Marcus Miller
New member
As usual, Miller- Motorsports bit off more than it chew…
This past weekend we ran the 46th annual Illgen Racing Driver’s Club enduro, traditionally the finishing event to the San Francisco region’s regional season.
I purchased Johnny Reisert’s ITA Rx7 in late July (thanks to it.com!) pics here: http://images.miller-motorsports.com/004 and shipped it off to my cage builder for some work. Custom bent cage, Cobra seat, Schroth belts, some wiring work, prop valve, etc. We were supposed to get the car back in mid August, in time to run some sprint races and such, since this is our 25 hour car. It didn’t work quite like that, but we picked up the car Friday October 14th….
The 15th and 16th ,we swapped the tranny (2x), fixed some leaks, installed tow hooks, lettering, cleaned it up, fixed the rear quarter, tried to install a bigger fuel cell (this killed us) buffed out the paint and made it pretty for tech. Pictures: http://images.miller-motorsports.com/Defau...fldr=misc101805
Wednesday night, it was granted an annual and log book.
Saturday morning, armed with a laundry list of things yet to do, we arrived at the track. We had entered Sunday’s enduro, with me, my brother Scott, and Tom A, who is used to driving an ITB Rabbit. Neither my brother nor I have ever driven this car in anger.
Saturday we had to: Install new front Bilstein struts (Thanks Mike and Tracey @ ISC!), check brakes and bearings, install numbers, mount seat position (its on sliders) wire it for radios, install camera, clean it up again for tech and make sure it was ready
We worked on it all day. Ever have a day at the track when you show up and the paddock spot just seems to explode? I was having one… I broke every pre event rule I have . . . car was not prepared, new parts not installed, etc.
After working on it all day, we remembered about 10 PM that we needed to do something about sound. The car was ridiculously loud. We thought about it…. Chili can, pack it with steel wool, more aluminum sheet to deflect sound (it already has a cheater tip on it)… I finally decide it’s worth it to try the muffler I have at home in San Jose (4 hours away)… this is looking like a long night. I bet one might ask at this juncture why I didn’t just do this to start? Well the muffler is positioned very strangely, angled close to the center of the car as it moved towards the center of the car, a top view is similar to this slash ”\” where the top of the line if the front of the car. It is very close to the cell, and I wasn’t sure if my bigger magna flow muffler would fit.
I’m 4 hours away…. My brother is 2 hours away, but is hosting a party for his wife’s church going friends. My friend offers up his brother to play special dispatch delivery driver for us. Long story short, 2 hours later he drops it off at my brother’s house.
Sunday, we get up at 6:30, still with a seemingly impossible long list of to do’s.
Get Scot signed in, car teched, install radio, install helmet kits, install muffler, pray its quiet, clean car, etc. Practice is at 8:30.
Schedule:
Practice: 8:30-9:10
Practice 9:20-10:00
Race 11:30-3:30
My dad and Tom get busy with the muffler, I work on the radio, Scott gets signed in and two friends [Lipton (crew chief) and Bryan (spotter)] start setting up the pit spot. Angie, (Bryan’s girlfriend) showing perhaps the most intelligence of all, sleeps in.
The plan for practice is for me to run the opening bit, 10-15 minutes to shake the car out. I have the most experience in Rx-7’s, and am (likely) going to be our fastest driver ( its my race report, so I get to brag a bit, right?), so I get the least amount of planned practice. Tom will take over and span the two sessions, and Scott will finish out the 2nd session.
It finally time. We miss the first 5 minutes of practice, finishing the sound deflecting tip on the muffler. I pull out onto hot pit and away we go. The car is similar, but different. It feels like my pro7, but more of it. More sound, more speed, more cornering, but less brakes. Straight away into turn one, I notice the pedal is not fully hard like my pro7. It doesn’t seem bad, but it’s not good. Bending it real easy into turn two, the hood pops. Lets’ hear it for Mazda engineers. The rear opening hood picks up an inch or two, but nothing dramatic. I go back to trying bed brakes and get heat in them (new pads). The car is not smoking heavily, it goes, stops (well…) turns, and the temps and pressure look okay. At the end of my installation lap, I pull in and get a pit worker to slam my hood. I call in on the radio that we need to check it. I pull back out of pit lane, feeling a bit better. Far less chaotic than the first laps on my pro7.
Into turn one and I can feel the suspension enhancements compared to my pro7. The rear end is very compliant, and the front end does what you need it to. The gear box shifts, temps and pressures still good, and the brakes still suck.
Into turn 2 on my 2nd attempt at an installation lap, and the hood pops again. Damn it.
I again call in on the radio, and pull into the paddock to check the latch. I hop out, and am rummaging through the tool box when Tom shows up. We put a ratchet on the 1st bolt and it twists off. *Sweeeeeet* Not so good. The others are okay and we raise the latch 1.4 inch. Tighten it down still not enough. Raise it a bit more, and now we are good. We add some racers tape for fun.
Tom hops in and there is 6 minutes left of practice. He gets in three laps and pulls back into the paddock. Hopping out, he mentions that brakes are about as good as the rabbit. The only change requested is the sub strap on the belts, which is a mile too long. We shorten that, while he exclaims “That 7 minutes was more work than my rabbit after a half hour” he also commented that the car was very neutral. After scaring him with stories of the rally style is requires to go fast in a pro7, he is pleasantly surprised.
He goes out for practice #2 and nothing untoward happens. Scott hops in and again, nothing bad happens. Off to our drivers meeting, the crew finishes up the pit spot, we get out crew some passes and memberships (two new members! Let’s welcome Robert Miller (dad) and Scott Lipton (crew)!
We re finally on grid for the race, with no qualifying, they guessed and got it about right for Tom and Scott having been practicing. We were started near the rear of the 46 car field. That was okay, since we hadn’t driven the car before, had an 8 gallon ell, and a guess at 5 gallons per half hour of consumption. We also had three drivers, on who never drove an rx7, another with just above rookie level experience. The plan had me driving the opening stint (with only 2 laps in the car! Fun, fun, fun!!), I’d be driving for 25-30 minutes, and then moving to Tom, and then Scott. We were worried about fuel consumption.
I started and passed several SM’s and Pro7’s. I was having fun! Still not going very quickly, around 2:20’s (ITA track record is 2:07.5), the car felt good (sans the brakes and radios which the driver couldn’t hear) and it wasn’t getting abused. I ran my stint, and pulled in. Refueling went well (4.5 gallons), and Tom got in. The plan was for him to run a 30 minute stint. True to form, he delivered. A solid stint that kept the car on track on track and got him more experience.
At the allotted time, he hopped out, refueled (4.5 gallons) Scott hopped in, and away he went. About 35 minutes later, we got a full course yellow and Scott pitted. We refueled (4.5 gallons) and changed drivers.
Being my second time in the car, and halfway through the event, I decided to whip the pony a bit. No one had gone quicker than my 2:20, and I was determined to see a 2:15. With bad brakes. 2 hours into an enduro. Great idea…:119:
I got out and start my stint…. The times start coming down. Out lap ,2:40, 2nd 2:28, some traffic, etc. I get down to a 2:17 flat on lap ten. Coming around for the net lap, I’ve upped the RPM (and subsequently speed) at the exit of turn one by 300 RPMs. I was flying. On entry to turn two, I fl the rear sliding a bit… Yeah daddy, yeah! The focus was coming; the car was coming, the exhaust singing at a solid 7.5K, when…
Burble.
Burble.
The car fuel starved a bit…. It was a hard left hand corner, so maybe I just sloshed the fuel a bit? Right hand turn 2, it did it again. And continuing on every corner…. I pulled in 17 minutes after I left with a full tank. I get the crew to fill the tank (4.5 gallons again… ARRGH! This is killing us) and tear out. I figure I can get a mid 2:16 with out trying very hard… (For reference, my pro7 runs about a 2:15 flat on slightly faster version of the course- about a 2:18 on this track). ITA track record is 2:07.5…..
Out I go. The car feels a bit loose in one. Maybe that’s because I didn’t lift? I chalk it up to dirt & oil on the tires from pit lane. Bending it into turn two, the car feels better. Right hand turn three, and I am drift car sideways. Applause and all from the corner workers.
Into the slight bend that is turn four and the rear is a bit funny. Turn five at Thunderhill over the top of the cyclone is similar to the corkscrew at Laguna Seca in shape. Go up the hill braking, and looking at sky. At the top, turn left hard. As you land, turn right down the hill. I went up the hill, turned in and clipped the apex berm. Two wheels up, I landed about right. I planted the throttle and turned right down the hill. The car slewed sideways. Looking like a rally star, I came down the hill, foot planted and counter steering.
I’m sitting there, sliding down the hill, wondering what just happened… it wasn’t cold tires; the slide would have caught by now. Hmm… fluid on the tire? Nah, it would have snap spun. Over driving it? Nah, would have gone off driver’s right… been there, done that. Hmm…..
About the time I got to that point in my thought process, I heard a loud bang, as I ran out of pavement. I kept the car the right direction, and slowly made my way back on track. The bang was *really* loud. I’m picturing panhard rod torn off, axles bent, etc…. I am frantically calling, wondering if I’m dragging parts, going really slowly... I get nothing from the crew… F^&*ing radios. I crawl in, and get out. I see a torn up Toyo sitting on a pristine Panasport. Did I mention that since I normally run a smaller tire that is class legal on my pro7, I have no spares? We throw on a 3 year old heat cycled to death Hoosier (I’ll skip mentioning the sidewall cracks.) I tell tom to get in, as by now, my 40 minutes of time is probably (?) up. Our crew chief had gone to refill the fuel jugs… Luckily it is about 85 minutes left to go.
I proceed to toss the panasport over the wall and beat myself up a bit.
:angry:
Epilogue: We believe there had to be a slow leak in the tire. When I landed from hopping the curb, it probably took a bunch of air out. It was low enough that it rolled over and ripped off the rim when I hit the edge of the pavement. Thankfully it didn’t catch the rim in the dirt and flip the car.
Tom hops in, and we plan to run 2 40 minute stints to finish the race, with a driver change in between. Other than fuel at 25 minutes (4.5 gallons) his stint is uneventful. With about 42 minutes left to go we pops in and Scott gets in. He runs his stint but is running out gas with 15 minutes left to go. We use a half full can of gas (made up of remnants of our 4.5 gallon fills) to fill it up. Scott is eager to get out, and not knowing that we started with a half full can, motioned us to let him go… with only a gallon and half in the car… Tom obliges and we let him go.
(Sidenote: Drivers, you drive the car. Let the crew do its job. If you don’t trust them, get different crew.)
We rush out to the pit wall to see him finish. Coming out of the last corner with the checkered flag flying, true to form… the car starves for fuel and nearly shuts off. He takes the check and it makes it around for impound.
We Finished!
Miller Motorsports, with help from Shed Racing has finished its inaugural 4 hour enduro. We finished poorly, in the 30’s overall, 13th ish in class, but not bad for 8 pit stops… on anew car, with new drivers, as a point of reference, most other teams made 2 or 3 pit stops max….
The car ran well, the driver’s did well except for my tire issue. I must thank my co-driver’s, Scott and Tom, and our crew, Dad, Lipton, Bryan and Angie. Special thanks to Geoff, for the rapid delivery of the muffler that saved our bacon. There are so many more people that contribute; I couldn’t possibly name everyone…
Our only photo’s of the event:
Marcus, largely ignoring the fire bottle in his hand’s while Tom refuels the car.
Left to right: Scott, Marcus, Tom in impound after the race.
Marcus
