Pistonhead open #1 12-13 May 2012
After the burnouts the previous week there were some minor oil leakages to fix.
Apart from that everything seemed fine with the car.
We loaded the car a little late and didnt leave the garage until it started to get dark.
Since we had got an awsome light rail for the party we brought it to the track,
and it looked really cool in the pit when everything were in place around 02.00...
Saturday morning offered the worst possible weather. Rain, storm and cold.
Tents were airborn and tools floating around in the mess...
...but no need to moan. For a change poeple could visit other teams and talk.
If it wasnt for the fact that we were all there for a scertain reason
one could mistakingly think this was just an avrege Swedish camping site...
Towards afternoon it stopped raining. The crew started to dry the track
and teams started to warm up their engines here and there.
No one wanted to miss the oportunity for a qualify run and was as ready as ever.
We were to run after the class WCT (Wide Cast Thread). They run mid 8's at best so thats a good class
to run after since they help warm up the track for us.
Mattias Lithammars crew is checking something under his bonnet while the class ProStreet is paitiently waiting.
Martin Granqvist took his beautiful Volvo Amason for a spinn, but for some reason he didnt qualify.
Finally it was our time to test the track and car.
No new record, but everything was still in one piece.
As we know, still in one piece, can be a victory of its own under these conditions.
Back in the pit we quickly prepared the car for a full power run...
...only to realize it was 15 minutes track time left and there were still unqualifyed cars.
Instead we had a bite and a cold to drink before we went to the barn and listened to the live band.
Sunday morning offered weather quite the opposit to what we had on saturday.
We woke up to a clear sky, warm breeze and close to perfect conditions.
Now it was time to climb in the quaifications list a bit!
I run in a class called 4to6, meaning its open for all doorslammer cars with 4-6 cylinders and one power adder.
In a class like that 10,47 isnt going to take you to the top. Rather someware low in the lower half.
Here are some of our components.
From left: Mikael and Magnus 1048bhp BMW E46, Mikael Holmströms Volvo 745,
Fredrik Syrens Toyota Starlet, Rickard Ivars BMW E30 and Andreas Åhlmans carbon fiber-Volvo Amason.
If you end up too low in the Q list there is always a risk of getting below the bump spot,
and that would really be a pitty. There were alot of cars in the class that didnt manage to qualify
so it was hard to estimate if there were going to be a bump spot and even harder to guess where it would be.
We aimed for a mid-low nine sec run just to make sure we got a safe spot over any bump.
Just as we were to run the alternator lamp started to light up, so we ripped the front off
and tryed to wiggle on the alternator cables. It nearly seemed to solve the problem...
Check out the perfect wheelie Rickard Ivars did in the last picture!
Unfortunally instead of running a mid-low nine the gearbox broke just as I was to engage second gear.
Annoying is not the word to describe it. It just plainly sucks.
Even if it sucks we have got a pretty good routine on fixing these gearboxes.
This time it was a simple change of the first and secong gear set.
Aprox 50 minutes we were ready to race again, but there were no more qualifying runs.
We ended up as Q #5. Not what we had hoped for, but we were still in the competition.
In plain desperation we tryed to solve the gear change trouble by programming WOT in the ECU.
WOT means Wide Open Throttle, thinking the gear change would take place with the accelerator pressed firmly to the floor.
A small ignition cut should make that possible. Hmm, exciting, since I have never tryed that on the car
and now I should try it in the eliminations...
-Ah, well, we cant just replacing parts in the gearbox without trying any new stuff.
The worst thing that could happen is that we loose. Right?
The alternator lamp lit up as soon as I turned on the cooling fan and otherwise it glowed.
Loose we did definitly not!
The gears went in pretty close to perfect even if it fealt strange, unsafe and a bit wierd.
During the Sundays qualifyings a bunch of photocells were run down so the the competition distance
were shortened to 201m. No one told me any about that so after 402m I pulled out my shout
happily since I never saw Rickards white Beemer during any time of the race.
Rickard ran 6,0 agains my 6,17 so he was a bit quicker but I ate up his advantage on the tree,
and never let him pass me. I was first off and I was first to cross the finnis line!
Not only did I win the round. Everything was still in one piece. Superb!
The alternator lamp had stopped glowing and was lit all the time now.
The alternator was bought brand new back in 2006 so what can you expect?
I'll by a new one on monday I thought, no problems...
...but as there were a small que on my way back to the pit I turned the engine off.
It did not start after that. The battery was completely drained. Oh darn.
Back in the pit we express-charged the battery, packed the shout and then it was time for next round.
We were up against qualifyer #1 Andreas Åhlman with the carbon fibre Amason...
-Lets rock n roll!
Andreas had previously had some truoble with his linelock.
I did not in any way try to take any advantage of that knowledge by staging slowere than usual.
I did exactly like I always do and have always done. Unfortunally for Andreas his car started to moove
just as I got into stage and he got a red light...
I had pretty much thought "YES" as I passed 60ft
and suddenly my car suddenly died.
Eh, what now???
Andreas passed me sideways with spinning tyres while I rolled in to the side
to minimize any damage to the track from a possible oil leakage from my car.
I bet he was pretty pissed since he lost the round against a broken car...
An eternity later the rescue crew had towed me to the end of the track in max 4kmh.
It started to get verry late in the afternoon and I did not have time for a 4kmh ride to the end of the track,
while I was still in the competition with a car, broken in a way we did not know.
At the end of the track my crew took over the towing. Then it was towing in warp-speed back to the pit.
As we passed the starting area the competition general came running, looking rather mad.
Oh shit, I thought...
-You get FIFE minutes to get back here for the finals.
Otherwise you loose on "no show"!
The race time had already gone into overtime, so I can understand her,
but I replyed we'll be back in 15.
The problem was easily solved as we got back to the pit.
It was a roller for the alternator belt that had jammed, causing the belt to pop off
and taking the fuel pump belt with it on its daring escape from my engine.
A new fuel pump belt took about a minute to get into place.
We didnt need to refuel, recharge or cool anything since I hardly ran the previous round.
11 minutes later we towed the car back to the starting area.
No one thought we had enough time in the pit to do anything byt to get there and get back,
and hoping for Fredriks Starlet not to start or perhaps doing a red light?
We on the other hand knew this would work. It just had to. Any thing else would have ben unfair...
We also knew Fredriks car would work, but with a high 10sec pass as a personal best
we would win without an alternator, low on fuel and even without a second gear I aught to do it.
Just do not red light or do anything stupid. This shall be a piece of a cace.
I was quickest on the tree like normal and got a safe advantage at the 60ft,
but this time second gear just didnt want to play ball. WOT or a regular shift were impossible to make.
Slammed in third gear and saw the red little Toyota closing in but with no chanse to over take me...
...and by that we were victorious in the first competition in the year just as we ended 2011!
Got a good feeling about this for sure.
The price scermony were held off track since the crew had to rap up the timing equippment quickly
hoping no one would notice the race were run about an hour later than allowed.
On track or in the pits didnt matter to me since I was still there to collect the first price.
No cups were given on this part competition of the series, but as things ar looking
there will probably be a good chance for a big cup at the end of the season...
Now were looking forward to the next part in Pistonhead Open 8,10 June.
Hoping for better weather, less broken gearboxes and faster times!
Photo: Daniel Andersson and Malin "Mallan" Ulfves.
