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| Last minute prep the morning of the race. |
Easy.
Consistently.
That
was the pay-off for our winter's work. Not bad at all. Many race
teams spend lots more money to drop a fraction of that amount of
time.
But
we are getting ahead of the story.
May
2-3, 2015, saw the popular two-Saab Fart-hinder team roll in to
Brainerd International Raceway for the World
Racing League's
Intercomp
Speed Festival, a pair of 8 hour races 16 hours of wheel to wheel
budget endurance racing.
Over
the winter, the Fart-kontroll (Swedish for Speed Trap) Saab 9-3 dozed
in Mike Mandy's shop near Ely, Minnesota, until he returned from
Florida in mid-April. Since the car was in reasonable mechanical
condtition after last season, we focused on suspension upgrades
allowed under the latest ChumpCar rules. We ordered new Bilstein
Sport shocks from eEuroparts for the front and rear, we swapped our
home-made double rear anti-roll bar for a 25mm ARB from
GenuineSaab.com. We ordered new Dunlop Direza ZII tires all around.
Brake pads were a bit more difficult as there are few racing pads
made for the 9-3. We were able to locate EBC Yellowstuff brake pads
front and rear, not our first choice but they would get us through
the weekend. With good used parts donated by Hanover European Parts,
Mike replaced the damaged front bumper, hood, one fender, and rear
hatch, and we installed Lexan in the rear windows for better
aerodynamics. He topped it off with a quickie paint job using the
same Rustoleum Spa Blue that was on the 900
The
original Fart-hinder 900, entering its sixth season as a race car,
needed more work, so team manager Tim Winker dug deep. He overhauled
a spare 2.1L motor, and rebuilt the manual transmission under the
guidance of a seasoned Saab tech. While the transmission was apart,
he took the time to install a lower primary gear set for quicker
acceleration out of the corners (a 30/27 gear set out of an early
99/900 turbo 4-speed for a ratio of 0.90 instead of the standard 0.78
ratio), and also welded the differential. Suspension work consisted
of new Bilstein HD shocks all around, and a general refreshing of the
front end pieces (some bushings, a wheel bearing, new control arms,
steel braided brake lines and so on). If Tim didn't know eEuroparts
phone number by heart before, he does now. New Frozen
Rotors
for
the front, with Hawk
Blue
racing pads, and a set of Yokohama Advan Neova AD08-R tires made the
car track ready as well as preparing us for potential contingency
awards from WRL sponsor Yokahama. Lexan windows are now allowed in
the various race series that we run, so the 900 was fitted with
windows as well.
Tim,
along with veteran Fart demon Travis McCormick, and virgin racers Ben
Wedge and Larry Walter were assigned to the 1992 Saab 900 on
Saturday. Four veterans - Mike Mandy, Aidan Hicks, John Hicks, and
Mark Fitzpatrick would pilot the faster 1999 Saab 9-3.
The
first test of the day came when Tim decided we needed to change the
power steering pump on the 900 in the final hour before the green
flag. The steering was exceedingly heavy when the car was stopped, so
it was assumed the pump had failed. Tim had remembered to grab a
spare from his seemingly endless cache of 900 parts just prior to
leaving home for the weekend. Aidan and Ben jumped to it, and managed
to get the replacement pump in place and topped off with fluid, and
only miss one of the parade laps.
When
the green flag dropped, Mike in the 9-3, and Tim in the 900 began
clicking off laps and smoothly working down their times. Both agreed
to drive conservatively to get used to the changes, but it wasn't
long before it was obvious that all the extra time and effort had
paid off.
 |
| 900 leads 9-3 into the Cloverleaf. |
Ideally,
we could claim a massive increase in drivers' skill, but anyone who
took the time to read this far knows better. More likely, it was the
suspension work. The Bilsteins really buttoned down the cars. In
combination with the bigger rear ARB, they made the 9-3 rotate much
better. In the 900, the welded differential certainly helped in the
tight corners.
Mike
had a terrific battle with one of the BMW 325s for many laps. The 9-3
accelerated quicker out of the turns, but the BMW driver always
managed to keep ahead of the Saab, until Mike was able to sneak by. A
couple of laps later the BMW was ahead again, but only on the track,
not on laps. It had made a pit stop and came back on course just
ahead of the Saab.
We'd
like to say it all went without incident, but there were a few
issues, mainly with the 900. Nothing major, but enough to spend a few
extra laps in the pits for repairs. A snapped wheel stud on the 9-3
meant a longer than usual stop while the broken stub was drilled out.
Travis
seems to hate the mirror on the driver's door. Last
year,
he tipped the 900 on it's side right in front of the pits with only
20 minutes remaining in the race. This year, he walloped a tire wall
in a one-car incident coming out of turn 13. No serious harm done
other than black streaks on the entire left side, though Trav did get
a free physical by the track's medical team. After a quick
inspection, the 900 was deemed drivable and Aidan was sent out to
finish the final hour The car got a donor mirror borrowed from Tim's
daily driver/rolling parts 900. Post race inspection by the team
found a torn inner axle boot. Once again a serviceable spare was
among the boxes of parts and it was easily replaced.
(VIDEO
of crash)
At
the end of day one, the faster 9-3 finished 8th overall, and the 900
finished 12th overall.
The
changes to the 900 gearbox worked well in most respects. Instead of
using primarily 3rd
and 4th,
with a desire to drop into 2nd
for the tight turn 12, the car now did well in 4th
for much of the track, with a shift up to 5th
for the 100+ mph turn 2, back down to 4th
or even 3rd
for turn 3, 4th
for much of the back section, and a drop into 3rd
again for turns 12 and 13. As any 900 owner knows, the 900
transmission can sometimes be finicky shifting into high gear, and
some drivers had difficulty finding that gate. But since 5th
is not that much taller than 4th,
the difference was negligible.
For
day two, the plan was for drivers to switch cars Ben is a person of
the XXL persuasion, and was unable to squeeze into the tighter seat
on the 9-3, so was relegated to the 900 again. Mike, John, and Mark
would share that car with Ben. Aidan, Travis and Tim would be in the
9-3, with a substitute driver. Larry succumbed to dehydration, a
couple of hours driving on the edge, and general stress of his first
time racing, so was not feeling 100% for high speed driving on
Sunday. Colin Walter, Larry's son who normally drives a VW Golf with
JAB
Motorsport,
agreed to fill in. On a wet track, Colin was able to catch and pass
the JAB Golf, which made him even more popular with both teams.
Everything
went smoothly until the race was red flagged for lightning. While
waiting to be collected by the pace-car, John noticed the temp gauge
on the 900 creeping up. Once sitting on pit lane, waiting out the
storm, we saw something dangling under the car. It turned out to be
one of the two alternator/water pump belts. Under red flag, time
stands still and no work is allowed on the cars, so we collected
tools and spares while waiting for the race to restart, then set to
work. The problem turned out to be the alternator adjustment pivot
bolt. It was still hanging in place but had allowed the belts to pop
out of place. The belts were replaced, the bolt got a dab of Loctite,
and John was sent back to the battle.
The
9-3 never wavered. It just kept clicking off laps. Even when Travis
spun between turns 6-7, he just got back on track and kept pushing.
After he spun again coming out of turn 2, at about 100 mph and right
in front of the 900, two tires were seriously flat spotted, but the
car itself was unharmed. He drove in, took on a couple of spares, and
sent Tim out to finish the race.
(PHOTO
tire swirl)
The
charging system on the 900 didn't seem to be 100% after the repair.
The adjuster didn't want to hold a position, so for the last 4 hours
the alternator light would come on at odd times. The volt meter
showed a steady 13+ volts, so we checked on it during pit-stops and
kept driving.
Until
about 45 minutes from the end when Ben radioed in that the throttle
was stuck wide open in the 900. Mark asked if he could pull it up
with his foot. No luck. Tim suggested stomping on it to
free it up. That closed the throttle, but then were was nothing. The
cable snapped and we had no spare.
It
looked like the race was over, but Mike, Aidan and Travis managed to
MacGuyver a fix. A nut, a bolt, and a couple of big washers pinched
the parts together. It couldn't be adjusted to allow full throttle,
but we only needed to turn a few laps to be classified among the
finishers. As a failsafe, Travis also rigged up a hand throttle
cable, just in case.
(PHOTOS
of fix)
The
rule in World Racing League is that the cars must take the checkered
flag to be classified as a finisher. With this in mind, and with Tim
bringing home the 9-3, Ben gingerly wheeled the 900 on track. Two
laps later, both cars crossed the line with the 9-3 finishing 13th
and the 900 in 15th.
The
final standings weren't quite what we were hoping for, but the race
was still considered a success. Everyone got to drive both days, both
cars finished with no major issues, and we won some prizes: $100
credit for the "very pretty Saab 9-3" and a set of Yokohama
tires from their contingency program.
So back to the
Fart-Hinder compound somewhere near Duluth. We will regroup, place a
few more orders with eEuroparts.com, and prepare both cars for the
next race.
A big thanks to the
rbankracing group, especially Robin Bank, for preparation advice and
for helping to get us discounts on safety gear. Mike attended the
ChumpCar race at Road Atlanta earlier this year to observe and learn
from their experience. Given that our 9-3 is essentially the same as
the Saabs they are running, we know that car is capable of running
competitively. All we need is for our drivers to get more experience
so the lap times can drop a little more.
Three seconds more would
be mighty nice.
Mark
G. Fitzpatrick
Tim
Winker
