We had a successful first national event this past weekend at the DC ProSolo. Bumblestook competed in BSP driven by Hez and myself and also in L1 (combined with L3) by Tamra Hunt. We had a perfect 1, 2 team finish in BSP with Hez taking his first ProSolo win, me coming a close second, and Tamra fighting a good uphill battle (literally) and ended up taking a podium 3rd in the L1/L3 combined Ladies class.
Hez taking the BSP win at the DC ProSolo - 5/15/2016
We left bright and early on Friday for FedEx field but took our time since the forecast for the day was rain in the afternoon so we figured we wouldn't be able to get any practice starts anyway. When we arrived we were surprised that the weather was holding up so we took the opportunity to put on our competition tires and get 2 practice starts each. With an uphill start, fairly slick sealed asphalt surface, and the new LED start lights used in ProSolo this year, getting the RPM and timing right would be critical to getting good times. We found launching at around 6000rpm at the 3rd yellow light to be most effective allowing enough tire spin to minimize potential damage to the differential. We also took on a last minute change, bringing Tamra onboard to run Bumblestook in Ladies class. This would give us both an opportunity to get early valuable feedback on the car's balance since Ladies class always runs first and give us a shot at winning more tires. I don't normally just let anyone drive Bumblestook. The minimum requirement is that you own a S2000 yourself but I also have to feel you gel well with the car. In this case Tamra both owns a S2000 and drove the car late last year as part of my annual "beehive" where I was able to see up front whether the respect for the car was there so I felt comfortable letting her take the reins this time.
Lining up for starts
Practice Starts - 5/13/2016
We walked the course and was surprised because ProSolos are supposed to have no more than a 150ft straight after the start before the left and right courses split (http://www.scca.com/articles/1999456-2016-prosolo-plans-a-letter-from-howard-duncan-senior-director-of-solo-and-rally). This is to make the courses more fair and not favor just high power cars. Instead, what we found was almost a 500ft straight going uphill and only a few simplistic corners and a small slalom at the finish. This was super bad news for us because we produce the least torque of all the cars in BSP. It's true a BSP S2000 is fairly light but we give up a lot of forward acceleration with our big wheels (heavy rotating mass) in order to do transitions very quickly and make just marginally more power over STR.
Ready to race - Day 1 - DC ProSolo
Day 1 morning heat started and Tamra took her first runs. She was still getting used to the car and put in relatively safe runs slotting her into 4th. In the afternoon, she found much more pace (as did others) as the tracks got rubbered in and the temps had risen to a comfortable 75F and moved up into 3rd spot, only 0.2 seconds away from 2nd and 0.5 seconds away from 1st. For my runs, I found the right side course much easier to read and put down a good right side run but got lost on my first left side and overshot the turn around on my 2nd run while simultaneously coning to make matters worse. Hez put in a nice quick time on the left side right out of the gate but struggled with the right side course. Unfortunately our run group was running last and we got hit with a torrential downpour with howling winds in the afternoon and we opted to skip the afternoon runs and not risk damaging the car. Hez was faster than me on the left side by half a second but I was faster than him on the right side by a full second so I found myself in the lead going into day 2 by half a second. My left side runs were all dirty and so were Hez's right side runs.
Incredible "after the storm" sunset photo of Bumblestook Photo credit: Alejandro Aviles
Hopeful that day 2 would yield faster times, we were faced with a big challenge of trying to get tire temps up as the ambient temperatures had dropped into the 40s with winds strong enough to blow cones around on their own. This was especially bad news for Tamra who would have to run 1st heat (8am) and despite doing some burn outs, the grip just wasn't there and she was unable to find more time leaving the positions where they were on day 1. Due to various timing delays and our group running last, the temps had risen a bit by the time we ran. I did a safe first left side run just to get a clean one in the books and then tried for a faster run dropping another 1.5 seconds. I was unable to improve on my right side runs from the day before though. I was sitting in the lead by 1.7 seconds on the class but Hez would now run and he would be going out with a warm tire advantage running just 10 minutes from when I finished my runs. His first runs showed no improvement on the left side and on the right side, he needed a clean run but red lit his first run with a 0.491 reaction time. On the now fully warmed tires, in his final runs he was able to find another 0.1 seconds on the left side course but was still trailing me on the right. All he needed was a good clean run and he did by dialing it back a little and playing safe. Looking at the times I was faster than him on the right by about half a second and he was faster than me on the left by about half a second. The result...he was able to just bump me for the win with a 0.038 second margin. This was the smallest margin class win for the weekend. Tamra got to the 2nd round in the Ladies challenge before she got eliminated by a red light on the right side. Both Hez and I got into the Super Challenge but were both eliminated in round 1.
Cone murderer - DC ProSolo 2016 Photo credit: Perry Aidelbaum (autox4u.com)
It was a well deserved first ProSolo class win for Hez and more importantly, the win secured two tires from Hoosier, some lunch money from Honda for Hez and a voucher from Hawk that we'll use to get more brake pads for Bumblestook. Good weekend all around with all drivers securing trophies and happy we were able to defend Bumblestook's win from the last DC ProSolo in 2014. Hez and I still need to work on getting faster. Tamra showing us why she's the 2015 CSPL National Champion by skirting both of us despite running in less ideal conditions.
Team Bumblestook for the DC ProSolo 2016
Bumblestook BSP Fastest Runs - DC ProSolo 2016
Tamra's Fast Runs in L1 - DC ProSolo 2016
Although Bumblestook survived the event, we did encounter some engine misfires/sputtering during the challenge rounds. At first we though it was bad/low fuel and thankfully James Dunham did us a soild by rushing to the gas station to pick up more fuel for us. That didn't seem to specifically cure the problem. This was showing up as a P0373 CEL code in the Haltech ECU. I'll need to get in touch with Evans Tuning to see what they might think is causing it. It was intermittent and I'm now suspecting it might even be caused by a loose ground to the battery. After we got back to storage, when I was taking the battery out, I found I was able to pull the terminal off without loosening the bolt (that was already so tight it was hard to untighten). I'll address that as a first solution since electrical gremlins are best solved by fixing the obvious issues first.
Again, I want to thank all those who have helped through the years build and maintain Bumblestook into the glorious machine she is today. Big thanks to Evans Tuning, SJF Performance, Karcepts, ANZE Suspension, Josefis Racing, Hoosier, Hawk Peformance and Honda. We're into year 3 of racing Bumblestook in her current full BSP trim and we've only had to do very minor maintenance. I'd say the reliability has been very good for a car where every moment we take her out she's pushed to her limit. Out next National event will be the Toledo ProSolo in a month. Looking forward to taking this battle on concrete.
