CTCC GT Invitational Shannonville 16th and 17th
07-20-16 | 12:47 PM
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Rotary Freak
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 2,199
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From: Oakville, Ontario
CTCC GT Invitational Shannonville 16th and 17th
I know its not with my RX7, but I thought someone might be interested in Canadian Motorsports. This past weekend there was a trio of CTCC races at Shannonville. To fill out the weekend the organizers added F1200 and F1600 races plus a GT invitational for any GT cars that wanted to come out and race. As my RX7 is still down with a cooked and basted motor, I dragged the Cougar out of the other side of the garage, quickly prepped it and headed down with my teammate to see what damage we could do. When we got there and registered, the supposed 15 car field turned out to be 6 cars.... An older 911, an AWD 450 hp 911, a 400+ turbo Jetta, our 2 Cougars and a CTCC guy in a Civic using our races for extra track time to get his Civic working correctly for the CTCC races. This sucked, but I decided to use it for a good test session with potentially, hard racing and to try and not to finish last.
First race I got a good start from 4th on the grid, passed 2 more cars and slotted in second behind the Jetta. Drove the wheels off the Cougar in very oily and dirty conditions and got in about 5 laps when trouble struck. I had just shifted into 4th on the Fabi straight and was up to about 6200 rpm (just over 160 kmh) and as I hit the 50 yard marker for the right hander at the end of the straight, I had no brakes at all. I pumped and pumped as fast as I could and nothing, so I shot off the end of the straight on to the runoff/ burnout pad for the drag strip, pitched the car sideways and brought it to a crawl. Idled back to the pits and shut it down. Turns out I had boiled the fluid big time. So we bled the brakes with all new fluid, Wilwood 570, filed down the edges of the pad backing plates to reduce friction and allow them to retract and went out for the second race.
Starting last, I quickly moved to 4th behind my teammate, the AWD Porsche and the Jetta. We banged around like that for 2 laps, then my teammate lost it under braking for Turn 3, climbed the inner curb and I got by into 3rd. I had to battle a really slick and getting slicker track for the rest of the race and without anybody close behind, tried to deal with my really soft brakes and finish. I did, got 3rd and climbed up on the podium to get the cheers of the adoring throngs... about 10 people, lol.
Sunday morning, I checked the brakes and they were still soft, so I started to bleed them again when the crew chief for the Porsche came over and offered to help. He told me that they used this crazy expensive, but gonzo brake fluid known as Castrol SRF and they never ever ever had brake issues. At $100 a bottle, I decided it must be the stuff, bought some from the guy, bled my brakes and got ready for the final. For this race the Jetta had pulled out with a bad tranny seal, so I had a good chance for the podium again if I could make things last. Started outside pole, came to get the green flag and the Porsche hammered past. I stayed wide and drove around him in 1, ducked inside for 2 with the tippy tippy bit of my nose ahead, but he stayed outside and beat me to 3 and stayed ahead for a lap and a half. I could catch up to him in the corners, but he was able to kill me on the straights. All of a sudden he pulled off and I was in 1st and leading by about 10 to 15 seconds from my teammate in 3rd. So I put my nose down and tried to drive as hard as I could on this oil slick race track and win this thing. The brakes were pretty solid (so the stuff works, Castrol SRF is amazing), so I could really run a decent pace and my teammate wasn't able to close the gap at all, in fact he was dropping back. Whoo Hooo, life is good. Then with about 4 laps to go, I caught the Porsche out of the corner of my eye as he passed my teammate and he was on a tear. I then tried to pick up the pace, but it was tire spin every time I tried to apply power coming out of the turns and tire slide in a few corners under braking. I got the 1 lap sign and the Porsche was about 5 lengths back and I gave it all I had. Carried a 4 wheel slide through Turns 1 and 2. went way deep into 3. Puffed an inside front tire, went down to second gear at 7500 from 3 to 4, slid the back out going through the hairpin coming on to the Fabi Straight and the Porsche was 3 lengths back. Carried it just up to the redline (8,300 rpm) in second and 3rd and the Porsche went past as I shifted to 4th. DAMN DAMN DAMN... I climbed all over his back on the higher speed right hander coming off the straight, followed him through the esses and had a chance of a body slamming divebomb going in to the left hander. I was ready to do that, but then the red mist parted and I decided that $3,000 in body damage and paint wasn't worth it for a $12.00 trophy and let him take the spot. Followed him across the line and enjoyed a hard fought second place.
No it wasn't my RX7, but the Cougar ran hard all the time and in the 3rd race was running times similar to the CTCC Touring class cars on e super greasy track. Got to stand on the Podium again, get praise and feel good about myself for a while. Oh and by the way, a race V6 at 8200 rpm sounds almost as good as my RX7. (ducks and runs)
Regards,
Eric
First race I got a good start from 4th on the grid, passed 2 more cars and slotted in second behind the Jetta. Drove the wheels off the Cougar in very oily and dirty conditions and got in about 5 laps when trouble struck. I had just shifted into 4th on the Fabi straight and was up to about 6200 rpm (just over 160 kmh) and as I hit the 50 yard marker for the right hander at the end of the straight, I had no brakes at all. I pumped and pumped as fast as I could and nothing, so I shot off the end of the straight on to the runoff/ burnout pad for the drag strip, pitched the car sideways and brought it to a crawl. Idled back to the pits and shut it down. Turns out I had boiled the fluid big time. So we bled the brakes with all new fluid, Wilwood 570, filed down the edges of the pad backing plates to reduce friction and allow them to retract and went out for the second race.
Starting last, I quickly moved to 4th behind my teammate, the AWD Porsche and the Jetta. We banged around like that for 2 laps, then my teammate lost it under braking for Turn 3, climbed the inner curb and I got by into 3rd. I had to battle a really slick and getting slicker track for the rest of the race and without anybody close behind, tried to deal with my really soft brakes and finish. I did, got 3rd and climbed up on the podium to get the cheers of the adoring throngs... about 10 people, lol.
Sunday morning, I checked the brakes and they were still soft, so I started to bleed them again when the crew chief for the Porsche came over and offered to help. He told me that they used this crazy expensive, but gonzo brake fluid known as Castrol SRF and they never ever ever had brake issues. At $100 a bottle, I decided it must be the stuff, bought some from the guy, bled my brakes and got ready for the final. For this race the Jetta had pulled out with a bad tranny seal, so I had a good chance for the podium again if I could make things last. Started outside pole, came to get the green flag and the Porsche hammered past. I stayed wide and drove around him in 1, ducked inside for 2 with the tippy tippy bit of my nose ahead, but he stayed outside and beat me to 3 and stayed ahead for a lap and a half. I could catch up to him in the corners, but he was able to kill me on the straights. All of a sudden he pulled off and I was in 1st and leading by about 10 to 15 seconds from my teammate in 3rd. So I put my nose down and tried to drive as hard as I could on this oil slick race track and win this thing. The brakes were pretty solid (so the stuff works, Castrol SRF is amazing), so I could really run a decent pace and my teammate wasn't able to close the gap at all, in fact he was dropping back. Whoo Hooo, life is good. Then with about 4 laps to go, I caught the Porsche out of the corner of my eye as he passed my teammate and he was on a tear. I then tried to pick up the pace, but it was tire spin every time I tried to apply power coming out of the turns and tire slide in a few corners under braking. I got the 1 lap sign and the Porsche was about 5 lengths back and I gave it all I had. Carried a 4 wheel slide through Turns 1 and 2. went way deep into 3. Puffed an inside front tire, went down to second gear at 7500 from 3 to 4, slid the back out going through the hairpin coming on to the Fabi Straight and the Porsche was 3 lengths back. Carried it just up to the redline (8,300 rpm) in second and 3rd and the Porsche went past as I shifted to 4th. DAMN DAMN DAMN... I climbed all over his back on the higher speed right hander coming off the straight, followed him through the esses and had a chance of a body slamming divebomb going in to the left hander. I was ready to do that, but then the red mist parted and I decided that $3,000 in body damage and paint wasn't worth it for a $12.00 trophy and let him take the spot. Followed him across the line and enjoyed a hard fought second place.
No it wasn't my RX7, but the Cougar ran hard all the time and in the 3rd race was running times similar to the CTCC Touring class cars on e super greasy track. Got to stand on the Podium again, get praise and feel good about myself for a while. Oh and by the way, a race V6 at 8200 rpm sounds almost as good as my RX7. (ducks and runs)
Regards,
Eric
Last edited by 23Racer; 07-20-16 at 12:52 PM.
