2019 Sebring 7+7 Recap
LOVERACING
RACE RECAP
2019 Sebring 7+7
Love Racing #647
ChampCar
- Nicholas Love
- January 30, 2020
Every race begins with the prep of the car and getting it loaded up and delivered to the track…
UNTIL NOW...
Our previous race at Harris Hill in Tx went very well leading to a 7th and 4th place overall finishes (2nd place in class each day). The only major item we wanted to address from that race was the front tire braking grip as we ran more negative camber than ever before (-4 deg) and ended up flat spotting the tires.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE
Before any event, it’s important to make sure your car is fast and safe. New front tires, engine oil, and alignment hardware were purchased to re-fresh the car for Sebring, a track which we have never driven before. With the car aligned and everything packed up and I began towing the car from South Carolina to Florida with Charles, also known as the STIG.
ENDURANCE
Just like any race from the SAE Student days, the journey to the actual event is an arduous one and an event all in itself. Dragging the trailer filled with a race car and plenty of tools and spare parts, the 7.5 hour journey was without issue and we made it to Sebring, only stopping for gas and a nap in the back of the truck.
DAY 1: RAIN & ISSUES
Rain and a wet track made for a very interesting time to learn the track for all our drivers. We sent out our fastest/most experienced driver for the first stint who quickly mentioned that grip levels out there were very low. The two hours were littered with cars exiting turn 17 and hitting the slick drag strip lines near start/finish and crashing into the walls. 4-5 cars ended up completely totaled here so we made sure all our drivers knew to stay in the middle line or get off throttle if needed. Typically, we can only make ~1:40 stints due to fuel but with the rain and cautions we were able to run a full 2 hours. Our second and third drivers finished their stints with a few offs, spins, and a very close slide near the wall. We were around the top 5 in class when it was time for my stint with only an hour left in the race. Pit stop goes well and everything is good until I exit our pit stall and the engine will barely run. I’m able to limp it back to our paddock where we begin to diagnose the issue. It’s extremely lean and won’t run. It was raining pretty good during our pit stop when we had the hood up so we decided it was either the fuel we put in or something shorted out in the rain. We swapped the fuel pump, checked fuel pressure, checked injectors, etc without finding the cause. I decided that we just needed more fuel for some reason, so I tuned the engine to basically have 100% duty cycle at WOT to get to our AFR targets and we had a running car before the Sunday race. I took some logs and it seemed passable.
DAY 2: TESTING & CONTACT!
Sunday morning, I pulled out the laptop and did a couple more pulls in the pits to see how she was running and we were still getting pretty lean above ~6000RPM. We bumped up our fuel pressure and were finally able to hit our targets. Car was ready to go for the start of the race and I hopped in because I didn’t get a stint the day before. I went out for the parade laps and the car is running WAY too rich. I pulled back in the pits and leaned the fuel tables out and went back on track. Car was still running way too rich and bogging over 5000 RPM and I just so happened to pull out of the pits right in front of the fast leaders. Exiting turn 3 I stayed far right to let everyone pass when a Camaro hits the door with its front right tire, my first ever contact in over 7 races. I get around the track and pulled back into the pits and re-iterated some tuning and a few pulls into the paddock until she was running well enough. This took us ~15-20 minutes and we were in last place.
DAY 2: SOLVED...KIND OF
Finally, I made it out on track where I missed some braking zones and spun once but it started to dry out and I learned the track and had a good solid session of mostly dry weather. I pull the car into the pits and when the next driver hops in, the same issue pops right back up. Too lean and won’t rev up. We decided we must have had bad fuel maybe contaminated by water. We decided to drain the tank and get fresh fuel from a local gas station. Upon inspection of the car while we were waiting we found that our wing mounts welds had begun to break so we decided to remove the win and in ~30 min we were back on track. We knew we were no longer in contention, so we just went out and had fun racing. Overall, we finished the race with no other major issues and had tons of fun.
WRAPPING UP
While we didn’t finish well, the car didn’t have any mechanical issues and each driver was able to have stints so overall, we were pretty happy with the event. This is more of a power track and with our little 1.6l engine, we now know that we probably won’t be able to be competitive here in the future.
- DRIVERS -
Thomas Love Jr
Sean Suputra
Charles Kowalczyk
- CREW -
Mary Love