Thunderhill Super Tour/US Majors

JasonIsley99

JasonIsley99

Well-known member
The third installment of the US Majors for the Western Conference and our BFGoodrich Tires Super Tour is just around the corner, and we look to have some solid car counts.

Glad to see a Region planning ahead, a split start is in the scheduled for those groups that have DOT and slicks together. 8)

http://www.motorsportreg.com/index.cfm/ ... 0Ldfsf7rbs
http://www.sfrscca.org/images/2014/Road ... lsched.pdf

13 Ackerman, Bruce F Production 1962 Volvo P1800 McGee Motor Sports Berkeley, CA
60 Correia, Albert F Production 1973 Porsche 914 914 club, JC Machining and Integrity Custom Finishing & Installation San Jose, CA
40 Hartman, Bill F Production 1963 Lotus Super 7 Yuba City, CA
47 Heitman, Jess F Production 1993 Mazda Miata Maz-Toy Auto Recycling/jesse prather motorsports Portland, OR
77 Huffaker, Joe F Production 1973 MG Midget Huffaker Engineering Petaluma, CA
4 Linn, Brian F Production Lotus Super Seven Hoosier/RedLine/Carbotech/Steve Hussey Hermosa Beach, CA
21 Okell, Bill F Production MG midget huffaker engineering, autolite, fram casrol Victoria, BC
48 Taylor, John F Production 1975 MG B Scotch & Vine/Autosport/Hoosier/Ericksons Des Moines, WA

5 Bachman, Mike H Production 1960 Sprite MK I Keeshond Racing San Jose, CA
98 Becker, Jon H Production 1967 Austin Mini Mini Part Martinez, CA
112 Casey, Patrick H Production 1958 Austin Healey Sprite Huffaker Engineering Kailua, HI
32 Cummings, Mike H Production 1964 Austin Hea Sprite DDM Cylinder Head / Red line Oil / Huffaker Eng. Hoosier Tires Martinez, CA
99 Isley, Jason H Production 2007 Toyota Yaris TRD/Hoosier/OS Giken/Racer.com/Driven Racing Oil Coto de Caza, CA
25 Jones, Gordon H Production 1968 BMW 1600 Mike Ohara BMW Service Tualatin, OR
11 Tuttle, Tom H Production 1972 MG Midget Huffaker Engineering, Insul-Therm International Inc. Windsor, CA
83 Verity, Neil H Production 1966 MG MGB Sunnyvale, CA

17 Carroll, Josh E Production 1986 Mazda RX7 Endsight Danville, CA
5 Downey, Aaron E Production 1976 Mazda RX-3 roundpeg.com/ Mazdaspeed Motorsports/ Carbotech/ JRI Shocks/ Avon Tires Rossmoor, CA
28 Jimerson, Tony E Production 1986 Mazda rx7 A.T. Mechanical benicia, CA
2 Royle, Philip E Production 1990 Mazda RX-7 CureSarcoma.org/Electromotive/Fuel Safe/Hoosier Winnetka, CA
91 Sacks, Steven E Production 1988 Mazda RX-7 San Francisco, CA
 
There are also 8 GTL's, but we're running in group 5 so little Joe H can run in both FP and GTL
 
Should be fun weekend. Over 240 cars signed up with good HP, FP groups with a few less in EP. Good GT crowds as well. Especially, not bad since we just had a run-offs qualifying regional at Laguna Seca last weekend with 4 HP, 4 FP and 8 EP cars and Buttonwillow is 2 weeks after the TH race. Busy early season. If your coming, don't forget to check out the progress on the expanded 2.5 mile addition called "Thunderhill west" which when connected will yield ~ 5 miles of race track. Looking forward to seeing everyone...

Neil
#83 HP MGB
 
Nearly 300 cars strong now, and all of the prod classes are looking good. The weather should be nice as well. Cant wait for the weekend to get here.
 
The FP race from yesterday:
1st - Brian Linn - Lotus Super 7 - 2:02.935
2nd - Bruce Ackerman - Volvo P1800 - 2:03.266
3rd - Joe Huffaker - MG Midget - 2:02.765
4th - Jess Heitman - Mazda Miata - 2:03.618

Awesome to see parity like that between those cars.


Today's race didn't seem quite as close, intermingled with a lot of the DOT-classed cars, with Huffaker winning, Ackerman 2nd again, and Linn in 3rd.
 
I heard that Hussey had work engagement. Strange since he's retired.

Jason, sorry you had to pit on the entrance road. We got there about 1 pm on Friday, and ended up towards the top of the drifting pad. Never been that far from the main buildings.

Neil, you GOT to find a better way to attach that starter.

My old GP spec motor from 2003 finally gave up the ghost. Had soo much oil blow-bye, that it would't start today @ impound, since most likely there was more oil in the intake than air / fuel.

Anybody got a VW Rabbit they want to rent me for Buttonwillow in 2 weeks?
 
blamkin86":3tkl9usl said:
Brian how do you like the lotus?
Click to expand...
Wow that was an awesome weekend. I'm still getting acclimated to the Lotus, but it's feeling pretty good. Jess Heitman and I were talking on Friday night about how the variety of cars were going to compare and we had no idea, especially about the Huffaker engine 1.8L Volvo. Turns out we are pretty close.

With the Majors schedule, first session is qual with no practice. Joe and Jess had tested on Friday and I hadn't been to the track since '09. Huffaker was on the pole with a 2:02.0 (from memory so I could be off), the Volvo was about .3 off of Joe and I was 1 sec off. Jess who won both Fontana races was 4th just a tad behind me.

We has a split start, but one STU car was faster than Joe, so we were the second group. At the start both the Volvo (Bruce Ackerman) and I got around Joe into T-1. We were all very equal in speeds and soon we were into B-spec traffic then the STL's. It was crazy fun. We went FCY which is always a mess with after a split start. At some point I got around the Volvo and he must have been held up in traffic and I pulled a bit of a gap. Towards the end some of the traffic didn't go my way and I wasn't taking chances and everyone one closed back up. It's been a long time since I had a finish that I can be proud of - felt great.

Sunday AM was completely different. Jess had some damage on his Miata from Sat after a STL Miata made contact with him and he decided not to race. There was two schedule floating around - one had our start time at 9am and the other showed 9:40am. I guess Bruce only had the 9:40 version and was late to grid. So it was Joe and I at the front. I pulled him at the start, but he was back by me going into T-3. He checked out from there. I had nothing for him and was cruising and about halfway through the Volvo caught me and left me.

Jason Isley set a new lap record on Sat. It was pretty warm on Saturday - 80°+, sunny for our 12:40 race. Seemed like Sunday was going to be better for speed because of our 9am start, but the wind seemed to kill that notion.

GTL put on a great race on Sat with Joe in his Mini, Jim Hargrove in his Honda, Noel Hayward in his MG and Troy Ermish is his clean 510 were all changing positions back and forth. A Mustang lost it's engine going into T-1 and dumped a bunch of oil. The FCY sort of ruined the finish - the pace car mistakenly let the OA leader by and then took too long to pick him up again and get them sorted and it finished under yellow. I was on the road for my 9hr trek home when they raced on Sunday.
 
What an exhausting, but fun weekend. It was great to see Gordon back out there, and man can that BMW of his dig out of those slow turns, but it is certainly aero challenged. :lol:

This was only my second visit to TH, first was in 2010 with a nearly stock Yaris, the track was nothing like I remembered. Super busy, very narrow, and not very forgiving if you go off. But if you get it right it sure is a fun lap. Getting there at 3:00pm on Friday we were a little disappointed to find we had to paddock on the entrance road outside the track. Needless to say we got our mileage in trekking in and out of the facility. It actually worked to our benefit, unlike the sardines packed inside the track we had lots of space, it was nice and quiet, and the trees offered great shade. The only drawback was not being able to hear the PA, but thanks to the Majors "time certain*" schedule we never missed a session.

*It is my understanding that they moved some sessions up on Sunday from the printed start time, which I did not think was allowed on a time certain schedule. This happened after I already hit the road so I cant confirm.

The Saturday race was crazy. imo they did not give us enough gap on the split start, and we caught the BS and "STL" (SM in disguise) almost instantly. The most frustrating part was the SM boys tendency to race nose to tail, its not easy to take three of them in one shot when they are just as fast as you on the straights. It seemed like I would have go in and split them up, and Gordon would benefit with the easy pass. :evil: Aside from a few interruptions by the DOT back-markers Gordon and I had a good race, side by side a few times. Coming in to the final two turns on the last lap I had a small cushion on Gordon, I slowed early in the braking zone as there was an STL Miata there, but I knew I could not wait to pass him till the straight because Gordon would get the run up to the flag. The Miata left an opening inside so I went, only problem was he did not track out - not sure if he was going for pit in or just wanted to drive down the middle - we made side to side contact. It was hard enough to crack my wheel and knock the alignment out of whack. Luckily all that was left was the run to the flag and I was able to nurse it across. Gordon also got hung up by the guy, as he was still driving in the middle of the track. :ask: Neil struggled with the same clutch problems that has been plaguing his car for the last few years, so he unfortunately did not get to mix it up with us, but had enough speed for 3rd. Neil had to sit out Sunday. :(

Sunday it seemed like they gave us a bit more of a gap on the start, and the field was a bit smaller. Zero traffic problems, it was like an entire different event. 8) On lap one going in to Turn 9 I hit the brakes and started to turn in, I instantly knew the tires did not have enough heat, I straightened out the wheel and went for a ride in the grass. As I tried to get the car slowed I was looking to my left expecting to see Gordon fly by, but he decided to follow me into the grass. What a good sport he is. :lol: We both got gathered back up and carried on. My car was off a little from the hit on Saturday, I tried to fix the alignment, but it wasn't as good. Gordon seemed to slow after about three laps, I think his tires were going away. As the laps went by I started seeing lots of British stuff parked in various places. Tuttle made the run up to third. And Carl Young moved over from STU after blowing up his Cobalt to run HP in a Honda Fit, word on the street is they may start to develop this car and run it in HP the rest of the year. 8)

Looking forward to Buttonwillow in two weeks.

BlHpfavCcAACX8h.jpg:large
 
a couple of things...

Steve is back in China for a project that he is working on. He has plans to be back for Buttonwillow and then will have to do Portland or Seattle later in the year. The Honda has been surprisingly problematic since it's arrival. It's mind boggling that it won the Runoffs. It's had a persistent hesitation as you get back on the gas, along with clutch and distributor issues. It's been to the dyno a few times and they've helped but not cured it of the hesitation. He has yet to see the car's potential.

Thanks to Bill Blust for helping out this weekend. It was fortunate that he made the trip from CO as I came alone from LA.

Bill Okell was in the Taco Bell MG this weekend and the rest of the year with Huffaker prep'ing it. Bill has a very quick vintage MG that he races in Canada and it was his first time in the car and at Thunderhill.

Lastly, after getting the camera on at the last second, I forgot to turn it on for Sat's race. So disappointed. I had it on for Sunday, but it had turned off some time during the race. It was a boring race for me, but I hope there is something on there. Maybe Jess Heitman will post his video from Sat.
 
We arrived at 7:30 Thursday and the main paddock was already full. So we were in the middle of the skid-pad. Right next to Shad. We were basically the Eastern end of STU row. As this was my first time driving at Thunderhill, I paid the money and did the full test day. At least I made the 115% cutoff, but not too much better. I also had Tire Race ship me a new set of BF Goodrich R1's to the track, in anticipation of using them on Sunday. The BFG guys were great, I wish I would have had a better showing for them in my results.

I started 5th of 6 in STU and finished 4th on Saturday. Bruce Trenery managed to get around me, but I got back around him a couple laps later going into 14 and held that to the end. But the harriest was comming over 5 and finding Lepper's car sideways across the track after having spun in his team mate's oil. I jinked left, which was away from the oil, to get around him. After the race on Saturday I went for a walk around the track. This lead to another 1.2 seconds off my lap times on Sunday. So, I know there's more in both the driver and car.

Sunday I started 4th and finished 4th. about 5 laps from the end I punted the curb on 5 and went off, which mostly sheared the splitter off, but it was lodged on something, but as designed didn't take anything else with it. So the nose is still pristine. At that point I was circulating to get the finish and was suprised to see Conner's Cooper S off course before turn 9. So, between it being my first weekend there and being 40hp down on a real STU 2.5 liter, I'm happy with my results. I'll see everyone at Buttonwillow in under 2 weeks.
 
Well, as Jason eluded too my sporadic, semi-reoccurring clutch problem reared up again (actually came back at Fontana in Jan) after we thought we had fixed it. On the positive side, driving through corners in one or 2 gears higher than normal makes for some interesting lines and keeps your attention. So although being sideways, off course and knocking down all the cones is fun, it is just not the fast way around the track. I was hoping to make Jason earn his victory (and Lap record!) but just was never in the hunt. The good news is the clutch (along with my starter) finally blew on the last lap on Sat. so I can now get rid of everything and start fresh. I have now gone through 3 races and 3 starter motors (starter casing shears off during the race leaving the starter motor dangling) so clearly something is out of whack and moving around in the trans, mounts, flywheel, clutch etc... Any suggestions as to what to look for are welcome. Missed Sundays race but enjoyed the view from the stands. I'll miss Button Willow in 2 weeks but hope to get one more major race in prior to the runoffs.

Neil
#83 HP MGB
 
That's nuts. can you post some pictures of the failure? is it the motor assembly bolts/screws that break, or is it the mounting bolts that hold the motor to the tranny/block?

How's the vibrations on the engine? I would think anything out of balance enough to cause that kind of damage would be noticeable while the engine is running.
Any chance it's simply the engine/tranny mounts flexing and allowing the starter to hit the chassis?
 
Hi Matt,

That's what i assumed (starter hitting frame rail) but all the tranny, engine mounts look good and the engine stay rod is in order as well. In the Pits...revving the engine only slightly rocks the motor. Seems all OK, but I'll pull motor/trans and look at everything. On the MGB, the high torque starter attaches to the trans case, via 2 bolts and a mounting plate/flange. Mounting plate is still nicely secured, but secondary cheap, thin longer bolts that attach starter to mounting flange are sheared off and case broken. I'll tear down and see what i got. Also make sure my right front frame rail is not flexing/falling off 88-o

Neil
 
Neil, I have found out recently the starter has significant vibration while on track. Most of the time it causes havoc with internal wiring but could break other things too. It is recommended to build some type of bracket to attach on the free end of the starter and the block. Bernie and I designed a sturdy bracket to stabilize this vibration. I have not used it on track yet but will in about a one and a half weeks.

I have broken a cast aluminum starter mount but we made one out of 6061 aluminum and it has held up well.

Sorry to hear you will not be able to make it to Buttonwillow.
 
Neil... Got three Sprites with 3 different kind of GR starters, all of which had the problem of shearing the mounting bolts to the adaptor. Added 2 more bolts by either tapping more into the adaptor or on one by getting longer and larger bolts that hold the motor together and ran them all the way through the adaptor. Haven't had any trouble in years. If you need more info, pics or drawings give me a call. 305-872-0430.

Bob Hess
 
Was anyone else caught out by the fact that the Sun race was only 31 minutes long? My understanding of the whole Majors thing was a 30 minute race on Sat and 40 min race on Sun.

A 20 min qualifying with no practice session, and 2 30 minute races does not equate to a "Major" experience that I am willing to pay extra for.
 
It's been my experience that almost every Sunday Majors race or practice has been shortened for some reason or another, yet everyone is packed up and on the road by 3PM that day.... Why am I paying extra again?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top