In which: We actually finish a race!

It has been three weeks since the grand 25-and-a-half hour race in Iowa and I have been slack in posting our results. In short... we finished... in 22nd place out of 45 starters. Therefore we achieved at least two goals, 1) finishing and 2) top half.

And we finished without any drama. The car was amazingly reliable, didn't use much oil, ran cool all weekend, and the gearbox seems to have lasted without major issues. There were moments when one driver or another would comment about a vibration or noise, but nothing ever got any worse so we never did anything more than top off the fuel, check the oil and add a little now and then, and change tires once or twice.

And now... the rest of the story.

Tim Winker, car owner and writer of this account, was part of the ChumpCar staff for the National Chumpionship so had to be in Newton on Thursday night for a Friday morning meeting at the track. Anthony "Izzy" Israelson along with his wife, Christy, and two small boys, Dante and Marcus, arrived Friday morning. Rick Moe and Jim Seubert came down with the car later in the afternoon, with barely enough time to get through tech. The tech guys gave us a little grief about the A.I.V. (Average Internet Value) paperwork, but no major issues. We did have to do some re-wiring to make the tail lights work with the headlight switch.

Tim was the first one on the track and it was quickly apparent that the Saab was not going to be competitive with the fast guys. In fact, the Fart-hinder Saab was probably one of the slower cars on the track (or maybe Tim was just one of the slower drivers... naaaah). Even so, the speedometer indicated nearly 100 mph on the back straight before making the turn into the infield. It started to rain a little and it was a good thing the Saab still had windshield wipers. During a yellow flag it was obvious that a couple of cars just ahead did not have wipers, plus the inside of the windshield was fogging up. The drivers were trying to clear the inside of the windshield with their gloves! No such problems for us.

We didn't have a clock in the car so it was hard to tell when the time was up. Tim made a stop just to see if it was time to come in and had to go back out for awhile. Eventually his time behind the wheel was up and he turned the car over to Rick. The Saab was running well, with no issues. For the next few hours Tim spent time taking photos and posting updates on the ChumpCar forums and the Facebook page.

The format for this race was different from most. It used both the road course and the oval track at different times. Most of the drivers in ChumpCar are road racers, so the racing on the oval was new... and scary.

Iowa Speedway is best known as an oval track, where the Indycars and NASCAR Nationwide series come to play. The oval is 7/8ths of a mile and was designed with the help of Rusty Wallace. In addition there is a short section of infield road course, complete with concrete racing curbs to define the corners. The road course is a little over a mile in length. It dips into the infield near the end of the back straight, makes a couple of tight left-hand turns, three rights, a short straight, and rejoins the oval between Turn 4 and the pit lane.

The first five hours were on the road course, then five hours on the oval, then back to the road course for three hours, until 11:00 PM. Yes, that's thirteen hours of racing, and that was only the first day. There was another 12 hours of racing on Sunday! There was an overnight break that allowed drivers and crews to get a decent night's rest instead of trying to catch a nap on an air mattress somewhere in the paddock. Some of the more serious teams used the time to make major repairs while the drivers slept.

The racing went on in all kinds of weather, including rain so hard that there were small lakes on the infield part of the course. Tim also had a driving shift on Saturday night in the rain with poorly aimed headlights and driving lights. On the wet pavement there was little traction, so it was nearly like driving in an ice race. At one point he slid off the course and straight into a bale of tires, shattering one of the driving lights.

We generally drove two hour stints, but with no radio communication and no clock to let us know how long we had been driving, we all came in earlier than necessary. In addition, since we weren't really in the competition (this was the National Chumpionship, and the Fart-hinder team was not among the qualifiers, but rather a late entry to fill out the field) our pit stops were generally much longer than the five-minute minimum. Probably more like fifteen minutes. That extra time added up to a lot more laps behind the leaders. For one thing, we had two seats, one for Tim's XXL derriere and a slimmer one for the other drivers. Though it took only a couple of minutes to make the seat swap, it was one more thing to be done on several pit stops. A digital clock was found and duct taped to the dash on Sunday morning which made time behind the wheel easier to calculate.

Tim was the first driver on Sunday, which started on the oval. It would have been nice to have a camera in the car at that time as there was quite a bit of action just ahead of the Saab. A green Miata got tagged by another car in turn four and slid up into the wall, the Saab missing the action by only a few feet. A pair of BMWs went past on the main straight but by the time they reached turn two, one had rolled onto its side on the inside of the turn. Also in turn two, another BMW ran into the back of a spinning Mustang with such impact that the engine in the Bimmer was pushed back into the firewall, and the Mustang spent most of the day in the paddock attempting to make repairs. Jim reported that another car started to get out of shape just ahead of him in turn two and he kept his foot on the gas, tipping the other car back into shape and they were both able to continue at speed.

Since Tim was doing double duty, taking photos and posting updates on the ChumpCar forum, much of the maintenance was left to Rick, Jim and Izzy. All were happy that the car was reliable and the only maintenance was to occasionally top off fluids or change a tire or two.

With less than two hours remaining, Tim took the wheel for the run to the checkered flag. This was once again on the oval. He stayed mostly to the inside line to let the faster cars pass, but the Saab was still running at the same speeds it had all weekend, touching just over 100 mph on the straights.

With no communication to the team, Tim did not realize the drama taking place at the front of the pack. The BSD Acura that had led much of the race was running low on fuel so the team had gone into survival speed in an attempt to make the finish without another stop for gas. The British-American Racing BMW team in second place realized this and told their driver to kick it up a notch. He did so, setting the fastest race lap in the process and passing the Acura with less than two minutes left in the race. The margin of victory was about 10 seconds, and the Acura ran out of gas on the cool down lap.

The Saab served us well, and won't need a lot of work to get it ready for another season of ChumpCar racing. We all got a lot of seat time for a small amount of expense, more seat time than an entire season of SCCA Regional races.

Rick was able to cross three items off his Bucket List: 1) Racing in an endurance race, 2) Racing at night, and 3) Racing on an oval.

Thanks go to Rick Moe and Jim Seubert who prepped the car and made sure it got to the race, and to David Steen for providing funds to get the car finished for the Brainerd race. ChumpCar is truly a team effort and it took the contributions of all to make it all happen.

Over a week to the race and the car is nearly ready???

Much progress has been made since the last report. The gearbox has been rebuilt, the engine runs again, and the leaky gas tank has been replaced.

Rick and Jim have done most of the Mechanical work, removing the engine and gearbox, and rebuilding the gearbox. They decided to use the box donated by Hanover European Auto Parts, which came from a '91 900. It has the later design, with larger pinion bearings. Once all of the internals were removed, Rick welded up the hole in the top of the case. Both Rick and Jim are Porsche guys, so the Saab gearbox presented some challenges, but eventually it all went back together.

While they were busy with building the gearbox, I added new graphics to the car. Much larger numbers, and sponsor decals were added to both sides of the car. While we hope the corner workers will never have to report any infractions by "92 minty green", they should have no trouble seeing the numbers.

Though we had been offered another engine, we decided to spend the time it would take to travel to Meyer, Iowa, and remove that engine to instead work on the existing engine. Way back last May when planning for the June race at BIR, one of the 2.1L heads was given a complete valve job. Nothing special, but it was freshened. It was installed onto the engine we ran at the July race, since that one still looked good internally.

The finished engine was lowered onto the gearbox, and the complete unit was dropped into place in the car. That's when Rick found the oil pickup tube. Somehow we all had forgotten that it needed to be in place or the engine would have no oil pumped through it.

The engine came back out, the gearbox was removed, the oil tube installed, and all back together and in the car again in a little over an hour. Unfortunately that hour was pretty late, so we packed it in for the night.

I did a few little things on the car Sunday, but ran into a few snags, so headed home mid-afternoon. I updated the list of things to do, and made myself another list of parts that should be sent to Rick's shop.

Tires were ordered on Monday. We have decided to use the Dunlop DZ101s, as they have a higher tread wear rating than the Star Specs, and we hope not to change tires as often.

By Tuesday, Rick reported the leaky gas tank had been replaced with a serviceable spare, the engine was running, and all 5 forward gears were working just fine. There are still a few details to finish, but with over a week to race day, the car is pretty much ready to go.

Izzy, our 4th driver, stopped by the house on Monday evening to show the new paint job on his rally car. We discussed some logistics on getting to the track and lodging, but it sounds like he's ready to go. His wife Christy and two young boys will be going to the race, too. I put Christy in charge of seeing to it that we have food and water, because you tend to forget to eat when you are concentrating on the racing.

F-H Saab goes to the Nurburgring

Not the one in Germany, the one in St. Bonifacius, MN. Dropped the car off at Rick Moe's shop for further building. Both Rick and Jim Seubert have offered their expertise as mechanics to get the car ready for Iowa. They will also be driving. We still need at least one more driver, and since this will be a 25-1/2 hour race, a couple more would be welcome.

And we are entered at Iowa, as car #92. New, larger numbers have been ordered. That gives us about three weeks to get it ready. There is quite a bit to do, including pulling the engine/gearbox again. And due to a swap agreement with Mayhem Racing, we will need to buy four more tires.

On the way to drop the Saab, I stopped at the Minnesota Saab Club meeting, held at Schmelz Countryside Saab just NE of St. Paul. Got some feedback, but no drivers ready to plunk down cash.

A few other updates: When removing the number 9 from the driver's door, the paint peeled off as well. This time I did more pre-paint prep, reduced the Rust-Oleum with mineral spirits, and rolled it on with a foam roller. The result is much better, with a fairly smooth finish, a far cry from the orange-peel of the first attempt. Though some sanding and buffing would make it look better still, that is a low priority before the next race.

I removed the gas tank from the parts car, but it apparently has leaks as well. The tank was left outside during a heavy rainstorm last week, and despite having the openings wrapped in plastic, quite a bit of water ended up inside the tank. Word from an expert is that the high-density polyethylene (HDPE) tank tends to crack around the fuel pump, which is mounted on the top of the tank and immersed in the gasoline. The tank, too, is at the Nurburgring, so Rick and Jim will fix it before installation.

As you may recall, the gearbox that we ran at Iowa last year lost 3rd gear. A call to Mike at Hanover European Parts to see if he had some decent internal parts for a gearbox led to the donation of a nearly complete gearbox. The case was damaged due to a catastrophic engine failure, so its value was much reduced. A quick look at the gears came out positive, with no apparent chipping of gear teeth. I will take this gearbox and last year's gearbox down to Rick's place next weekend and we will make them into one.

Also need to pick up an engine offered by Saab dealer Marty Adams of Meyer Garage in Iowa. It is in his dirt track Hornet Class Saab race car. That means we will have to do the extraction, so plan to spend an afternoon there.

Iowa? Maybe.

ChumpCar has opened the entry for the 25.5-hour National Chumpionship race at Iowa Speedway to everyone, so we are considering entering. The race is September 2 thru 4, with the racing on Saturday and Sunday. Rick Moe and Jim Seubert are on board, but we would need at least one more driver, preferably three. In a 25-1/2 hour race, six drivers would get over four hours of track time apiece.

The car needs some work (the list is about 16 items at the moment), and I have started doing some of that in the driveway. Rick has offered his shop in St. Bonifacius to work on the racer. Marty Adams at Meyer Garage in Iowa has offered the use of a 2.1-liter engine that he built. That would be preferable to the used engine that is in the car.

The tentative event schedule for the National Chumpionship is as follows:

Friday, 2 September 2011

· Gates open: 7:00am

· Tech Inspection: 10:00am - 3:00pm

· Open-track testing: 12:00noon – 6:00pm ($200 per car/4 drivers; $50 per additional driver)

Saturday, 3 September 2011

· Race 1: 3-hour road race (10:00am - 1:00pm). At 2:00pm the track goes yellow and the pits are closed while the track is reconfigured for oval racing. All cars on-track follow a pace car. Once reconfiguration is complete, the track goes green and racing continues. All laps completed under yellow count towards cumulative race total.

· Race 2: 5-hour oval race (1:00pm - 6:00pm). At 6:00pm, track goes yellow, pit lane closed, pace car is out, and the track is reconfigured back to road course.

· Race 3: 5-hour road race (6:00pm - 11:00pm)

Checker for Saturday's sessions issued at 11:00pm. Teams can work on their cars Saturday night, as long as they want, until the call for pre-grid Sunday morning.

Sunday, 4 September 2011

· Race 4: 3-hour oval race (9:00am - 12:00pm). At 2:00pm the track goes yellow, pace car dispatched, pit lane is closed and the track is reconfigured for road racing. Once reconfiguration is complete, the track goes green and racing continues. All laps completed under yellow count towards cumulative total.

· Race 5: 7-hour road race (12:00pm - 7:00pm). At 7:00pm, track goes yellow, pace car is out, and the track is reconfigured back to an oval course.

· Race 6: 2.5-hour oval race (7:00pm – 9:30pm) to the checker.

There will NOT be any safety breaks or interruptions in any of the race segments. This is, after all, the MOTHER-OF-ALL-RACES!

After the checker, ChumpCar will host a BBQ and awards ceremony to salute the all the participants -- win, lose or DNF.

= = = = = = = = = =

We have a few days to decide. Check back for updates.

Race weekend. Not exactly a success.

So much to report since the previous entry. The race has been run and the car turned out to have a few gremlins.

Thursday, July 14 - Got up early to spend time on too many last minute details. Made a switch panel out of a piece of stainless steel from some dairy equipment. Picked up tires at SVS and decals at Airport Signs, and bought some FRS radios with headsets at Gander Mountain. Got the gearbox linkage connected and adjusted the pinch bolt. Installed the front axles... and that's where the big trouble began.

Thought I had a couple of axles ready to go, but since the gearbox was not the same one we ran last year, the axles had to be different. Saab switched to axles with a larger shaft diameter and inner tripod joints in the later model 900s. Though I had an assortment of axles to choose from, all had at least one problem such as torn boots or damaged inner tripods. After inspecting several axles, I chose a couple that needed only a little work. Of course, that took much longer than I had anticipated. The axles went into place with difficulty, sucking up more time. About 11 PM when I thought I was finishing the job, I discovered that the left front wheel bearing had a fair amount of play. I looked at the spare that I had and was not happy with it, and the same with the piece on the parts car in the yard. That meant I would have to drive back into Duluth in the morning to remove the bearing housing from the parts car at SVS. I got to bed about 3 AM.

Friday, June 15 - Got up at 5 AM and finished off a small task or two, then drove into Duluth to remove parts. That took about two hours for the round trip and I got home about 9 AM, the time I had intended to hit the road for B.I.R. Installed the serviceable bearing carrier, with a replacement ball joint because one had a torn boot, and put it all back together. No play this time. But there was still plenty to do and time was running short.

I went over to Izzy's to pick up his truck and trailer about 11:30 and got home just after Noon. Then I had to load up the spares, the tires, the tools and the race car. Got it all in and lashed the car down to the trailer. Stopped in Cloquet to pick up a metal rod for the window net, and grabbed a sandwich at Arbys. Good thing I did because it would be a long time before I would eat again. Finally on the road a bit after 4 PM.

Called the ChumpCar folks to let them know I was running very late and they said to not worry because they got a late start as well due to transportation issues. I arrived at the track about 7 PM, just as registration was supposed to close.

Dave Steen and his son David, Rick Moe and Jim Seubert were already at the track and had saved a spot in the paddock for the race car and trailer. Rick and Jim installed the seat and the safety belts, the window net and the fire extinguisher, while I finished off the wiring for the headlights. We talked to Mike Morrison from ChumpCar staff and he agreed to tech the car first thing on Saturday morning. We finished up about midnight.

Saturday, July 16 - Race day and the car is finally ready. Mike came by about 7 AM and gave the car a once over and his approval. We went to registration and completed the paperwork. Herm Johnson and I installed the final decals, a task slowed by the high humidity which made the decals difficult to separate from the backing paper.

The drivers' meeting was at 8:30 AM, then it was time for me to suit up and get into the car. The wheels were torqued, tire pressures set, and I started the engine and drove through the pits, the last car to do so. As I approached the start line, the flagger dropped the yellow flag and waved the green. The race was on!

My intent was to run a very conservative race in order to be there at the end. But less than an hour into my driving stint, the shifter began to act up. Sometimes I could find a gear, other times I couldn't. And the engine was running pretty warm. I pulled into the pits and determined that the pinch bolt had not been tightened sufficiently and the shifter alignment kept changing. Rick and Jim set to tightening the shift linkage and bled the cooling system in hopes that the problem was just an air bubble somewhere.

I went back out to finish my stint at the wheel, but the car continued to run very warm. At the allotted time I pulled into the pits to turn the car over to Herm, but when he went hit the START button, the starter would not crank. That was quickly traced to the main positive power cable which had fallen off the starter. Once re-connected and engine running, we discovered a leak at the water pump shaft. Though I had a good used one among my spares, I had forgotten to bring it to the track. A few phone calls and one was located at the NAPA warehouse in St. Louis Park, a good three hours distance one way. We were able to locate someone to pick it up and bring it to the track, which saved about three hours.

With the new water pump bolted into place, I went back on track for a few laps to make sure everything was working. The car still ran pretty warm. Since the race was nearly half finished, we decided to put David Jr. into the car. Once again the car refused to start. This time it was traced to the positive power cable which runs from the starter to the alternator, which was missed in the earlier starter cable incident. Re-installed and David Sr. was on the track for a few laps.

Video: Dave behind the wheel through turn 12.

Jim and Rick each were able to get a little time behind the wheel, but the overheating issue kept plaguing the car. In addition, the gearbox got stuck in 3rd gear while Rick was driving, so we packed it in for the day. Rick also had a flat tire after apparently running over something as there was a hole in the tread.

We were only 11 laps behind the car ahead of us in the standings, a Buick V8 that was out for good with a blown engine, so considered driving 12 laps in 3rd gear just to move up a place. However, since we were near the bottom of the lap chart, decided instead to just leave the car parked.

In all, the Saab was credited with 55 laps, though five were bonus laps, so we really only covered 50 laps on track (125 miles). The winning Tubby Butterman BMW completed over 400 laps (384 laps on the official lap chart + 18 penalty laps = 402) or just over 1000 miles on the 2.5 mile course. By comparison, the average SCCA race at BIR is about 20 laps or 50 miles.

The only other ChumpCar races near us this season are at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas in early August, and the National Chumpionship at Iowa Speedway on Labor Day weekend. It will probably not be possible to make repairs in time for Topeka, but Iowa is a possibility.

Some afterthoughts: The gearbox had a couple of issues. The gearing was a bit too tall for BIR, so the engine revved too high in 3rd, but not high enough in 4th for optimum engine torque in the back part of the course. In addition, that gearbox must be an early version, in which the centering of the shifter took place at the shifter. The later gearboxes, and later 900s like ours, had internal centering. The result for this combination was no centering, which is why finding gears was difficult.

Still have not figured out the overheating problem, but I have a newer radiator and a thermostat with the center punched out, so will install those if we take the car to Iowa.

Three days to go

Picked up a few last minute items that I had forgotten, like exhaust hangers, and dropped the other two wheels at SVS to have the new tires mounted.

The hood pivot is still a little out of alignment, but the hood pins are now installed and holding it down.

Since the left side wheels were off for the new tires, I took a close look at brakes and bearings. There was a patina of rust on the rotors, not uncommon after sitting unused in Minnesota, but a light buffing with a wire brush revealed no pitting. The front brake pads Axxis Metal Masters, which saw about 14 hours of use at Iowa last year, had almost no wear. Since I had new pads, they went onto the car and the used ones will make good spares.

Still work to do on the interior and some wiring necessary to make the headlights work. The seat is still out of the car, and the window net and fire extinguisher need to be installed as well. The camera mount is in place, and I have added some of the roll cage padding.

The axles need to be installed, and the shifter has to be connected to the gearbox. This got put off because I couldn't locate a good taper pin for the linkage. Found a new taper pin at Foreign Affairs of Duluth.

It really looks like a race car now. Note the early SAAB logo on the grille. It's new, as in never been installed on a car before, so won't stay there for the race.

She bucks!

The engine runs! Tried to start it on Monday but it would only crank. Gave it up as I had to go to work. Looked at the wiring on Tuesday and found the problem immediately, a wire disconnected from the coil. Slid it into place, flipped the switches to ON, pushed the starter button (yes, button!) and it fired right off. Let it warm up a bit, but the radiator fans are not yet connected so shut it off when the temp gauge read midpoint.

Still have to install the axles and connect the shifter to the gearbox. There is a bunch of wiring to do including headlights, gauges & idiot lights (because most drivers don't watch the gauges very well, myself included), radiator fans, and a few other items I'm sure. The hood does not want to slide into place, but that's probably because the pivot mechanism is bent.