Race Pix-05

[aeronca65t]

Here's a few pictures from a few weeks ago. Ordinarily, this would be no big deal, but this was the first offical club-race at the new Shenandoah track at Summit Point, WV. Our club had a special plaque made up and all of us drivers signed it. We gave it to Bill Scott (the track owner). It's kind of nice to add this little piece of history to my car.
I won my class in the Time Trials but eventually snapped an axle in the race (in fact, all three Spridgets that entered broke).
And this is a great little race track. The "Nurburgring Karrosel turn" was an interesting idea and they may use it for slower vintage races. We used a bypass section, avoiding this "concrete-bowl turn" (we feel it's a bit narrow).
Summit Point has three tracks. Along with Shenandoah, it has the original track and a special police/FBI training track. The police training goes on at all hours and while we were camping, we could hear automatic-weapons firing. On Saturday, the guys on the police track blew up a car...we know because we saw pieces of it flying in the air.
The racing was great and the police-training stuff was strangely entertaining.

 

[jcatnite]

That's awesome. The track looks great and looks like your spridget is handling the turn better than he civic behind you...lol. Where did your axle snap? Ever since I figured out that my axles are being held in by 3 screws, I've wondered how you guys manage those harsh corners with a limited slip diff.
JC

 

[aeronca65t]

That Honda is pretty close to me in handling but has about 25 more HP, so he murders me on the straights.
He actually won our four-hour night-enduro overall in that car last Fall (it rained and he blasted past Mustangs, 'Vettes, and Spec-Miatas because he's such a good rain driver).
The Honda-pilots tend to run wide into the turn and at a slower speed. Once they put their foot down, they can't let off or they're toast. The Spridget is completely different, turning in sooner and being more forgiving. I have a friend who has an older 8-valve Civic: I dive inside him every turn and he blasts past me out of the turns. Great fun!
My axle snapped at the outer end. The stock single-bearing hubs I was running allow the axle to flex at the outer ends during the turns. And then fatique sets in.... I have been getting away with the single bearing hubs due to running fairly skinny tires (175 Yoko or Kumho race-radials). Most of my friends run 205 or 215 Hoosiers which are a lot stickier (and harder on the rear hubs).
I just added some double bearing hubs for Pocono last weekend and the axles held up (I'm going to take them apart and inspect them this week).
The three screws are used for assembly, but really, the axles are held on by the lug nuts.
I am a low-budget, "just-for-fun" racer and do not run a limited slip. I am running an "open" 3.9 ratio which actually is easier on the axles and other suspension parts.

 

[jcatnite]

Sounds like a load of fun! I used to race stock cars on a 3/8" mile oval in Virgina back in my younger days. I raced in the grand stock division which is one step below late model (Nascar). Everyone ran a 352 cubic inch engine but I ran a high reving 289 (money issues) and could murder them in the turns just because of the weight distribution. The bigger V-8's creamed me down the straight but I always caught them because I could wait to lift a lot longer than they could. We had a blast every Saturday night till a collapsing water pump suction hose starved my heads and I popped the heads off a couple of valves right at the end of a 100 lap main. I knew she was hot but I thought it would hold out. The heads were toast as well as a couple of pistons and my wife talked me into just selling the whole outfit. I can't imagine racing in my spridget just yet. Heck just the trip to and from work every day makes me anxious enough (still fighting some cooling issues there as well)...lol As far as the 3 screws go, I knew I had mispoke shortly after I wrote that....lol. Probably should have edited it out...lol. I have begun negotiations with the significant other to purchase another spridget for making into a race car once this one is done...we'll have to see how the talks go and how much I have to give in concessions...lol

 

[Simon TR4a]

I'm impressed that you are any where near the Honda, in my experience they are extremely fast, being competitive with 5 litre Mustangs on most of the tracks we run at, including one with a 700 metre front straight.
The picture shows how small your car is, at first glance I thought you had a Rover SD1 behind you!
Great that you can still surprise more modern cars that should be faster, well done!
Simon.

 

[Tullamore]

It is funny how small it is compared to the CRX.

 

[aeronca65t]

I'm impressed that you are any where near the Honda, in my experience they are extremely fast, being competitive with 5 litre Mustangs on most of the tracks we run at

We run Civics and CRXs in various classes and some of them are well out of my league!
Even a stock 8-valve Civic with 4 speed trans will eventually run away from me if the driver doesn't make any obvious mistakes. The yellow CRX is just following me in practice and eventually passed me. His car is a pretty stock 8 valve 1500 motor. That car will out handle mine, but we are very even in a drag race (as we found out at a "LeMans" start at a race last year). I also have to say that the guy can really drive...last year he ran that car in the SCCA G-Production Runoffs in Atlanta (and blew a piston...Ken Prathers won in his amazing MGA).
Many of our racers run Honda "hybrids", which does not refer to the electro-mechanicals economy cars, but rather, cars with with transplanted Accura or VTEC engines (such as the B-18 or B-20). These cars run in the "big bore" class rather than my "small-bore" catagory. One of our CRXs (with a hot VTEC transplant) runs almost 200 HP at the front wheels and runs ahead of most 5 liter Mustangs....no way I can stay anywhere near him!