civic44
Legacy Member
Watkins Glen 2004 EMRA sprints and enduro
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about any events and the main reason is that I simply haven’t participated in any. As some of you may remember, I totaled my newly built 1991 Civic B16a this spring while testing (at a race school where I was instructing, of all places). It took me all summer to put together a replacement, a B18C1 powered 2000 SiR coupe. That’s just the way it goes when you don’t have tons of money to throw at a new car. In any event, I’d been looking forward to the EMRA event at Watkins Glen on October 22nd and 23rd all summer, knowing that no matter how slow the build of the new car went, it would be ready by this event. Well, long story short, it almost wasn’t ready. After some last minute testing, we had to change a steering rack and a rear trailing arm. I also had to buy a new tire and repair a wheel after a little off and puncture I had at Mosport a few days before the event. This would be our third year at the Glen event with EMRA. In 2002, we ran the sprints and enduro with my 1988 Honda Michelin Civic with a 92 hp 1.5 liter. We had DNF`d due to my losing the alternator belt in an off early in the race. In 2003, I co-drove with my friend Carl BBQMan Wener for the first time with the same Civic, but with a 1.6 liter 125 hp engine. We had won our class in the enduro last year despite being down on power in comparison with other ST1 class cars. The car had been dead reliable and we were turning great lap times for the setup we had, although not the fastest in the class. We had one on reliability and consistency. We hoped to do as well this year as we had a better suspension setup and more power. There were several Canadians making the trip down this year and our friend Rob Guerra was one of them. He brought his Type R powered 1993 hatchback. He was there for the two sprint races, not wanting to go through all the consumables necessary to complete a 3-hour enduro. Carl and I were splitting my car, each doing one sprint race and sharing the enduro seat time. I would run the 12-lap sprint race on Friday and Carl would run the Saturday one. The forecast called for sun and cloud and only 10% chance of rain. We headed down from Montreal to stay at the Holiday Inn on Thursday night. After stopping at the wrong Holday Inn not once but twice, we got to bed around 1:30. So much for a good night’s sleep! It was still raining at that time and I couldn’t imagine the track possibly being dry in the morning sessions. Sure enough, when we left the hotel at 6:30, it was still drizzling. We got to the track and removed all our gear from the car as well as the passenger seat. It was time to go racing! It wa still drizzling when I headed out onto the track for my first session around 9:00.
Our car, ready to race
We had relatively new Hankook Z211’s for dry and damp conditions (drove with them all the way from Montreal!) and some brand new Hankook K104’s (performance street tires with deep V-grooves) for serious rain. I went out on the Z211’s as the track wasn’t soaking wet, just quite damp. I was going to take it really easy, as I didn’t really know much about my car or its handling yet. The session went OK, I had no speed, I locked up the brakes once at turn 8 where the braking zone was extremely slick. Our friend and fellow Honda driver Matt Bookler didn’t hesitate to stick his car deep in the kitty litter on the first lap of the session. I could sympathize with him, having stuck my car there in the dry last year on the last lap of the enduro. I didn’t even bother to look at the lap times as they were sure to be quite sad. The car felt stable and I knew that I wasn’t pushing it the limits of adhesion or anywhere near that point. I wasn’t yet comfortable with the car. Also, we realized that our non-Vtec transmission’s ratios were completely wrong for this track (and probably most tracks). Second was too short for the slower corners as you would run out of revs at crucial moments, while third was too long. In fact, you can go over 100 mph in 3rd with this setup. We lost a lot of time at the toe of the boot for this reason. The second session was qualifying. It was drier as the track was about 75% dry. As you all know, you can’t turn a good lap on a mostly dry track either. There was still quite a bit of wetness in turns 2 (first part of the esses) and 6 (laces of the boot). I was still in “take it easy” mode. Rob, who had gone out on the K104’s eventually lost it in 2 and hit both guardrails. I saw his car on the side of the track and wasn’t too worried about him as the damage seemed very minor. As it turned out, I was looking at the good side of the car. The right side sustained heavy damage and the car was towed away on the flatbed. The session was black flagged and I saw the true extent of the damage when Rob’s car came in. Fortunately, Rob was walking along beside the truck so we knew he was OK. His seat was bent to the side by several degrees from the impact. He seemed disappointed, but not too angry. It was sad to see his weekend over almost before it began since he came all the way from England to do this event. With a positive attitude, he began working on the car to see if there was any way he would be able to drive it home. He doesn’t have a tow vehicle either. He ended up having to change an axle and 2 wheels and play around with the alignment a lot. As a joke, Carl painted all the duct tape on the body black to match the car, and it actually looked much better!
Rob's car after the off
Carl getting ready for his first stint
Before my sprint race, Carl got his first stint in the car in the “hardship” practice. We were beginning to notice that car consumed serious amounts of motor oil. We had suspected this after our lapping day at Mosport. We wondered how we would ever finish the enduro using a pint of oil every 20 minutes. Carl’s lap times were encouraging though. The track was slow but he was doing OK. He was finally at the point where he could be flat out from the exit of turn one to the inner loop (chicane). This had been a piece of cake in the old car, but it had much less power. My short qualifying hadn’t produced much of a result as I had still been in “drive slow, you don’t want to wreck a second car in one year” mode. I was 15th out of 20 cars in big bore. There were several Craftsman style trucks who hadn’t bothered to qualify starting behind me. As one might imagine, they all thundered by me on the first lap. The race was going OK and I was finally gaining confidence and beginning to take the fast section flat out. There seemed to be a flat spot around 7000 rpm though and I realized I might be short on oil in some corners. Then the check engine light came on and I knew that there was no longer enough oil for the Vtec to come on. I came in. I hadn’t brought any oil to the pits so I went and parked in the paddock. I could hear that the race was still going on so I got out, threw in a liter of oil and drove back to the pit lane. I waited to be waived on to the track and gunned it. I then caught up to a bunch of the pickup trucks and realized the checker had already dropped and I was on the cooldown lap. They even black flagged me on the second half of the lap because I had gone out after the checker (after being waved on by a pit official, but anyways…). I was pretty pissed off, as this was only my second DNF ever. I didn’t stay pissed off for long. It was a good day in that the car came back in one piece (I have new standards for a good day since wrecking my old Civic) and that I was slowly building up confidence. I only regretted running out of oil right when I was starting to feel good about my driving. We had to figure out what to do about the oil consumption before Saturday. We bought 5 liters of 20w50 and did an oil change at the end of the day, hoping the extra viscosity would solve things. Carl went out for his practice in the morning and put down some really good laps, several seconds faster than I had gone in my half sprint race. He had his race an hour later and did pretty well, although there was no way to win the class as there was a Mustang GT lapping 4 seconds a lap faster than him. Still, he was beginning to see that the car had potential and we knew that it would not do anything evil or unpredictable.
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about any events and the main reason is that I simply haven’t participated in any. As some of you may remember, I totaled my newly built 1991 Civic B16a this spring while testing (at a race school where I was instructing, of all places). It took me all summer to put together a replacement, a B18C1 powered 2000 SiR coupe. That’s just the way it goes when you don’t have tons of money to throw at a new car. In any event, I’d been looking forward to the EMRA event at Watkins Glen on October 22nd and 23rd all summer, knowing that no matter how slow the build of the new car went, it would be ready by this event. Well, long story short, it almost wasn’t ready. After some last minute testing, we had to change a steering rack and a rear trailing arm. I also had to buy a new tire and repair a wheel after a little off and puncture I had at Mosport a few days before the event. This would be our third year at the Glen event with EMRA. In 2002, we ran the sprints and enduro with my 1988 Honda Michelin Civic with a 92 hp 1.5 liter. We had DNF`d due to my losing the alternator belt in an off early in the race. In 2003, I co-drove with my friend Carl BBQMan Wener for the first time with the same Civic, but with a 1.6 liter 125 hp engine. We had won our class in the enduro last year despite being down on power in comparison with other ST1 class cars. The car had been dead reliable and we were turning great lap times for the setup we had, although not the fastest in the class. We had one on reliability and consistency. We hoped to do as well this year as we had a better suspension setup and more power. There were several Canadians making the trip down this year and our friend Rob Guerra was one of them. He brought his Type R powered 1993 hatchback. He was there for the two sprint races, not wanting to go through all the consumables necessary to complete a 3-hour enduro. Carl and I were splitting my car, each doing one sprint race and sharing the enduro seat time. I would run the 12-lap sprint race on Friday and Carl would run the Saturday one. The forecast called for sun and cloud and only 10% chance of rain. We headed down from Montreal to stay at the Holiday Inn on Thursday night. After stopping at the wrong Holday Inn not once but twice, we got to bed around 1:30. So much for a good night’s sleep! It was still raining at that time and I couldn’t imagine the track possibly being dry in the morning sessions. Sure enough, when we left the hotel at 6:30, it was still drizzling. We got to the track and removed all our gear from the car as well as the passenger seat. It was time to go racing! It wa still drizzling when I headed out onto the track for my first session around 9:00.
Our car, ready to race
We had relatively new Hankook Z211’s for dry and damp conditions (drove with them all the way from Montreal!) and some brand new Hankook K104’s (performance street tires with deep V-grooves) for serious rain. I went out on the Z211’s as the track wasn’t soaking wet, just quite damp. I was going to take it really easy, as I didn’t really know much about my car or its handling yet. The session went OK, I had no speed, I locked up the brakes once at turn 8 where the braking zone was extremely slick. Our friend and fellow Honda driver Matt Bookler didn’t hesitate to stick his car deep in the kitty litter on the first lap of the session. I could sympathize with him, having stuck my car there in the dry last year on the last lap of the enduro. I didn’t even bother to look at the lap times as they were sure to be quite sad. The car felt stable and I knew that I wasn’t pushing it the limits of adhesion or anywhere near that point. I wasn’t yet comfortable with the car. Also, we realized that our non-Vtec transmission’s ratios were completely wrong for this track (and probably most tracks). Second was too short for the slower corners as you would run out of revs at crucial moments, while third was too long. In fact, you can go over 100 mph in 3rd with this setup. We lost a lot of time at the toe of the boot for this reason. The second session was qualifying. It was drier as the track was about 75% dry. As you all know, you can’t turn a good lap on a mostly dry track either. There was still quite a bit of wetness in turns 2 (first part of the esses) and 6 (laces of the boot). I was still in “take it easy” mode. Rob, who had gone out on the K104’s eventually lost it in 2 and hit both guardrails. I saw his car on the side of the track and wasn’t too worried about him as the damage seemed very minor. As it turned out, I was looking at the good side of the car. The right side sustained heavy damage and the car was towed away on the flatbed. The session was black flagged and I saw the true extent of the damage when Rob’s car came in. Fortunately, Rob was walking along beside the truck so we knew he was OK. His seat was bent to the side by several degrees from the impact. He seemed disappointed, but not too angry. It was sad to see his weekend over almost before it began since he came all the way from England to do this event. With a positive attitude, he began working on the car to see if there was any way he would be able to drive it home. He doesn’t have a tow vehicle either. He ended up having to change an axle and 2 wheels and play around with the alignment a lot. As a joke, Carl painted all the duct tape on the body black to match the car, and it actually looked much better!
Rob's car after the off
Carl getting ready for his first stint
Before my sprint race, Carl got his first stint in the car in the “hardship” practice. We were beginning to notice that car consumed serious amounts of motor oil. We had suspected this after our lapping day at Mosport. We wondered how we would ever finish the enduro using a pint of oil every 20 minutes. Carl’s lap times were encouraging though. The track was slow but he was doing OK. He was finally at the point where he could be flat out from the exit of turn one to the inner loop (chicane). This had been a piece of cake in the old car, but it had much less power. My short qualifying hadn’t produced much of a result as I had still been in “drive slow, you don’t want to wreck a second car in one year” mode. I was 15th out of 20 cars in big bore. There were several Craftsman style trucks who hadn’t bothered to qualify starting behind me. As one might imagine, they all thundered by me on the first lap. The race was going OK and I was finally gaining confidence and beginning to take the fast section flat out. There seemed to be a flat spot around 7000 rpm though and I realized I might be short on oil in some corners. Then the check engine light came on and I knew that there was no longer enough oil for the Vtec to come on. I came in. I hadn’t brought any oil to the pits so I went and parked in the paddock. I could hear that the race was still going on so I got out, threw in a liter of oil and drove back to the pit lane. I waited to be waived on to the track and gunned it. I then caught up to a bunch of the pickup trucks and realized the checker had already dropped and I was on the cooldown lap. They even black flagged me on the second half of the lap because I had gone out after the checker (after being waved on by a pit official, but anyways…). I was pretty pissed off, as this was only my second DNF ever. I didn’t stay pissed off for long. It was a good day in that the car came back in one piece (I have new standards for a good day since wrecking my old Civic) and that I was slowly building up confidence. I only regretted running out of oil right when I was starting to feel good about my driving. We had to figure out what to do about the oil consumption before Saturday. We bought 5 liters of 20w50 and did an oil change at the end of the day, hoping the extra viscosity would solve things. Carl went out for his practice in the morning and put down some really good laps, several seconds faster than I had gone in my half sprint race. He had his race an hour later and did pretty well, although there was no way to win the class as there was a Mustang GT lapping 4 seconds a lap faster than him. Still, he was beginning to see that the car had potential and we knew that it would not do anything evil or unpredictable.
