine damage (this engine is only 4 races old!). After being towed further out of the way of potentially stray cars, I watched the remainder of the race. Simon had gotten past Mike (who my have actually had an off-track adventure, if I recall), and hung on for the win.
I began investigating the overheating issue and eventually surmised that the resovoir cap had gone bad and wasn’t holding pressure in the cooling system. As a result, the water was able to boil and spill out into the catch-can, eventually draining the cooling system enough to allow air into it. I am still hoping that the 288 degrees that my gauge showed me was actually an air pocket and the water temperature hadn’t actually gotten that high. A future SpecE30 competitor, Scott, who had stopped by to check out the action for the weekend, had a friend run a spare cap to us so that I could run the following day. A huge thanks for goes out to him for going out of his way for someone who he didn’t even know!
On Sunday, qualifying went to Simon’s favor. I had switched to my RA-1 tires, which were a mismatch of similarly worn, but all heavily used, tires. The one thing they had in common was that they are all old! Regardless, they should have been faster than the R888’s from my past experience. I believe that all the SE30 cars were on RA-1’s for this race (either the R888’s and RA-1’s are currently allowed). I started the race beside Simon, coming onto the back straight on his left. The green flag dropped on the back straight and Simon gradually pulled ahead of me. But, as we quickly ran up on Spec944 traffic, Simon and Mike got caught behind a slower car, while I pulled a gap up into Madness.
All was well for the first couple laps, but I then noticed that my clutch wasn’t grabbing the engine as hard as it should when I was upshifting. Its as new as the engine and should not have any issue. In the coming laps, it started getting worse. I adjusted by slowing my upshifts and waiting for the revs to drop completely to where they would be in the higher gear, which made my shifts take 2-3 times as long.
Simon was steadily creeping up behind me. He got inside of me going down the back straight and we went side-by-side through all of Madness, up the Jump under the Honda Bridge, down through Thunder Valley, and still through the fast left approaching the carousel, until he finally made the inside line work for him entering the Carousel and he got his car in front of me. I did my best to keep pace, and only a lap and a half later, I was still behind Simon as we approached Madness. As he crested the hill, a Spec Miata momentarily blocked his view of his exit road and his line sent him off the road, bounding through the grass. I’m pretty sure I saw at least 3 wheels off the ground as I was rounding turn 9. He got the car straightened as it came back on the road, though, and managed to stay off any other cars.
I regained the lead at that point, but Simon hadn’t fallen that far back. My clutch was steadily deteriorating, so I was doubting how long I could keep him back there. In addition to slowing my upshifts, I tried eliminating any shifts possible. Between the Jump and Thunder Valley, I was sitting on the rev limiter in 3rd for a moment, instead of going up to 4th and quickly back to 3rd, and I even tried stying in 4th down the back straight (that sacrificed too much). At this point, it started slipping so badly that, with the clutch engaged, the engine was breaking friction with the clutch and revving up, without a coinciding acceleration of the car. I was having to lift off the gas to get the engine and transmission to re-engage. It was definitely hurting acceleration and I could see the difference as soon as Simon got near me.
After catching up, Simon got to my inside down the back straight and we did our now-familiar side-by-side through Madness. We were together through 7 and 8, but going into 9, he had the inside and was able to sneak ahead. I followed behind and watched a gap open over the next couple laps and then saw the white flag. I had somehow closed the gap enough to make one more run at him and I got to the outside of him through turn 7, at the end of the back straight. I stayed there through 8 and was trying not to give up the position again through 9, even though I was at the disadvantage, being on the outside. I tried a little too hard, locked up the inside front brake, and that was it. I stayed on the track, but that was my last chance. Simon crossed the line in 1st, .632 seconds ahead of myself in 2nd, with Michael Osborne in 3rd. Sean Lousin had pulled out a few laps early with mechanical trouble.
Anthony Magagnoli Spec E30 race at Mid-Ohio
The weekend was plagued with mechanical problems, but I’ve managed to get them resolved. It seems that I was lucky enough to avoid any significant damage due to the overheating. Simply a new pressure cap on the resovoir took care of that. It seems that the old one was allowing the coolant to spill out into my catch tank, but once the resovoir emptied itself, it drew air into the system and immediately overheated on the track. I’m glad I caught it quickly and shut it down before doing any serious damage.
The clutch slipping issue was a mere coincidence to the engine overheating. Once I pulled the transmission, I found that the input shaft was leaking, and the pressure plate side of the clutch had residue on it from the transmission fluid. I replaced the input shaft seal, sealed up the freeze plug, and replaced the output shaft seal while I was there. That seems to have done the trick.
Thanks to Kevin Kreisa of DTR Performance for helping me to get it back together! Of course, all my sponsors help in one way or another, so I have to thank MyTrackSchedule.com, Bimmertools.com, and EnthusiastAuto.com!
