First Day of Racing
Racing starts early here in the mountains: we were up to see the sunrise. Our final details included testing the seat belts to make sure we could get in & out fast --- we couldn´t. Then testing the harnesses to make sure the Hans neck protection devices are held securely --- they were´nt. So much for pre-planning. We moved a bunch of supplies into the race car trunk to make sure that if we were stranded in the desert we woudn´t lack for food, water, reading material, shade, etc.
Oops! all that stuff in the trunk pushed some wires together & made an electrical fire! Back out with all the stuff & leave it in the truck.
The event started today with a local political visit to the mayors sports advisor downtown, so we all cruised down there in a mad dash with police escort through rush hour traffic. Then at 9:01 exactly we headed out of town to the north 35km to get to our 1st speed stage. Everyone is nervous of course --- half of the accidents in this type of racing typically happen in the 1st morning. Fortunately we´ve heard that accidents always happen to the other guy.
Our Lemon Bimmer has been pretty much perfect so far, so our expectations are high. Endurance racing is built on --- what else? --- endurance. The electrical fire this morning was pleasantly easy to fix, but the moment we accelerated away from the 1st starting line, the engine hesitated & the check engine light came on. Fortunately no more symptoms, no more problems --- in that stage. The 1st stage was one of the best, over 90km of blocked off twisty mountain road. The Lemon behaved flawlessly after the initial hiccup. Fast, stable, predictable --- couldn´t ask for more. At the end of the speed stage we stopped to get our time card punched &... what´s that noise? Fuel pump whine, that´s what. As the day went on we got faster & faster, but the fuel pump got noisier & noisier. Late in the afternoon with 2 speed stages to go, the engine would no longer rev over 5k. Just like a 325e race car! The final stage was back over the same route as the 1st one, & we were pretty anxious that the pump would fail. We even said so out loud.
Apparently that´s all it took, cause suddenly the engine would rev to 6500 again & we were off to the races. This final stage was mountain racing downhill, & pretty soon we were up against the usual E30 325i limitation --- smoking brakes. Whew! Do they stink, but they never stopped working.
Overall we drove about 600km & of that we raced around 175km. The mountain roads were the twistiest ever seen & we drove flat out as fast as we could go. The Lemon Bimmer never let us down & felt better & better. Dick Row & his Chevelle crew had fuel pump problems; Klaus in the Mercedes had to ever be mindful of the long drive back to Virginia.
Evening service is a standard endurance racing ritual & we had a bit to do. We replaced the fuel pump & fortunately our spare pump sounded much better. We disconnected the Oxygen sensor trying to fix a slight surge & we located a loose connection at the fuse box that we hope will fix our intermittent tachometer. Oh, and we checked the brakes, tires, & fluids - all fine. Others have much more work, & 2 cars are out for wrecks --- the 3rd place Studebaker & one of the Mustangs, both rolled badly.
We have been laughing at some of our fellow racers who are using complex rally computers to keep track of time, speed, & distance. So far we have exactly 0 time penalties using a wrist watch & driving the car with a broken odometer. Lemon Bimmer strikes again!
End of the day drivers meeting, review of the day, results & starting order for tomorrow. We had a great drive today! We really couldn´t ask for more. On the other hand, the printed results don´t seem right. They have us listed in 16th place now --- moved up from 22nd. Sounds okay, I guess, but not after we note that we are still listed last among the running cars! And we passed a bunch of cars... what´s going on? Oh, they´ve got us a DNF for the last section. WRONG. That´s nearly a 20 minute error in our times. ¨Oh. I´ll look into that in the morning.¨ So we start last again, which is okay. I still like to start last, but they are trying to steal our glory here.