Asphalt_Gundam - G body that turns

Went the Northstar Speed Summit last weekend. Previously MAP Proving Grounds at Brainerd International Raceway. Same event, different name.

Started out Friday with Autocross as usual. Long but tight course, fun to drive, not my car's strong suit. Was 57th overall out of 113 or so.

Saturday kicked of bright and early as TTS (Triple Track Showdown) moved the Autocross portion to the morning. Much more open and flowy course. Finished 31st overall and 4th in my TTS class. Soon at that was finished up I had to convert the car over to drag specs. Remove aero, drop rear tire pressure, adjust the shocks. Went out and made 3 passes within a tenth of each other with a best of 12.81. Needed to go put gas in and tried two more passes after that.....at which point the pin for the 3rd/4th gear shift fork shattered and 3rd was no longer an option....But it still sometimes would shift into 3rd??? so I didn't know that yet.

Sunday I go out on the road course after converting the car back over to that setup. No 3rd and then the splitter violently comes off the car around 80mph....WTF....That was unexpected and exciting!

Pack it up an come home. Tear the transmission out AGAIN this year and find the shattered pin. Decide to swap a couple other parts from the other transmission so I take it apart and 2nd gear has all the teeth....which is interesting because I assumed they were all gone. Upon closer inspection of that transmission it also broke the shift pin but for 1/2.....What The HECK.....thats 3 transmission failures this year that were all the shift fork pins.

So now I have all the better parts in one transmission and the shift forks have bolts in them that jam tight and full of lock-tite. It's worked on the 3/4 in the original transmission for a few years now so they all will be getting it.

Car is now back together. Cruise tomorrow night, then strait into the trailer for Gridlife at Autobahn this weekend

Last weekend with Gridlife at Autobahn was exactly what i needed.

After thrashing two transmissions into one useable one just to get it back together I had a full weekend of zero problems. First session out I was within .7 of my PB. There was ride alongs happening for veterans on Saturday so i volunteered to give rides and get the free extra track time. Did 5 sessions on Saturday and easily the most fun was giving ride alongs. Finished out the day picking up a tenth, but really I'd found 1.3 seconds in the afternoon heat.

Tried to maximize on Sunday morning with a light fuel load and had almost a second and half in the bag over lap one on lap 2....which would have been a new pd if I hadn't got fuel starve 2/3 of the way though the lap....oh well. The car working, the speed os there and it was great to just put laps in without problems.

Yesterday was the season ending autocross at Black River Motorsports Park. Got up early and drove the car the 125 miles up to Superior, WI. During the drive up I realized that the car is much, much nicer to drive than it was when I did Autocross Week last year.

Only problem all day was the O2 sensor failing but I caught it right away and turned the learn and closed loop off to save the tune from getting ruined. 

More importantly everything was working and felt great. Course layout this time was more technical than usual but with the car sorted and driving the best I have in a while I was able to manage 3rd fastest of the day in the first 6 runs and last of the fun runs I got another .3 faster too.

Waumandee Hill Climb is this coming weekend and I'm looking forward to it.

Waumandee Hill Climb this weekend!