i don’t even know where to start i am so excited when writing this!

we had a “pro formula mazda” test day september 4th, a full day for testing, changing one thing at a time, you know well planned specific testing with seven potential changes on the agenda and was it productive!

before I get into it i have to say that the new guys on the team…….well they just aren’t behaving like new guy’s at all. watching them yesterday….. it was a team that was in sync to be sure. good on ya boys, great job!

so to get on with it, we arrive, unload the car and equipment, check the car alignment, make a toe change and were out for our first test.

test session 1.

we started with the springs and sway bar settings that gave us our best results to date, took all the  aero out of the car, no down force at all. first 10 laps done, we come in and make a change, a front spring change, we went with a stiffer spring same sway bar settings. out on the track for session 2.

test session 2.

and what a great change it was. the car now turns in more on a knife edge so to speak and we lost some of the rear loose condition we had. also we got some heat into the tires…and this is the sick part, we are getting excited about hitting 140 degree tire temps. anyway, lap times improved, got some good baseline front and rear sway bar settings and the car is running well.

test session 3.

we put some rear wing into the car, about 2.5 degrees and went out, car was OK but we lost a little straight line speed, about .3 MPH….but the car was feeling quite strong. come in, review data again to make some changes…more rear wing.

why more rear wing? well our data guys, shawn and garry reviewed the previous sessions corner exit speeds, the GG plot, shock plots and they felt a little more aero in the rear just may give us added down force that would get rid of the rear loose condition, give us more corner bite thus more heat in the tires thereby giving us more stick and hopefully quicker lap times even though we would likely loose a little more straightaway speed. we have left the sway bars alone at this time as we are still seeking the correct spring rates for this track.

test session 4.

we got our tire temps to an average of 160 degrees  , we increased our straight line speed by 1mph and we did quicker lap times. you see, the addition of more rear wing got rid of the little loose condition and allowed the car to hook up better all though the turns and this results higher tire temps, higher temps mean better stick and way better corner exit speeds. better corner exit speeds means i am carrying more speed into the straightaway and as a result a quicker lap time with a higher top speed. the change worked great and i was surprised at the outcome…..not that we had a quicker lap time but of so much greater straightaway speed in the presence of more rear wing in the car, that said, we will take those results all day long!

it was a really great day, shawn seems to be getting the data sorted really quite well. garry knows the infrastructure of our MOTEC system really well,  shawn knows how to read the data, look for trends and recommend chassis changes from the dynamic data we have just collected and finally we are really using the data to make the car go faster. in the past we collected data, we looked at the data, did some changes and had to go back to the data to see the outcome. no one on the team really was able to interpret the data in a meaningful way. yesterday we used data to take the car in the direction that would make it handle better and go faster with confidence. each change was based on the data collected by the system, reviewed and some  applied chassis dynamics by shawn and  changes were completed on the car and did it work well or what? we knew why we were making changes regardless of driver input, data reveals what’s really going on versus what the driver may report what’s going on. shawn could,  from the chassis dynamics  see what was really happening, he also recommended some changes i could do in the cockpit and then showed me the improvement on a gg data envelope plot right after each session, we were now using all the tools we have at our disposal, it was just a great day! i know more challenges are ahead but this test day has helped us alot so far.

test session 5.

we added a little more rear down force, another 2.5 degrees and went out. we were sharing the track with closed wheel cars all day so it was difficult to get a clear lap and it was the last session of the day but we thought …..why not? well we never did get a clear enough lap to see if the last change was better or not as there was just too much traffic but we did have have some excitement! i noticed a rear vibration when i was leaving the pit, a vibration big enough for me to feel at lower speeds but it seemed to go away at higher speeds…or so i thought. 2 laps into the session i notice in my left rear view mirror that the left rear tire has a wear pattern that’s not typical, i continue on but this wear pattern is starting to really get bad, i continue on and am going through a chicane at about 80 mph and then boom, the car pitches hard to the left and i am in the weeds on my way into the swamp….i finally get a hold of the car and get it back on the track but something on the rear left has let go. as i limp back to the pit…about 1/2 a mile i hear the grinding dragging sound of the car on the track surface….i am sitting in the cockpit thinking about what could have let go, how bad it was….how much dough-rae-me it will cost to fix….ugh…anyway, i get the car back to our pit and it isn’t that bad. a broken left rear push rod, the diffuser is a little hurt, the splitter tray needs to be replaced, the wood floor is all but done (we have a jabroc wood floor on the underside of the car to protect the carbon tub floor) and the car looks like it has just gone through a weed field…..i guess it should because…well …it was just through a weed field! we reviewed our rear video and it was clear that the push rod had fatigued most likely in test session 4 and simply continued to stress and ultimately fail (really glad it wasn’t driver error). anyway, a bad end to a great day but in hind sight it was one hell of a good test day, not even the broken push rod and incidental damage could take the smile off our faces! the car ran great, the guys did a fantastic job, we got the car to handle better and go faster. we are now using our data in the most productive way we ever have and these were the objectives…just a great day, just great!

and before i forget i would like to thank erica, vicky and doug reader from XPS construction (one of our advertisers, vicky is a project manager for XPS) for coming out…. and in team shirts no less, thanks for that…it was great to have you there even it was only for little bit! go to our gallery and you can see a photo of erica in the car with dad, doug along side, vicky took the picture. thanks again for coming out, we love it when you do. also our new web master, zach was out and mike from rotary engine .com. hope you guys had some fun as well.

so have we found the “elusive sweet spot” for car set up…..no…. not yet but we are going in the right direction finally, the car and i are getting along a little better and it may be real soon we report……we found it! 

Blairica

recently we raced the pro formula mazda in Namao Alberta at the Military base and on the runways. to say we were excited to get the car on a smooth surface,  with the potential for high down force aero settings would be an understatement! we really want to see if we can get this car to stick to the track.

we started the weekend with a PR stop at SEKO Construction located in Edmonton. a stop at the office and we rolled the car out, put on the slicks and fired the car up. many of the employees were excited to see the car and were…. well, a little taken aback by the sound and look of this race car.  it looks great and it sounds even better. once everyone had a look at the car it was on to the grass boulevard for a photo shoot in front of the SEKO / PERMASTEEL signage where i must admit, attracted alot of people who were simply driving down the road. clearly the boys from SEKO have many, many friends in the area as both Kurt and Stelly were asked by several who drove by, what’s up with that race car and the SEKO name on it? it really did have many stop in their tracks to view the car.

on to the race weekend…..

we started out ok but very soon after set up we were chasing the corner weights on the chassis platform and unfortunately had to go out with the corner weights about 30 lbs difference from side to side on both ends on the car….or so we thought.

we practised OK then when it was time to qualify we still had the same main issues we seem to always have had….no heat in the tires, its unbelievable how cold these tires stay… none the less, we went out, our target was to be quicker than a very very quick Stohr DSR ran by Guy Marris. his car is quick and when we were at the base 2 years ago in our formula continental we ran a 1:09 second lap and he ran a 1:06 so the 1:06 was the target…..little did I know he ran a 1:04 at the base last year (we were not at that race) so the bar had moved so to speak without us really knowing it had moved. so in qually, i had yet to get heat into the tires on this car in the earlier session, went out and tried our best. well it simply wasn’t good enough, Guy qualified fastest with a 1:03.8 and we qualified second quick with a 1:04.1, 3/10th’s away, so close but still really far away. the DSR is a tunnel car which means it sticks to the track surface as soon as it starts to move regardless of tire stickiness (stickiness…is that a word?). he set his fast lap on lap 4, we set our fast lap on lap 14, the last lap of qually. man i wish could get heat into the tires sooner and to a much higher temp than we are getting!

the racing on saturday is really in preparation for the WCMA trophy race on sunday so dialing the car in meant we would have to miss a few races on saturday afternoon chasing the platform set up as the set up was just bad….or so we thought.

we chased corner weights and when we were moving weight around from corner to corner nothing was making sense. we would turn weight up and get no change in the weight. after about 3 hours of getting nowhere we rolled the car off the platform and checked the platform for being 100% level and not only had the platform shifted and went out of level, we also had a few very small pebbles find there way under 2 of the scale pads! pissed off would work here but also relief as now it made some sense as to why we were going nowhere. fast forward an hour, set the scale to level, roll the car back on and we were back in business. when i think back, the car was most likely scaled correctly before the platform challenge but we will never know now.

this was also the first travel race for our new team members, garry, matt, nathan and shawn so they did not know what to expect. all systems were working on the car and before I forget, we also had a fresh motor in the car as rotary engine.com did a rebuild for us in 3 days and in fact were quite taken by this race car and decided to add their name to our growing list of advertisers and sponsors of the car….welcome rotary engine.com, adam and staff, mike and ryan.

the boys did a great job for being newbies and I think they had some fun….i sure hope so.

as racing began I must say I was not getting along with car that well. I looped it (that’s code for spin) a few times in race one, still managed a class second place and third overall but that is just not acceptable to me. on we go to the next race and sure enough…..did some high speed canola planting at about 125 mph, another pirouette or two. man i had more spinning going on than you would would see at a ballet.

we never did get the car back to our qually time on saturday. sunday we felt was a new day, wicked smoke in the air from the fires burning in BC and really not as good air as it was saturday. quick times evaded us as the best I could muster was a 1:05.2.

wcma trophy race comes, warm up lap, car feels ok, not great but ok. we get the green flag, we are starting from row 1 outside grid position with guy marris on pole, green flag and we are racing. i go down the inside of guy into turn 1 and take the lead, we are able to hold the lead for……. not even a lap before guy pulls out beside me on the last short back straight and then adios to guy and his dsr. that car makes the coolest sound when its at full song and your right beside it!  all i see of him the rest of the race are his tail lights. secure in 2nd, still first in our class i took it easy and tried not to spin the car. jorgen krausewas in third spot right behind me, waiting to capitalise on any mistake i would make. thankfully my mistakes were small and once i got some rhythm we were able to leave him when we wanted to but to my surprise he was much faster than i thought andwhen i slowed he would be right back up to me about 10 car lengths behind. this really shouldn’t be as the pro mazda is more car than his tattus, not to take away from his driving ability as he is good but it really is testament to us not finding the elusive sweet spot with the car set up. i just cant get any heat in the tires….its bloody awfulto drive, anyway as luck would have it, we ended up first in our class, second overall for the day.

not too bad but still nowhere even close to getting this car and i together. we just have yet to connect. what i and all race car drivers seek is to be one with the car. for those who are reading this, who have raced you know what i am speaking of. man, when you hit the sweet spot in a race car you know it, you feel it and the car tells you as a driver that you can pass on the high side, the low side or anywhere you want to basically. hard to explain but when you get it right…..it’s just feels right!

sooooo, on we go. more testing, more practice, more testing more practice. i hope we can get the set up right and real soon as the race season is going fast. shawn has asked if he can help garry in using the on car data to augment his efforts in using data to set up the car (this is really what the data is for) and so he now has that opportunity. shawn and matt are studying mechanical engineering at the u of c and recently both attended (on their own dime i might add) a 3 day claude ruelle race car dynamics data seminar in Indianapolis so bring it on boys! lets see if it was money well spent

that’s it for now, we have 2 more races to attend and a few more test days. i look foward  to the day i will be reporting….THE SWEET SPOT HAS BEEN FOUND!……. soon, real soon…..

Blairica (there’s a long story behind this moniker,maybe one day we will share it with you)

pintos rock and mazdas really do go zoom zoom! and does it suck fuel or what!

well its official, we are the 2009 Alberta Champion in the Western Canadian Motorsports Association, Formula Continental racing class.

this is really kooky. first we were not even trying for this series championship as we were hoping to see other competitors in different racing series on the west coast, secondly, even though we scored the most points in the series, because we didn’t travel to one of the out of town races on the wcma calender we are NOT eligible for the overall title. we used the races locally for testing and practice. we raced in calgary 3 race weekends (most competitors accumulated points over 5 race weekends in the series) and won all 6 races (2 point races per weekend) that we started and the really cool thing here is the last race weekend, we started all weekend  from the back of the pack and won all 4 races. wait……is that the phone…….could it be Roger Penske calling? no…….. it was flavio briatorre darn it! LOL. I told him he had the wrong number!

i would like to congratulate the overall champion (even though we had more points than him, 44, just had to get that in), miles mcewing with 43 points and 2nd place congratulations to stephen ross with 40 points and in third place and his rookie year, bruce jones with 16 points. and now also is the time to say that all the guys in OW in the WCMA, this year, in my opinion, really improved their driving and car preparation, kudos to all of you guys! very well done boys.

I cannot forget the race volunteers, corner workers and officials in Mission BC, Calgary, Edmonton and Gimli, who without you we don’t race. KUDOS to all and thank you.

in closing as i reflect back, we had a pretty good season, we set track records again when we were at new tracks, we got our car running very very well and i as an individual really grew this year (now i am 5’5″ , almost stephen ross size), kidding, kidding. but seriously i did learn some lessons from my crew and a better way of over coming obstacles and challenges when adversity strikes so a special thanks to you guys as well. who knew you could learn from the young! ”you guys” are, ashton, jes, myles, jesse 3 times and hostage (aka haus, aka jacob).

and finally, for all of you who advertise and support us, a HUGE and i mean a HUGE kudos! kiss hug (only for the women), handshake and high 5 to you men. OK, credit card bob gets a kiss but only 1 and on the cheek. who’s mass macho now???

Blairica

hello race fans,

he we are with our first race post. this web site has taken some time but Tadah!

ok, this past weekend we had what looks like the final race at Race City….forever as the track is going bye bye. last time we were there you may remember that we won but it wasn’t pretty as the car had no jump, no power. (we qualified well so that is what saved us). that was attributed to a poor on board battery, (we don’t have alternators / charging systems on this type of race car) and as it happens that was the case. the old battery provided enough spark to fire the car but not enough to get a full fuel burn in the combustion chambers sooo less power. last time out I could not get the car below the 1.20:00 second lap times. try as I might and I drove the wheels off the car trying.

fast forward four weeks, back at the same track, the car was back and our lap times were back in the 17′s and low 1:18.00′s.

Qualifying

we had a good practice, my back, still in bad shape survived and as I said the car was back, we got into the 17′s straight away. with lap times and scoring the race officials use a transponder that is mounted on the car and it sends a signal to race control every time we go by the start finish line. as it happens, no one in scoring told us our transponder was not working in practice so we were under the assumption it was working and in fact it was not! out for qualifying and I get a “no time”. man was I mad! the guys worked so hard on the car and then this. anyway on the track, our on board data had shown me that we did a 1.17:60 and I felt that no one in my class was near there so I came in early. really didn’t matter, coming in early, as they had no times on us….none and I knew we were the fastest. sure enough the no time puts us in 14th position on the starting grid. we were all quite shocked.

being that we qualify only once per weekend at this track, that meant for the entire weekend our starting position for the 4 races would be 14th.  swell!

Race 1

if there ever was a team that was up to the challenge, it’s us. we work hard on the prep of the car, buy good parts and I am a very competitive shy fellow as you know! the boys were strapping me in the car I was still smokin mad. we hit the track, warm up lap and then come out of the carousel (turn 12) getting ready for the green flag. the starter waves the green and we are racing. based on who was in front of me and which side of the track they were on I decided to go far left and go right up the inside. as luck would have, it worked, we went from 13th to 6th by the first turn. I have to say that the talent pool of the competitors is getting much better, the other guys are knowing their cars better and are getting quicker to be sure. so here we are, 6th place and I am pushing hard, finally I get by a 2.0 Renault and there are four left in front of me, by the fourth lap we are in 2nd place and I am coming hard. I catch first place but these cars are so equal in horsepower I just don’t have enough to get by him out of the draft, in fact he pulls away from me when I am not in his draft. so I had to rely on pressure and pressure I did. I was all over this guy, literally, one foot away at full race pace in some of the video we have and for alot of laps. a really cool thing about these cars are if you get close enough to the guy in front, he can hear you but can’t see you in his mirrors, once i see him looking for me in his mirrors the pass is mine to be had, he’s no longer solely focusing on the race but now also the defence he needs to employ to prevent me from over taking. sure enough, he was looking, I was pressuring, we went three or four laps, he started to block me several times per lap, I changed my line several times, back and fourth, side to side, he would counter with a block, he was driving the wide line, a defensive line, I got him getting his car a little out of shape a few times, a really, really, wicked good battle, wait til you see the video. finally I was able to get a handle on where he was weakest, down the front straight I pull him to the right of the track, get in his draft, get really really close and then I pull out into clean air, move to inside (left) and I was able to get by under braking going into turn one at 130 MPH. wicked good racing, the people in the stands had to be enjoying the racing because it was close, fast and there was racing all over the track in the various packs. it was the most fun I have had in a race car for a long time and the first real battle I have had with the guys in the Formula Continental class.

once we got by, we left him, our car is very stable in high speed corners, handles really well and it really sticks. we said bye bye shortly there after. I think we had 20 seconds over him at the checkered flag. it has a bit of lack luster end but I can assure you it was exciting. a real battle, WOW!

Race 2

see above

Race 3

pretty much the same as earlier stated with one huge difference! the guy who I was battling most frequently for most of the race weekend so far, caved under some wicked pressure from us in the carouseland looped his car (that’s racer talk for spinning). he changed his driving line no less than three times trying to hold me off through this series of turns and on his last attempt, his cars weight shifted to the right rear wheel and he spun. I had to take evasive measures and had to go for a little field excursion and then get back on the track. Funny thing too, my wife rarely comes to the track but of course on this day, she was there and I mean right there. she was about 20 feet away from all this watching from behind the concrete wall. Not that there was any damage and I was not hurt but it was somewhat unnerving for her to watch as this is happening at about 65 MPH. and my rear video footage shows his car spinning out of control and just missed taking me out of the race by about 6 inches. I thought I was way passed him but we weren’t. anyway a little drama for yah!

Race 4

a little drama here too, my clutch started to slip and is pretty much gone I think. we were racing hard and had 1 car left to get by, he looped it and I drove by. after that I decided to go easy on the car and dial the lap time up to the 1:23 second lap time so I did…..until I look in my mirrors with three laps to go and who do I see coming hard, jorgen krause, ashton my crew chief gets on the radio and tells me to “pick up the pace” i did, took us down to the low 1:18′s and the clutch was really really slipping now, i was not shifting up or down with the clutch but it was still slipping. ash gets on the radio again and tells me to “relax, jorgen looped it” we dialed the lap time back up and limped home for the victory! i thought we were done!

In conclusion

it was the same on both days of racing, starting at the back of the Formula Continental grid, battling, dicing it up, getting through the pack and to the front. we did good, if ever there was a day for our advertiser / sponsors to be  happy to be on the car it was this past weekend. we did you all proud. we won all 4 races!

it’s one thing to keep a lead but its a whole new thing when you race to the front through 13 cars ahead of you and then leave them behind.

the crew were unbelievable all weekend, even in the presence of me being super mad at the transponder no time ordeal on Saturday, they stuck it out, did there jobs and we pulled through. really really great job……yah….what else can I say, they were fantastic, they were the champions this weekend. oh yah, my back, well lets say it didn’t fair as well as the rest of the weekend!

anyway, I hope you like the web site and now you can follow us on line any time you feel like a race update fix! I know how you all like the short stories I tell (Yah, sure, short stories, hah!) more like war and peace (LOL). we are working on getting race footage / still photos on to the site so please check back over the next few weeks when you have time. you can leave comments if you like, go to the ADVERTISER page and check your / our team ADVERTISER web site links, leave a message, hook up on the blog, add your opinions and stuff if you like. its a fairly easy and simple to  use site we think but please let us know your thoughts.

again, we can’t do this without your support and we thank you for it every day whether you know it or not. Thanks to all the advertisers and thanks to my crew, you are all champions in my book! I am a very fortunate guy!

so race fans until the next update don’t forget…..

PINTOS ROCK!

Blairica

Due to a non race related injury to Blair, Robertshaw Racing will not be able to attend the September 5th, 6th, and 7th race in Mission BC at Rivers Edge Raceway. We look forward to getting back out there soon!