CSRG CHARITY CHALLENGE 2020, THE EXPLODED VIEW

Photo by Patrick Krohn

Fires, viruses, pestilence, locusts, they threw it all at us, yet we still raced.
Friday’s Test day was cancelled by the track ownership due to bad smoke conditions from the local Sonoma/Napa fires. Strict COVID protocol was required with multiple liability wavers, masks, social distancing, no spectators, no Club gatherings, temps in the 90s, etc, etc. But CSRG still did a great job pulling off a Sat/Sun race weekend under the prevailing conditions. Participation was understandably less than usual, but we still had enough cars for some good racing.
On the first lap of Saturday morning’s Qualifying I had a CV joint disintegrate leaving me stranded and needing a tow back to the pits. With the help of the guys at Auto Spa, and fellow racer Mike Summers, I was able to get the axle removed/repaired/reinstalled just in time for the Saturday afternoon race. Had to start last but had a lot of fun working my way up through the pack. The repairs were sound and we had two more good races on Sunday.
One of my favorite parts of a race weekend is to wander the pits and garages, saying ‘Hi’ to my fellow racers and their crews while they are prepping their cars. It’s a great time to get some photos of cars in their exploded view of disassembly.

Sounds of Sonoma by The Racing Ear

The full Race Report:
So Friday afternoon’s Test was cancelled due to high AQI, pretty smokey skies, but we didn’t know that until the Friday 12:30pm Driver’s Mtg. I had got to the track early to set up and prep the car, so at this point I just went home and did some chores. I had last year’s tires on for Friday, so I just left them on for the Saturday morn Qualy. I was first in line at the grid for our Saturday 8:30am session, climbed the T2 hill, shifted into 2nd, heard a clunk/grind and started losing drive. By the top of T3 no drive at all, coasted down to the dragstrip for post-session recovery, arghh!! While the shop was repairing my cracked chassis/suspension last month, I had them swap in a different 2nd gear set in case I didn’t have time to later, so my first thought was they screwed up the gear swap (nope, my bad). I opened the gearbox, everything looked good, rocked the car and noticed the pinion shaft didn’t turn, oh no, is it a broken shaft? Nope, ended up a broken CV joint, as the stub axle was turning but the halfshaft wasn’t. Removed the whole axle, opened the CV, and found the cage disintegrated. The boys at Auto Spa came by, and said to bring it up to their shop. They had customer cars to work on, but pointed out the tools and spares and said “get to it”. I hammered off the axle end, found a spare CV cage in their spares bin, lost a ball so found a spare one too. Put it all back together with their guidance, and then thought “I’ll just race tomorrow”. Back down to the pits, started reassembly, and a fellow sportsracer friend who’s Lotus 23b broke came by and said he’d button the gearbox up if I wanted to try and make the 12:30 Race. So off we went, finished just as they were calling us to grid. Started at the back as I had no Qualifying time, so it worked out fine rolling to the grid late. I started last (well actually two other late arrivals behind me) and had fun working my way up to 3rd, on last year’s tires ;-). Brakes started to fade 2/3 of the way through, backed off for a lap and they came back, darn, thought I had cured that problem, hmmm…

So I now had the afternoon to clean up my tornadoed pit from the thrash, and change to my used, but better, tires. Found the left front tire would barely turn??? Disassembly found that when the magnesium upright was redrilled after repair, the caliper mounted just a bit tight to the rotor. No contact when cold but dragged when hot, hmm how to fix? No lathe to cut down the rotor, don’t want to disassemble the caliper, so how about we slot the upright hole with a small bit in a cordless drill? Worked perfect. I also remounted my front brake ducts that I had left off thinking I had cured my brake problem through other measures. It was a long, hot day, and I was pooped but feeling good. A small gathering of the USRRC sports racer boys at the Huffaker shop for a beer was a good wind down. Headed home for a well deserved shower.

Sunday morning Race (CSRG now runs three races per wknd, two Qual Races and a Feature Race, each grid determined by previous race) goes great, finished 4th battling Jonathan Rosenthal’s Lotus 23b and Chip Fudge’s Genie Comet (V8 powered, I had him in the corners and brake zones, he had me on the straights). Sunday afternoon’s race has me gridded behind a Porsche 910 (2+L), the V8 Genie, and the 23b. The wknd had started with 23 cars but now we’re down to 13 through attrition. The 910 and Lotus are late to grid and have to start from the back, so lookie here, I’m on the front row ;-) The Genie launches, I catch him by T2 knowing I gotta get by him before his tires warm up. I outbreak him into T11, and damn, I’m in the overall lead! He makes a mistake on lap 2 trying to get back to me, gets loose but stays on track, and backs up those behind him. I charge as hard as I can but he finally gets back by me on the very last lap up the dragstrip straight between the Carousel and T7. Ah well, P2 overall, P1 in Class. Brakes worked perfect for the first time, it was great to run a full, long, hot race with no fade at all. I had a couple of money shifts, but car still seems to run fine so hoping I got away lucky. My crew chief Chris was there for Sunday to help with breaking down the pit and loading, it was much appreciated. Great frickin’ wknd!