Page 44 - KCRPCA Sept-Oct

RACING ARTICLE
Karl Wilen
article to make it look just like a true “tech article.” Either way, this entire episode started about 3 months ago, probably in between a couple of weeks of racing and likely over beers at the “Trap.”
We kind of had a dry spell during the heat of the summer, where we won’t race when it is so hot, but then someone thought it would be a great idea for the team to knock out a 24 hour race at the end of August. The idea was met with a bit of resistance, but having been around the team long enough, I knew to just keep shoving beers in them until the core team committed. Once committed, I could sign up and pay online right there from the bar, and they couldn’t back out on me.
make this all happen, and couldn’t have been done without our team each pitching in. Many teams at the race couldn’t believe we did the entire gig with only 6 drivers who doubled as our 6 crew team as well, as most had dedicated drivers and dedicated crew members which allowed everyone to get a bit of sleep throughout the race.
The preparations were painstaking, while our car has always been very solid and reliable, it never fails that something like the cool shirt system, the radio, the drink bottles, etc., stop working at some point in a race, all of which is very critical gear. We spent an enormous amount of time doing and redoing aspects of the car like this. The cables had to plug in just at the right angle, the cool shirt hose ttings needed to be perfect, the cool box needed to be awless and secured, etc.
I have always said a race car is built to t one driver, anything else is impossible.... so we had to make 5 impossibles possible. The list goes on, let alone getting the mechanical running portion of the car ready. Since it was a 24 hour race, we needed lights. Headlights are great for street driving, but not good for doing 120 mph, then making sharp corners as your headlights do not illuminate far enough ahead for those speeds, nor the corners well enough to see where you are turning
KCRPCA and 24 Hours
NAEVER GIVE UP
bit off tangent this month, but overnight to go through the car and x Stan says I get to do what I want, what needs xing in preparation for the so there you go. Maybe he didn’t following day. That alone is an amazing
say that, but he can edit enough of this feat to nish. It was a long journey to
Most bad decisions are made over a beer, I think.
Most bad decisions are made over a beer, I think. The target this year would be the 24 hour race at High Plains Raceway outside of Denver (@ 5280 feet of altitude) with our Porsche 986 Boxster endurance car, in our usual World Racing League series. This was the longest race we have ever run with this car, typically a weekend normally consists of an 8 hour race on Saturday, then another 8 hour race on Sunday which allows enough time
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Sep / Oct 2017