Spaze Racing

After a few months of down time the corvette comes back out for a spectacular showing! The problems started at the last HPDE I instructing at in the vette. The Northern Va Corvette Club rented out the track and everything was looking great, until I was flying down the front straight braked for turn 1 and felt that I had no power steering. I had recently replaced the power steering pump with a nice Turn One unit and at first I thought that had failed. I looked at my gauges and was greeted with what looked like a Christmas tree. Every light that could be on was on, chimes were going of and the temp needle was pegged at 260. The damage had already been done and the culprit was a shredded belt. This was July 11th, and the car went back in the garage and back up on stands. While I sorted out the possible fixes, it seemed like the only way to be 100% sure, was to replace the head gaskets, and deck the heads to make sure they were flat.

So there the car sat, for nearly two and a half months, in the garage slowly getting turned into a shelf. I honestly don’t know what motivated me to get started, but one weekday I removed the junk from the car, and started Operation Head Gasket! I was armed with the covrette service manuals, several online how to’s and a desire to have the car running for the October Nasa race. Within a week I had the heads off, and parts everywhere. I started posting on corvette forums about adding a cam or other “while I’m at it” items. I finally decided to just stick with the tried and true stock everything and put it back together. The heads were twisted a little and decked .005″ to fix them. With GM parts from a local dealership I went to town reinstalling everything.

Wednesday of last week I finally fired the car up, and miracously nothing happened. The motor purred to life, and before we all suffocated in my garage I shut the gar down with the biggest grin ever. She was back! Best of all, I put her back together correctly! I was very happy, although I’m sure my neighbors were not so pleased with the vettes return to life.  Firday I installed the new calipers, new pads,  blead the brakes and buttoned the car back up. I borrowed the super nice Toyota Tundra Limited from PTuning for the weekend and loaded the car up before dawn on satuday. I was at the track to watch the sun rise, and I immediately had a good feeling about the weekend. I got all registered and most of the organizers recognized me and welcomed me back. It had been since march since I had raced with nasa, and as usual they treated me like family… and then they asked for my credit card number, haha.

After registration I had a few hours to kill and I hung out with the “over the hill” gang. They are a bunch of older guys that insturct and drive corvettes. I’ve known them for years, and they are always funny and inviting. It was a good time and their faces were shocked as soon as I pulled up. We exchanged greetings and I unloaded the car for what would be an amazing weekend. The sun had come up but it was still cold, like 50 degrees, and I was standing there in pants and a short sleeve shirt. Correction, I was not standing i was shivvering back and forth.  By the time I was called for the practice session I was actually nervous, since I had not raced in months I wondered if i would be rusty, or forget something vital. As soon as i was released onto track my worries went right out the window and all I could do was admire was my ls6 at full song down the front straight.

I was constantly checking my temps, and they did rise over 220, which is not normal. I brought the car in and wondered what the problem could still be. I opened the hood to find water boiling over in the expansion tank. Wally, My good friend off track and my number one competition on track, comes over and points out I had forgotten to reinstall the front radiator dam. This little piece of plastic feeds air to the radiator, and is vital to keeping the car cool. I touched the top half of the radiator nearly burning my hand, and when I touched the bottom it was cool to the touch. After a good 30 minutes the gang supplied me with some think metal that i could use to fab a damn. 25 minutes later, with the help of an air saw I had cut a piece off that i could use. 15 minutes after that and I had a drill that I was using to make some holes to mount the metal. With a few zip ties later the splitter was on, and My was it low. The oil cooler was also only held on with one bolt because of the thickness of the metal, but with more zipties I secured that so in the event it did fall, it would not take anything out.

Just in the nick of time I was back out on track for qualifying. With a total of 8 qualifying laps I managed to score pole position for the race, which made me the fastest guy, in the fastest group… SWEET! It would be my first time setting the pace for the start, but I was confident I would not have a problem. Wally was back in 3rd and Paul Kaiser the current points leader was 2nd. It was going to be one hell of a race and I’m sure everyone knew it. Just before the race started we got the work that Kaiser was out, and that he had broken a suspension component. So I was first, and wally would start to my outside… boy its just getting better and better.

We staged for the race and I was given the number 1 grid spot, I felt weird being there, but it meant that I was fast, which is something I wanted to know for a while. Off we went behind the pace car wally in tow both warming up our tires and brakes. The pace car dives to pit lane, we round turn 10, and wait. Rolling at 45mph we all wait for the green. The flag drops and we are off! Wally and I both take off, with wallys power he is out in front and I pull in behind him down into turn one. For the next several laps its wally in the lead with me on his bumper. The racing is VERY close, and there were several times where we thought contact would occur, but it never did. Even running inches off his bumper there was never any contact, and his red paint stayed in tact. A few laps later, I saw my opportunity and dove to the inside for turn ten, and side by side we went. I think that was the only lap I crossed the finish line first, but again with wallys power, he gained the position back by turn one. The race finished with us setting some super fast times and running away from the rest of the pack. I finished .319 seconds behind wally which is not too shabby for the first race with the newly put together corvette.

Saturday ended with wally and I taking our cool down lap to the applause of the cornerworkers and crowd. “That was amazing!” is what i head from several people later that night, and it was clear our battle was one of the best. The racing was close, clean, and everyone came home a winner. Later that night a lot of people were talking about the race, and that night the awards banquet never felt so good. Even though I received a 2nd place plaque it was hard earned, and easily one of the best trophy’s I’ve ever received. After a few beers, a lot of food, and good stories from the gang, I headed home. Sunday was going to come early and I still needed to stop by home depot to get another bolt for the oil cooler and splitter.