Janni
Enthusiast
Saturday, June 14th, three Carolinas region members completed the First Annual NC SCCA Charge of the Headlight Brigade 8 hour Endurance race.
Kenny Hawkins, Henry Cone and Jesse Reed, all of Raleigh, drove Kenny's 96 RT/10 #24. I was the Designated Team Representative (pit b*tch...), Jeff Snell was pit coach and timing, Don McDaniel, John Oriez, Chris Hawkins and Neal Harrison crewed and Tom Sessions drive the 3.5 hours from Wilmington to lend a hand and run any repair operations (more on that later....)
The fun began Friday night with set up and a pace car controlled practice session at 9 PM. Neither Jesse nor Henry had ever driven this particular T1 car, although Henry's 1996 GTS was probably pretty close in comparison, and it had been decided that Jesse's age gave him the best advantage for night driving, so he took the practice session. The session was only designed to check headlights, check radios, and allow the driers to try to find a few reference points for the end of the race the following day. Radio communication was able to be dialed in to reach the entire 3.27 mile track. Headlights were a little weak (even with new PIAA bulbs) compared to the giant 4 lightbar sets mounted on the Spec Miatas. Bright lights helped some, but them you lost the fogs that were so helpful with turn in and cornering. Session complete. Tucked "the Bulldog" into the trailer and headed home around 10:30 PM.
4:30 AM came early the next day, and we headed to the track at 6 AM with a mini-convoy. Kenny's new toter home made it's debut this race, too. We arrived athte track in time to check over the car and attend the mandatory 8:30 drivers and crew cheif meeting.
Qualifying was a 45 minute session at 9:15. Kenny qualified the car first and put it on the pole with a 2:17 (not pushing, as we only had to out pace the Miatas, a couple of RX-7s, a Mercedes 190 and a Porsche 944). Henry then took a turn for 20 minutes or so to get a feel for the car.
After qualifying, we changed tires to a brand new set of Hoosiers, changed rotors to some freshly machined StopTechs, and a new set of Performance Friction 01's on the front to work with the BrakeMan #3s on the rear. We checked all the fluids, cleaned the windshield, taped the headlights and foglights to protect them, and cleaned the car up in preparation for a 2 PM start.
During this time, VCA members Stuart Goldblatt and Randy Cade showed up to lend moral support, video support and maybe a stray part of 2...
We had a great lunch for the entire crew out of the Hawkin's Hospitality toter - complete with built in propane grill for the chicken wings.....
Cars went to grid at 1:35 for a prompt 2 PM start. The VIR pace car only needed to take one lap to get the field lined up and Kenny took the green flag fro the pole position and pulled away quickly. We had originally planned on running laps of about 2:27 for the first 6-7 hours and then cranking it up at the end. that proved to be no doable form 2 perspectives - the car and drivers were not comfortable going that slow and the Miata's were running about 10/10ths for the entire race. It was quickly apparent that we'd have to lap the field a little over once per driver session in order to gain enough time to make up for the number of fuel stops we would have to make.
Kenny came in for the first pit stop approximately 45 minutes after the start, one lap up, concerned about fuel level. We only were able to fuel about 11 gallons into the car at that time, so we knew we could run longer. Henry had the second stint, and after fueling was complete, as well as the other well orchestrated car checks were performed, his custom seat insert was place in the car and he was strapped in and hooked up. In addition to more fuel, we also had more safety and drier comfort equipment than other teams, so our first pit stop was 4 minutes. (NASCAR has no worries from us...) We made the decision to be slower and deliberate, as this was our first race and we wanted to check quite a few things - tire pressures, brake pads, oil level, tire wear, etc. Then, we had cool suit hook-ups, helmet blower hook-ups, radio, and neck restraints on top of managing custom seat inserts to make all three guys fit in the car.
Henry's stint was uneventful except for the number of Miatas spinning off in front of him. Those guys were going all out. Henry ran about 60 minutes at a pace of about 2:22 - 2:23 and the fuel stop only managed to get in 12 gallons, so we knew Jesse could run even further. He managed to gain our lap back that we lost at the last pit and we were ahead again by over one lap. Which of course, we lost during the pit stop. Henry had noticed that the car was not cooperative during the 5-4 downshift and passed that along to Jesse. Each driver debriefed the other drivers after his shift.
Jesse got back in the car and started putting down some fast times - in the 2:15 range - and we tried to hold him back some to save the tires and the car - down to about 2:19's. Jesse gained our lap back quickly and was close to getting 2 laps up. Right on schedule. Jesse ran a little over an hour, but not much as he was going faster than the other guys and burning more fuel. We were using our trip odometer as our fuel gauge as the normal guage is so non-linear and unreliable. Jesse came back in with a comfortable lead.
After three driver changes, the tires were in GREAT shape (3+ hours) and the brake pads were way more than 1/2. Kenny was strapped in in a shorter pit stop, as we seemed to be getting better with all the duties. He headed out still in the lead!
After about 3 laps, we get a frantic call on the radio "Broke an alternator belt!" and he's headed in. He limps into the pits and our crack pit crew jumps over the wall, pops the hood and goes to work. Tom surveys the situation and diagnoses the true cause of the failure as a broken power steering pulley. And we thought we were done, and we head behind the wall.
UNTIL, Kenny remembers that the first thing that Tom said to bring as a spare, was a power steering pump. We're back in the game. Kenny pulls the car into our paddock area and Tom literally dives on top of the blazing hot engine and starts ripping parts out of the way - airbox? gone, power steering? gone. Get the man some parts - He's on a roll! A couple of 4 wheeler trips to the pit area to get the belt and some fluid and the time behind the wall was less than 25 minutes. After getting a tech inspection pass to rejoin the field, Kenny was back out a few minutes before 6 PM.
During the extended pit, John Oriez, who had been DYING to use his impact gun to change some tires, removed the right front wheel and inspected both the tire and the brake pads. Amazingly, the tires still looked good and sticky with no serious wear and no flat spots. Brake pads were over half, so the decision was made to wait on tires and brakes and pit when we absolutely had to.
At 6 PM, there was a scheduled full course yellow for the pace car to deliver some dinner and drinks to the corner workers who had been sweltering in a heat index of 99 degrees for 4 hours. Tom wanted Kenny to pit so that we could check everything for fluid levels, tightness, etc. The yellow was a little later than expected, but the pit stop showed that Tom's under pressure speedy service was perfect and holding up just fine.
Fuel management was now telling us we could go a little over 100 miles and Kenny managed to make up a couple of the 12 laps that we had fallen behind due to our unscheduled repair stop. The guys were also picking up the pace for their second driver stints, as the lap times were down around 2:18 – 2:19 consistently. With 2 driver sessions remaining, we knew we could make up the 10 laps we were down, but would have to rely on other teams’ misfortune. We were in 13th place. When the car came into the pits the right front wheel was smoking, and although we had brake pad left, something was up. Tom thought maybe we had a tire goober wedged in the caliper and that was what was burning. Kenny finished up at about 7:20 PM and we knew we had to make the remainder of the race on 2 pit stops. And they had to be fast. Fuel would be tight, especially as we were asking the guys to now push the car harder. We stripped off the headlight protectors and readied for night driving.
Henry started his second session at about 7:25 and we knew he had to go until 8:40 in order to make it on fuel. Amazingly enough, tires and brakes were still holding out and noe of the drivers were complaining about any handling issues with the car – the Bulldog was rock solid again. Henry said in this session that taking more care to match the RPMS on the 4-5 downshift made the balky tranny issues go away, so that was good. However, he did report a power steering issue that had us concerned. In the corkscrew, the power steering had a dead spot and would momentarily stop turning – took a little bit to compensate for that, as you had to make sure you had a little more room for track out! We were first concerned that the pump was going, but then remembered that this particular replacement was a warranty replacement for intermittent dead spots,and realized this was “normal”! Henry also made up a lap and managed to wring out 106 miles out of the fuel.
Poor Jesse got the last stint. There would be no time to change anything – brakes, tires – nothing – he’d have to tough it out. Our instructions to our final driver went something like this “Jesse, take it easy on the Bulldog – his tongue is already hanging out, he’s tired. You have very little brakes left, so don’t use them. Your tires are shot, so take it easy. Careful about the power steering issue, but it should be OK. It’s pretty well dark now, and the rain is coming. Now go out there and make up some laps!”
Pit activity hastened as the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. Everyone was packing up any non-essential items. Jeff Snell was talking Jesse through each lap and timing. Jesse was still managing mid to upper 2:20’s even in these conditions. Then the rain came – not a heavy rain, but a consistent mist. The bugs littered the windshield and seeing became difficult. Jesse tried the windshield washers and managed to clear a small part and smear the heck out of the rest. Then, he radios back that in 4th gear around 4200 RPMs the car takes on a mind of its own and wants to wiggle and swap ends. And it’s making a “pop, pop, pop” sound. Don’t worry, we tell him, just exhaust noise. But we now know the Hoosiers, after 7 hours (!) are toast. And Kenny thinks the “pop, pop, pop” sound is that of the transmission slowly disintegrating……
Jesse quickly makes up a lap is horrendous conditions, but soon realizes the car is just too unstable to drive fast. He radios in that he’s swallowing his pride and moving out of the way for a (gasp!) faster Miata. We keep telling him the net lap we know the checker will come out. We want to be done. The crews in the pits are heckling the flagstand to throw the checker, as the Miata race for first overall is tight. 2 agonizing laps later, the checker is out, and we all rush the pit Armco to wave to the drivers as they complete the race.
The rain has stopped and we have a small celebration in the pits. We finished the race, which was the first goal. We had made up a couple of the laps we were down from the repair pit stop, and the car and the drivers were in pretty good shape overall. We won T1 (as we were the only car in the class), and finished 11th overall.
I’ll post some afterthoughts at a later time, along with some more pics, but this ought to get you started!
Kenny Hawkins, Henry Cone and Jesse Reed, all of Raleigh, drove Kenny's 96 RT/10 #24. I was the Designated Team Representative (pit b*tch...), Jeff Snell was pit coach and timing, Don McDaniel, John Oriez, Chris Hawkins and Neal Harrison crewed and Tom Sessions drive the 3.5 hours from Wilmington to lend a hand and run any repair operations (more on that later....)
The fun began Friday night with set up and a pace car controlled practice session at 9 PM. Neither Jesse nor Henry had ever driven this particular T1 car, although Henry's 1996 GTS was probably pretty close in comparison, and it had been decided that Jesse's age gave him the best advantage for night driving, so he took the practice session. The session was only designed to check headlights, check radios, and allow the driers to try to find a few reference points for the end of the race the following day. Radio communication was able to be dialed in to reach the entire 3.27 mile track. Headlights were a little weak (even with new PIAA bulbs) compared to the giant 4 lightbar sets mounted on the Spec Miatas. Bright lights helped some, but them you lost the fogs that were so helpful with turn in and cornering. Session complete. Tucked "the Bulldog" into the trailer and headed home around 10:30 PM.
4:30 AM came early the next day, and we headed to the track at 6 AM with a mini-convoy. Kenny's new toter home made it's debut this race, too. We arrived athte track in time to check over the car and attend the mandatory 8:30 drivers and crew cheif meeting.
Qualifying was a 45 minute session at 9:15. Kenny qualified the car first and put it on the pole with a 2:17 (not pushing, as we only had to out pace the Miatas, a couple of RX-7s, a Mercedes 190 and a Porsche 944). Henry then took a turn for 20 minutes or so to get a feel for the car.
After qualifying, we changed tires to a brand new set of Hoosiers, changed rotors to some freshly machined StopTechs, and a new set of Performance Friction 01's on the front to work with the BrakeMan #3s on the rear. We checked all the fluids, cleaned the windshield, taped the headlights and foglights to protect them, and cleaned the car up in preparation for a 2 PM start.
During this time, VCA members Stuart Goldblatt and Randy Cade showed up to lend moral support, video support and maybe a stray part of 2...
We had a great lunch for the entire crew out of the Hawkin's Hospitality toter - complete with built in propane grill for the chicken wings.....Cars went to grid at 1:35 for a prompt 2 PM start. The VIR pace car only needed to take one lap to get the field lined up and Kenny took the green flag fro the pole position and pulled away quickly. We had originally planned on running laps of about 2:27 for the first 6-7 hours and then cranking it up at the end. that proved to be no doable form 2 perspectives - the car and drivers were not comfortable going that slow and the Miata's were running about 10/10ths for the entire race. It was quickly apparent that we'd have to lap the field a little over once per driver session in order to gain enough time to make up for the number of fuel stops we would have to make.
Kenny came in for the first pit stop approximately 45 minutes after the start, one lap up, concerned about fuel level. We only were able to fuel about 11 gallons into the car at that time, so we knew we could run longer. Henry had the second stint, and after fueling was complete, as well as the other well orchestrated car checks were performed, his custom seat insert was place in the car and he was strapped in and hooked up. In addition to more fuel, we also had more safety and drier comfort equipment than other teams, so our first pit stop was 4 minutes. (NASCAR has no worries from us...) We made the decision to be slower and deliberate, as this was our first race and we wanted to check quite a few things - tire pressures, brake pads, oil level, tire wear, etc. Then, we had cool suit hook-ups, helmet blower hook-ups, radio, and neck restraints on top of managing custom seat inserts to make all three guys fit in the car.
Henry's stint was uneventful except for the number of Miatas spinning off in front of him. Those guys were going all out. Henry ran about 60 minutes at a pace of about 2:22 - 2:23 and the fuel stop only managed to get in 12 gallons, so we knew Jesse could run even further. He managed to gain our lap back that we lost at the last pit and we were ahead again by over one lap. Which of course, we lost during the pit stop. Henry had noticed that the car was not cooperative during the 5-4 downshift and passed that along to Jesse. Each driver debriefed the other drivers after his shift.
Jesse got back in the car and started putting down some fast times - in the 2:15 range - and we tried to hold him back some to save the tires and the car - down to about 2:19's. Jesse gained our lap back quickly and was close to getting 2 laps up. Right on schedule. Jesse ran a little over an hour, but not much as he was going faster than the other guys and burning more fuel. We were using our trip odometer as our fuel gauge as the normal guage is so non-linear and unreliable. Jesse came back in with a comfortable lead.
After three driver changes, the tires were in GREAT shape (3+ hours) and the brake pads were way more than 1/2. Kenny was strapped in in a shorter pit stop, as we seemed to be getting better with all the duties. He headed out still in the lead!
After about 3 laps, we get a frantic call on the radio "Broke an alternator belt!" and he's headed in. He limps into the pits and our crack pit crew jumps over the wall, pops the hood and goes to work. Tom surveys the situation and diagnoses the true cause of the failure as a broken power steering pulley. And we thought we were done, and we head behind the wall.
UNTIL, Kenny remembers that the first thing that Tom said to bring as a spare, was a power steering pump. We're back in the game. Kenny pulls the car into our paddock area and Tom literally dives on top of the blazing hot engine and starts ripping parts out of the way - airbox? gone, power steering? gone. Get the man some parts - He's on a roll! A couple of 4 wheeler trips to the pit area to get the belt and some fluid and the time behind the wall was less than 25 minutes. After getting a tech inspection pass to rejoin the field, Kenny was back out a few minutes before 6 PM.
During the extended pit, John Oriez, who had been DYING to use his impact gun to change some tires, removed the right front wheel and inspected both the tire and the brake pads. Amazingly, the tires still looked good and sticky with no serious wear and no flat spots. Brake pads were over half, so the decision was made to wait on tires and brakes and pit when we absolutely had to.
At 6 PM, there was a scheduled full course yellow for the pace car to deliver some dinner and drinks to the corner workers who had been sweltering in a heat index of 99 degrees for 4 hours. Tom wanted Kenny to pit so that we could check everything for fluid levels, tightness, etc. The yellow was a little later than expected, but the pit stop showed that Tom's under pressure speedy service was perfect and holding up just fine.
Fuel management was now telling us we could go a little over 100 miles and Kenny managed to make up a couple of the 12 laps that we had fallen behind due to our unscheduled repair stop. The guys were also picking up the pace for their second driver stints, as the lap times were down around 2:18 – 2:19 consistently. With 2 driver sessions remaining, we knew we could make up the 10 laps we were down, but would have to rely on other teams’ misfortune. We were in 13th place. When the car came into the pits the right front wheel was smoking, and although we had brake pad left, something was up. Tom thought maybe we had a tire goober wedged in the caliper and that was what was burning. Kenny finished up at about 7:20 PM and we knew we had to make the remainder of the race on 2 pit stops. And they had to be fast. Fuel would be tight, especially as we were asking the guys to now push the car harder. We stripped off the headlight protectors and readied for night driving.
Henry started his second session at about 7:25 and we knew he had to go until 8:40 in order to make it on fuel. Amazingly enough, tires and brakes were still holding out and noe of the drivers were complaining about any handling issues with the car – the Bulldog was rock solid again. Henry said in this session that taking more care to match the RPMS on the 4-5 downshift made the balky tranny issues go away, so that was good. However, he did report a power steering issue that had us concerned. In the corkscrew, the power steering had a dead spot and would momentarily stop turning – took a little bit to compensate for that, as you had to make sure you had a little more room for track out! We were first concerned that the pump was going, but then remembered that this particular replacement was a warranty replacement for intermittent dead spots,and realized this was “normal”! Henry also made up a lap and managed to wring out 106 miles out of the fuel.
Poor Jesse got the last stint. There would be no time to change anything – brakes, tires – nothing – he’d have to tough it out. Our instructions to our final driver went something like this “Jesse, take it easy on the Bulldog – his tongue is already hanging out, he’s tired. You have very little brakes left, so don’t use them. Your tires are shot, so take it easy. Careful about the power steering issue, but it should be OK. It’s pretty well dark now, and the rain is coming. Now go out there and make up some laps!”
Pit activity hastened as the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. Everyone was packing up any non-essential items. Jeff Snell was talking Jesse through each lap and timing. Jesse was still managing mid to upper 2:20’s even in these conditions. Then the rain came – not a heavy rain, but a consistent mist. The bugs littered the windshield and seeing became difficult. Jesse tried the windshield washers and managed to clear a small part and smear the heck out of the rest. Then, he radios back that in 4th gear around 4200 RPMs the car takes on a mind of its own and wants to wiggle and swap ends. And it’s making a “pop, pop, pop” sound. Don’t worry, we tell him, just exhaust noise. But we now know the Hoosiers, after 7 hours (!) are toast. And Kenny thinks the “pop, pop, pop” sound is that of the transmission slowly disintegrating……
Jesse quickly makes up a lap is horrendous conditions, but soon realizes the car is just too unstable to drive fast. He radios in that he’s swallowing his pride and moving out of the way for a (gasp!) faster Miata. We keep telling him the net lap we know the checker will come out. We want to be done. The crews in the pits are heckling the flagstand to throw the checker, as the Miata race for first overall is tight. 2 agonizing laps later, the checker is out, and we all rush the pit Armco to wave to the drivers as they complete the race.
The rain has stopped and we have a small celebration in the pits. We finished the race, which was the first goal. We had made up a couple of the laps we were down from the repair pit stop, and the car and the drivers were in pretty good shape overall. We won T1 (as we were the only car in the class), and finished 11th overall.
I’ll post some afterthoughts at a later time, along with some more pics, but this ought to get you started!
