Pistonhead open #2 8-10 Juni 2012
As you probably have read, the race at Emmaboda didnt go exactly as planned,
since it ended up in a broken cam shaft, bent valves and crushed rocker arms...
That was three weeks ago, and lets see what I managed to puzle together.
I got some new valves. Japtuning gave me new bearings since they were bad as well,
Meca Vallingby gave me a new cam chain and I got to borrow a set of cams from the "Muppet".
The "muppet" was a 886bhp SR20 built 2004 by DTE and Madtech right before my engine was born.
Those cams would be the nearest, easyest and quickest available to get a hold of.
Qualifications started on Friday so me and Nalle got vacation from work
and set up the pit on thursday evening.
For some reason the laptop battery had faulted in some way,
so we couldnt get any log from the first Q run.
The only thing we managed to get out of the first run was that we probably had under estimated
the cluch's ability to lock up properly and we had a too agressive setting on it.
I almost went up in smoke at the start line in the first run.
We could see on the EGT's which are not conected to the computer that the engine
hardly ignited all fuel (Thery were verry cold), so we took away some fuel from the top end in blind.
Instead of adjusting the clutch for the next round we assumed I just needed more temp in the tyres,
so I did a massive 100m burnout in third gear! It was massive!
We didnt get the laptop to work without cord in the second run either
so we decided I should try to have a look at the meeter during he run instead.
To be frank, it was such a long time since I looked at any meter during the runs,
I hardly can remember where I put them...
Far sprizingly I didnt manage to keep track of much from the second run either.
I remember seeing the boost needle touching -1BAR (meeter is graded to 3BAR)
in third gear just as the engine had some small missfires...
I kept the pedal to the metal and did a run we didnt had to be a shamed of in the pits.
The qualifying started at noon on friday so we only had time for two runs.
Apart from the laptop battery failure, everything was working and in one piece.
Saturday morning started out with fantastic weather.
What seemed like the perfect conditions drasticly changed to a racers nightmare.
Blue sky was replaced by black clouds and showers all day.
We managed to get one run between the showers on saturday...
...and on that one oportunity I got a short circuit in my head and tryed to start in third gear instead of first.
The car hardly even got out stage.
9,61 from fridays gave us sevent place in the Q list.
That prooved to be a really good place to be,
since all other faster cars in that part of the ladder
were driven by people with alot slower reaction times than me...
Here are some other cars in my class
There were a whole heap of beetles at site. Many even came from Norway even though there were
a massive beetle jam at Mantorp, some 300km south of where we were now.
That tells pretty much about the popularity of the track Kjula Dragway.
Unfortunally Sunday's eliminations can be told in one word. Showers.
Lots of time were spent in the pit waiting...
My oponent in the first run had given up and went home by the time it was time for our first run,
so I got a solo. Sky was darker than ever and to save on the car and track time I did a short burnout,
ran 60ft and then quickly back into the pits.
Shortly after our class had run it came a massive shower.
Track dryed, more rain, track dryed, more rain...
Thats how the rest of the day went on.
For this race a proffesional track prepare man were hired, called Lee Child.
As soon as the track were dry and it seemed safe to run he took the trackbite trailer for a spray.
Many teams including mine and myselfe too for that matter misjudged the situation badly.
When we saw the track was dry we thought it was safe to race, but infact the brake section
of the track (wich is in asfalth) was not dry at all. When we thought we were waiting for the trackbite
to suck into the track, we were actually waiting for the breaking part of the track to dry from whater.
No one told us and since we have always ben satisfyed with the traction previous races,
we couldnt see the point in shanging the way to prep the track.
Ofcourse there is always a point in making something good even better.
We just didnt see it at the time, when black clouds seemed to just wait for the track to dry
so they could spoil our day with yet another shower...
We apologise for any hard words or critisicm in this matter.
In normal cases I would probably have left this part out in this translation,
but since maby some of you readers have already translated the swedish version,
it feels fair if I tell the complete story to you who havent ben quick enough to use google translator...
Right after 16.00 the competition was cancelled.
Right after that all clouds went away, and were replaced by blue sky...
Just like the weather wanted to tell us whos in charge.
This was the first race we didnt have to renovate the gearbox this year.
A minor adjustment on the cluch might hopefully be the reason,
and if were right the gearbox dont have to be taken apart until winter.
If it stays in one piece even if I shift as fast as I know I can,
its only a matter of time until we can beat our old record 8,99.
It would be awsome if we could do it here at Kjula Raceway in August!
Photo: Malin "Mallan" Ulfves och eget.
