56 replies to this topic

[Dennis]

Looks like the Dean Thomas/Randy Pobst Norma dropped out after 4 laps. Anyone know what happened?

[dtfastbear]

We are down but not out. Lost the alternator and oil pump belt. May have damaged the engine beyond repair, but we are putting the car back together now and will send it back out shortly. Could go 23 hours or 45 seconds... We'll see.

Dean

[Dennis]

Good luck Dean!

Dennis

[Dennis]

MiataCage are 1-2 with Tim Auger's Augersmiles.com Miata in hot pursuit 2 laps back.

The Norma has retired, better luck next year Dean.

Dennis

[William Bonsell]

Great to see how well the Oregon Miatacage team is doing....1st and 2nd in E3 at the 8 hour mark. 3 lap lead. Wonder how the Toyo RR's are performing?

[Todd Tagget]

Just got back home,, lot's of great racing!!

[joe varble]

AND ????? who did what?
tks

[William Bonsell]

MiataCage still running 1-2 in E3 at the 20 hour mark. Oregon boys are kicking butt!

[Dennis]

And it's not even raining!

[Randy Thieme]

Woo hoo! Team Miatacage sweeps 1st and 2nd in E3 class. Way to go!

[Todd Tagget]

Not to hijack the thread,, but how were the RR's ????

[Duane Polsley]

Remind me not to race a Fiat...

http://www.youtube.c...&v=5-0xbQF4k3s#!

They repaired it, and managed to keep it on the tires for the 25 ( or 18 on track and 7 back paddock)

[Alberto]

I hate that turn...

[Joe (dad) Jordan]

Miata Cage was very impressive although not surprising as they have done it before, 1-2 in any race like this deserves a ton of R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Way to go guys!

[Johnny D]

The Audi was out after a few hours, I heard they caught fire.
Dean/Randy/Brian had their problems too.
Race Engineering, Dan, Darin had electric but figured it out.
MiataCage pits for brake pad changes were NASCAR fast, well done the whole race.
A+ engine grenaded around 9p, all types of problem swapping a new engine in and a LT frt hub, got out at 2:30a but only ran a few hours on the 2nd engine.
Nissan Sentra did a engine swap
TFB did a great job but broke a throttle cable with like 3 laps to go. finished with throttle by hand. 5th over all, I think.
64 Porshe had problems with an hour to go.
Didn't hear any problems on the RR but many I followed were on Hoosiers and Hankooks.
I leaving some out I'm sure.
J~

[Duane Polsley]

#64 Porsche had brake failure in turn 10.

[FTodaro]

This is a post from Rennlist on the RR.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


just flying back from the 25. I didn't drive this year, but did get a chance to look at about 30 used RR's, and talk to some of the teams that ran them.

I looked at more than 30 used tires, many down to the cords. Build date ranges from the 31st to 38th week of 2012. All were 205/50/15's. I was told team had a seam split in practice as Phil mentioned (mounted the opposite way as indicated) but did not see it. To my surprise, I could not find any seams at all in the tires I looked at much less chunks or failed tires. Some of these build dates overlap those that I had my issue with.

I am not saying that it can't or won't happen, but I didn't to the many tires that I saw. __________________
Eric Kuhns
Small town Doc, in Sterling, IL.
NASA National 944 Spec Director
#80 Pinetree Motorsports 944 Spec
2007 & 2008 National Champion
2011 & 2012 Nationals - 2nd

[dtfastbear]

To Team Miatacage, let me be the first to say, IT'S ABOUT TIME!! Congrats, guys. You always did the right prep, ran clean races and had luck turn against you. This was your year and the persistence paid off. Congratulations on beating a deep field of experience and talent!

Our failures on the Norma weren't nearly as spectacular at the Cup Car and didn't involve mud or barbed wire fences... Our decision late in the season to go from supercharging to NA on the engine left us with a couple small problems without the proper time to work them all out. We had some belt alignment issues that were extremely difficult to diagnose because in this car the belts are on the front of the motor which just so happens to be about 1/4" from the back of the tub/firewall. So even a belt change means disconnecting the entire engine assembly from the chassis...

After qualifying, overnight, the team tried to address the issue, but the car had problems on the very first lap. On lap 4, the belt jumped and the engine lost oil pressure and voltage at the same time, but ran just long enough to grind a bunch of metal into the oil... Over the course of just over an hour, the team did some fabrication work on the alternator mount to better align the pulleys to get the car back on track, really just so the drivers could have some fun. We knew at that point there was really no way the car was going to last the entire race. Brian Frisselle went back out in the car and on his next to last lap on light fuel ran what would be the fastest lap of the race - a 1:42. Randy Pobst got in the car and was quick immediately. He had contact with a Miata and damaged the RR wheel. He came in for fuel and a new set of tires. He was fast again, so the car clearly wasn't damaged. About an hour later, one of the Cup Cars made a pretty aggressive moved exiting T15 and forced him into the pit lane after slight contact. More fuel and we sent him back out. Randy was complaining of an intermittent miss. I got in about 20 minutes later - it was already dark.

I ran for just over an hour and the intermittent miss became a full-on stumble across the rev range. I finally pitted and the team made a small fuel pressure adjustment and put in new plugs. The car came alive and I ran about 10 more laps. Exiting T6, I felt something change dramatically and the car really started to stumble. I limped back to the pits, but the damage was already done. The belt jumped again - no oil pressure - and a nasty knock in the engine. Game over. I feel really bad for Brandon Kraus who never even got to turn a race lap in the car.

There's already discussion of putting a small Mazda Skytech diesel in this chassis for next year. Going from about 170ft-lbs to 440+??? Beef up that tranny then sign me up!

What an incredible opportunity for me to drive next to some incredible pro drivers. I learned a ton, made some new friends and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. And, I've gotta say, running mid 1:4x's through traffic at night is about as awesome a driving experience as I can imagine!

Cheers,

Dean

[Johnny D]

#64 Porsche had brake failure in turn 10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrveASsJMZ0

I've seen this over the years and I'm not one for sand traps but this would be a great place to put one at the end.
J~

[dtfastbear]

Or, just put 50 photographers there to slow the car down like they did at the outside of T1 at the start... ;-)