Hg Racing

Well day 1 didn’t go to plan. The distributor failed on the first lap. After rewiring our spare we learned that the spare had the wrong number of teeth causing an ecu issue. We located a distributor at an Autozone an hour away and got it hooked up. The engine ran great with the new distributor. Unfortunately after a few more hours the car started pulling hard to the right ending our day. We located a brake issue and replaced the caliper after the checkered flag flew. Tommorow brings a brand new race and we’ll look to bring the car home in a top position!

Hg racing is back in action with a new driver lineup this weekend at the Autobahn Country Club South Course. Luke Neveau is making his driver debut and Dan Garvin is returning to the car. We had some technical difficulties with the live stream this morning but you can follow our team’s progress on the Champcar Live Youtube channel today. Driver order for the day Justin, Dan, Luke, Jared.

𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗽 (highlight reel 📹 coming soon…!):

46 cars took the green flag to see the 𝓫𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓾𝓵 fall colors lining the track. The weather was also 𝙬𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙖𝙮 nicer (we could actually see out the windshield!!). Mark took the first stint, and came in after only a couple of laps due to the oil temp gauge pe***ng out at 300F (for those non-engine folks, that’s hotter than a 𝕛𝕒𝕝𝕒𝕡𝕖𝕟̃𝕠𝕤 𝕒𝕣𝕞𝕡𝕚𝕥!). All other signs seemed OK, while the issue ended up being a loose wire on the back of the temperature gauge; engine still very much alive. However, VTEC was not kicking in, yo. Thus, straight line speed was sluggish.

After a solid 1:40ish first stint, Jared jumped in. 🆅🆃🅴🅲 🆆🅰🆂 🅱🅰🅲🅺 (can’t remember what we changed to make that happen…), and Jared started ticking off laps. Towards the end of his time, the engine decided to cut off above 4000rpm and misfire / return to idle. Once again, in the pits for an unplanned stop. A loose ground was found in the engine bay, tightened up, and 6 flying laps later, Jared’s stint was over.

Mikey slid into the driver’s seat, all issues seemingly fixed, and immediately started ripping heaters. He laid down the 𝙛𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙖𝙥 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨 with a 2:56.1 🏎️ which means we’ve improved our speed/driving over our first two races at Road America. Pretty uneventful stint, as he just drove quick and smooth.

Last up was Justin, with a warmed up car ready to keep it going. Radio silence for nearly the entire final stint, until a call of “I hit some rumble strips pretty hard, 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨’𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘸.” After two laps of that, he couldn’t stand the weird steering feel and pulled in to investigate. A bad wheel bearing was immediately found, and that alone was enough to say we should park it for the final 30 minutes. We have yet to diagnose fully, but the wheel bearing seems to be a secondary failure to something else in the steering or suspension giving up. That’s what winter is for…

Overall, a solid Sunday despite a few unplanned stops. No “major” issues, some fantastic weather and great driving. Ended up in 31st overall 🏁. Not what we aspired to, but we can at least spend the off-season focusing on improving things rather than simply trying to get it back and running in time for a race!

Thanks to our wives, and sponsors:
…………..
(tbd….) 😉

Today wasn’t perfect, but despite a few minor issues we finished 33rd out of 52 (not counting “EC-class” cars that aren’t built to the rule book) and the live streaming went pretty dang well! We had an extra ~40 minutes or more in the pits diagnosing some things, which we 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 we have covered for tomorrow. 🤞🏼

We’ll be streaming again tomorrow, hopefully viewers and us alike will be able to see the road ahead - it got a wee bit dicey there towards the end today 😬

𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘆
First stint: Mark (white suit)
Second stint: Jared (black suit)
Third stint: Mikey (orange helmet)
Fourth stint: Justin (red suit)

𝕃𝕖𝕥 ‘𝕖𝕣 𝕣𝕚𝕡, 𝕥𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕡

Live stream is on hold…. Had some voltage issues in the car during pit stop, which caused the stream to cutout. We’re back on track, but we won’t get the live stream back up again until our next pit stop (ideally around 12-12:30). Check back!

ChampCar race tomorrow at Road America! Ride along with us as we’ll be (hopefully) live streaming it here on our page. No promises on how well our hotspot will keep the stream flowing though…

> Saturday’s race is 8:30-4:30
> Sunday’s race is 8:30-3:30

We’ll be there!!

The TireRack.com ChampCar Endurance Series visits Autobahn Country Club, The Midwest’s Premier Motorsports Club, on June 17-18, 2023. Autobahn Country Club is located about 50 miles South West of Chicago. We still have open spaces if you want a race weekend to help you qualify for the National Championship.

June 17-June 18, 2023
AUTOBAHN COUNTRY CLUB: 7+7-Hours, $1550
Joliet, IL
"Autobahn Country Club - South Course"
Early Pay Discount Ends: April 18, 2023
Event Director:
[email protected] or
[email protected]
Entrant List
https://champcar.org/register/entrantlist.php?eventid=506
Download Supplemental Rules and Event Infohttps://champcar.org/register/supplementalrules/506.pdf

Road America Recap
Well… apparently our car isn't as straight as we had thought it was. After hammering and pulling on it all day Friday and thinking we were good to go for Saturday, we only lasted ~19 laps before Cassie (AKA Justin) toasted the right front CV. We spent the next 6 hours pulling with winches, come-alongs and Mikey's truck, hammering, engineering & welded some fixes to try and move the RF suspension forward and straighten out the CV angle (instead of running it again with the CV more like a Z-shape…). We managed to get it together in time to run the last 15 minutes of Saturday's race and take the checkered flag, and Jared said it felt great.

We started off Sunday with high hopes of our fixes lasting the day and actually being competitive again. These were very quickly dashed during the pace laps, as Mark felt a loose nut and some washers hit the floor pan underneath his feet. Pulled into the paddock just as the race turned green and found the missing radius rod nut & bushing. We repurposed our currently unused radiator bushings to fit the radius rod and got back out after a quick 20 minute paddock visit.

With the rain beginning on parts of the track, it was hard to tell just how quick the car was compared to our last race, but it was beneficial for us front-wheel-drive vehicles and some fun was had racing in the rain. That quickly came to a halt as well, as the car started suddenly pulling hard right down the straights (randomly) and under braking. The feeling was reminiscent of the previous failure, so Mark pulled off track yet again. Once more, the RF CV was found locked up. Alas, our fixes weren't good enough to straighten the angles, and we were doomed to continue chewing thru CVs every few laps or park it. Due to the risk of being pulled right into the wall suddenly with a known-to-fail-at-any-moment CV, we called it quits.

Much fun was still had tearing down and rebuilding the front end, pulling on various parts of metal with winches, trailers and trucks, and not giving up. The racing didn't go as planned, but we learned a lot about the car and are confident we can build it back even better for whatever is next.

In the meantime, enjoy some photos of the action. Thanks once again to our title sponsors (the wives) for holding down the forts while we were off wrenching and racing, and Luke for filling in as Crew Chief in Kyle's absence. Congratulations to JSK Racing & Quantum Performance on the double win, and thanks for helping us and lending tools, even while you were focused on your own race in the works.

Video highlights (and lowlights...) coming soon...

Eventful start to the race weekend…
When picking up the trailer, the tow vehicle experienced a mother-nature-induced muffler delete. The truck was much happier in the south!
First couple sessions of the test day went well, sorted out minor annoyances, took some tire temps, felt out the new alignment. Confidence was at an all time high, until it wasn’t…
The exit of the Carousel bit hard and sent the car into the inside wall. Driver is fine, car was a little buggered. A few tensioning tools and lots of leverage applied and it was “good enough” to get a new radiator in place and the hood taped down. Might not be able to get the front crash guard or clip back on, but we’ll be racing (with plenty of fresh radiator airflow now)!

Thanks to our paddock neighbors for the advice, tools and help, along with others for lending anything we needed and asking how we were doing, hoping to see us out on track in the morning. Let’s rip!

Aero improvements in the works! Taped up holes, cut new holes, covered big holes with Lexan. 2:40s at Road America, here we come!!

Drivetrain back together ✅
Shifts like a race winning car ✅
New “premium” axles ✅
Aerodynamically phenomenal ☑️ (almost done…)
Needs a little calibration magic, then it’ll be ready to take the checkers 🏁 in just three weeks’ time!