ITA was a pretty good race. CAme down to 4 cars although the issue was never really in doubt.
Tom Fowler had a smoking fast Integra (of the Tom Hoppe vintage, not sure of the designation). Ran a 2:18.9 in qual and about that in the race. Another team had a slower Honda Civic Si but it I think could go 2+ hours on fuel. Raatz, etc. al. had a slow qual, think they were really just sorting the car. We qualled second in ITA in what was basically a Spec Miata without a restrictor and a huge header. It was WAY down on power, I got passed repeatedly by SSMs on the backstraight.
Lyonel Kent was in the mix early too with another Civic coupe, but fell out.
Our first stint went pretty well. I think we laid down the third fastest time in A overall, and while the car had no power it was pretty consistent. I could turn an occasional 21 and a fair number of 22s. Raatz was a tick faster at 20 flat.
30 minutes in, the temp gauge starting going crazy and finally pegged at 260. THought we were done. Came, in and lost 5 laps fixing a leak on the back of the motor. Back out, and power was fine.
Caught Tyler and quickly determined while I could get around him from Turn 1 to 10, once we hit the backstraight, we were toast. So, settled in and tried to just run good long stints.
Finished my 1:30 in the car and Earp got int. 20 minutes later, back in -- temp gauge going crazy again. Found another pinhole leak in the radiator. Made 2-3 more stops for just water over the next couple of hours and finally resorted to the old pepper in the radiator trick, and it worked.
After that, car was fairly reliable although it steadily lost power over the course of the race.
We got back to second (Tyler, et. al. didn't have any early trouble and were as much as 10-12 laps ahead at some point). End of my first stint, I saw the Fowler Integra essentially lose a wheel at the top of rollercoaster, and got towed in. I thought they were done.
WRONG. THey fixed it (it was an axle) and went back out. And started gaining on us and the unknown Civic Si.
We continued to have brake shake issues, and while the motor ran, we ended up putting 5-6 quarts (sucker was new too) in over the course of the race, TWO in one stop. So, while we could turn essentially the same times as TYler and the yellow Civic, we were down on laps to Tyler, and down on endurance to the Civic. And Fowler was COMING.
By dark, Fowler had gotten around us and the Civic, although as Kirk notes we were all essentially on the same lap.
We went back and forth with the Civic on stops. ABout 45 mintues from the end, we see Tyler come in with no lights....hmmm....see furious activity in the pits, not but sure what it was (now know).
Fowler got within 3-4 laps of Tyler (who had to make a second battery stop about 20 minutes from the end) but couldn't catch him. Tyler's car died on pitlane after the cool down lap. We finished fourth about 2 laps behind Fowler and nearly a lap behind the yellow Civic.
Great team effort by our guys. I thought the car was done, and Jeff Giordano ran the car basically out of fuel the last stint hoping (a) Fowler woudl break; (b) Tyler's Lucas electrical system would lose all of its smoke and (c) that the yellow Civic Si would have to pit.
Had fun. Miatas are tough little buggers.
The Cameron/Kirk/Amy/Raatz/Hoppe team was of course meticulously prepared EXCEPT for one thing -- no beer at the end of the night. I had to give Hoppe a case of Miller High Life to quench their thirst...
Serioulsy, congrats to those guys. They ran a great race.
Chuck