Sending 4 drivers (Dave Royce, Ray Freundt, Neal Agran, & Eric Kuhns) who have never seen a track in a car with an untested configuration was pretty ambitious, but with much support from Nick & Dennis at Bennington Motorsports, we not only finished, but made the podium in E2 and finished at the top 1/3 overall. Not bad for a first major enduro effort.

The unknowns did come out to bite us, but we learned a lot, persevered, and had a great time overall.

Dawn of Race Day (temps in the 20's!)

Ray pointing out the frost on the pit equipment:

Being the gambling sort, we sent out Dave Royce first - the one driver who had never driven the car out first on the track he's never seen, in the car who's setup hadn't seen tested (no practice/warm-up before the enduro!), onto a track so cold our pit equipment had frost on it  :shock: . If you've never been to the roller coaster they call Road Atlanta, you don't know how crazy this is - there are several very blind, high speed corners with walls close by to catch you out.

This unfamiliarity  came out to bite us later, but Dave found his way around the track very well, started moving up positions in class.

The start:

Dave Royce curb hopping:

Dave soon found some issues with car setup, however. The first was that we couldn't get the big 245 R1's up to temp in high 30 degree, cloudy conditions. We only got 4-5 PSI of pressure gain above baseline. We left the 9 hour enduro with more rubber than we started with, as we couldn't get the tires hot enough to keep from collecting rubber vs. scrubbing it off. This led to all sorts of interesting handling issues and vibrations. The second was that despite the extra fuel load in the rear, the car was oversteering on the bigger tires - on a very high speed track (average speeds higher than Road America), this is exciting! The last is that we had too much rear brake bias in this setup,

Note the rubber build up and lack of wear on the tires (after 9 hours!):

compounding the oversteering issues. Dave found the max braking level to be 1.31g's (which he pulled off successfully), because when he hit 1.32g's (Traqmate data) a couple of laps later, there was a very exciting moment where car yawed about 20 degrees towards the nearby outside wall d/t rear brake lockup in the fastest/biggest braking area on track! Using is Baja-refined off road skills, Dave managed to not only keep the car out of the wall, but thread the needle to keep the car on the ribbon of grass between the sand trap and the wall at speed, and not beach the car, thereby losing little time

The next surprise was to find that our fuel consumption was about 25% worse than Road America. In retrospect, there were probably multiple factors for this - track layout leading to high average revs, along with a chip that gave up 500 rpm more, cold conditions, a rich running motor with that chip, etc. The end result was a first pit stop at about 1 hour 40" (a good 30" less than we were expecting). Still, things were looking good, and Eric jumped in the car in 3rd place out of 9 entries, feeling pretty good about our situation.

Eric was caught out in his first lap – finding himself pointed at the outside pit lane over the crest of the hill before the blind turn 12. After scrubbing some speed off down the outside pit entrance, Eric was safely back on track, and ran progressively quicker until a familiar vibration on acceleration caused a stop to tighten axle bolts, likely loosened from the rear end chattering on due rear brake bias issue. With this fixed, Eric enjoyed some of the best conditions of the day, as the sun came out briefly, and temps reached the mid-40’s. Lap times came down to the 1:44’s, within a couple of 1/10ths to what the leading Bimmerworld sponsored BMW E30 was running. We hoped that our larger tank would allow us one less stop than the competition, allowing the race to come to us in the end.
Nearing the end of Eric’s planned stint, the gearshift lever E-clip came off, leaving him stuck in 4th gear. A quick replacement on hand by Nick (Bennington Motorsports) made for a quick fix, and Neal Agran entered the car for his maiden lap.

Unfortunately, Eric neglected to warn Neal of how easy it is to get caught out coming over the crest before the blind T12 at about 100MPH. Neal found himself in the same situation, but elected to try and save it at speed. Unfortunately, a spin ensued, resulting in the car backing into the wall inside turn 12. The damage was significant, but mostly cosmetic.

Nick's custom exhasut deflector (made out of an old license plate!):

 About ½  hour in the cold pits un-kinking and wiring up the exhaust, and Neal was on his way, for an uneventful remainder of his stint. Despite our troubles, attrition was affecting the rest of the field as well, and we found overselves not far off 4th place, and closing! 

Neal turned over the car to Ray, who was promptly black flagged for a dragging exhaust. This was re-suspended by Nick of Bennington Motorsports, who used his “asbestos” hands to good effect on the hot exhaust. An unintended consequence of wiring the exhaust up tighter was that it allowed reversion of the exhaust gas into the cockpit through the gap under the hatch caused by the rear impact. Not realizing this in the heat of battle, Ray became dizzy, and nearly blacked out before vomiting into his helmet on several successive turns. Ray was kind enough to keep this all on himself, and not spew over the rest of the car! Ray came into the pits, and turned the car over to Eric, who soon realized the exhaust fumes, and came back in again. A quick sealing job improved the situation, but Eric still drove much of his stint with one hand out the window, directing fresh air in. We were not alone in out adversity, and every car in the E2 class made an unscheduled stop during the race. We drove our way back to 4th place (out of 9), and when the two Miatas ahead at that point ran into their own trouble, we were challenging for 2nd place for a bit. One of the Miatas seized it’s motor, but the other one got their fuel pump fixed in time to retain their lead. Driving with one hand out the window for the last 45” to direct fresh air to himself, and running low on fuel, Eric was happy to see the white flag come out. Finishing the race, and ending up on the podium to boot made the effort by all a success. We were also pleased finished 9th overall, out of 24, including several pro teams such as Farenbacher-Loles. This adventure certainly gave us many stories to tell when we’re old!

Brake wear after 9 hours on Hawk Blues - not bad!

Thanks to Nick & Dennis of Bennigton Motorsports, who again proved their magic at keeping 944’s on the track, and also trailered the cars down to Road Atlanta in the new Bennington Motorsports hauler. Thanks to Dave Royce for giving this eager, but amateur effort some professional direction. We have learned a great deal about what it takes to pull a long enduro off, car setup, and Road Atlanta (go if you ever get the chance, but watch out for turn 12!). Thanks to my other co drivers – Neal Agran & Ray Freundt, who made the weekend fun, & memorable!

 Video can be found here:

http://www.vimeo.com/8097142