When I bought the LOLA six months ago I did one short 3-session test at Sonoma and one 2-day race at Willow Springs, but it has been sitting ever since. So I did a little prep last week just to make sure it was up for a wknd at the track.
Got to the track Friday morning for the afternoon test, three sessions, each about 15 minutes. Sonoma Raceway was hot and sunny this wknd, mornings about 70F, afternoons about 90F. I was close enough with my gearing guess to not change gears at the track, but will fine tune it a bit for my next visit. Was running the tires I bought when I bought the car, so 7 sessions and a summer in the trailer on them. I know the track, so that is not an issue, just learning the car. And boy-oh-boy, it is a hoot to drive! Just toss it around like a Formula Ford, a little push when you enter too hot, a little loose when you chuck it in, transitions left to right with no issues. Plenty of g-force to let you know you’re in a real race car, and the lap times are about the same as the FFs. I’ve got some hot spots from banging around in the old fiberglass bucket seat, so a padded seat is definitely in my future.
CSRG had 220 cars for their annual Charity event, some Groups back to full status (FF, BS, EP-DP), but some Groups still undersubscribed. They had us S2000s in with Group 7 (Wings & Slicks), so Formula Atlantics, F5000, CanAm, etc, a bit outgunned but a good group to run with, and only a dozen or so cars so not an issue with traffic. Maui was there in his Super 2000, and Ernie Spada (the Portland strawberry guy with 6(!!!) S2000s) brought a 100-point restoration Tiga SC83 (?), outboard suspension but enclosed rear wheels, frickin’ gorgeous. I did a lot of running by myself after the first laps as we all got sorted out by performance levels.
Saturday Timed Practice went well, as did the Saturday Qual Race. A little racing the first lap, then just me working on learning the car and improving lap times. Ran to the checkers both sessions. Best lap of the day a 1:49. My transponder intermittently malfunctioned all wknd, showed me a DNF for Saturday so starting back of the grid for Sunday, but wasn’t worth correcting at this event.
For the Sunday Warm-up Race (interesting format, they flag the ‘race’ but it doesn’t count for anything so you can use it as a warm-up or a race, I like it) and Sunday’s Flag Race I put on fresh tires, ooo la la, very nice! Got down into the 1:47s. Race Hero still not correct due to my transponder, but I got good Solo data from my unit all wknd. Sunday’s Flag race was a mess as you can see from Maui’s video, a TON of oil dry left on the track after a last lap oil-down in the previous race. We sat in the sun for half an hour on the grid (with no umbrella) waiting for the clean up, such is racing, arghh… Yeah, it was an old English car that marked it’s territory 😂
Didn’t get to do any dicing after the first lap, but very happy with how things went. Always lots to learn with a new car. Loading is a pain even with ramps, that nose is lowwww. Wheel changes require different lug nuts and washers for each set, so gotta learn that routine. Lost the tach one session but ended up just being a loose connection. Water temp gauge gets jiggy sometimes, so another loose wire to find somewhere. Had a little rear body contact with the timing belt wheel when the bodywork got hot/soft, so had to build a block on top of the valve cover to prevent it. All just new car stuff. But handling, braking, drivetrain, all very good. Old motor just giving me what she’s got left, but no leaks or sputters, so just run it hard as these engines are pretty bulletproof. Looking forward to many more events in my new car.
photo by Tony Hejnicki
photo by Cliff Mills
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