8legs Racing

After some more long hours working on car #11, it should be ready with her new race engine for the next event at ICAR. Eric Hochgeschurz will finally be able to show his full strength for the 2011 season.

Leading up to the first event at Mosport the 8legs racing team was not even sure if both car #10 and #11 would be able to compete. A last minute call to switch engines in car #11 left the team with two functioning cars; however, this call did not allow us to take part in the Friday test day. Consequently, car #11 used qualifying to ensure everything was in order.

After qualifying car #10 held the 2^nd position missing pole by only 6 one thousands of a second. Car #11 had a respectful 11^th place position considering it was more of a test session for the recently swapped motor than a full out qualifying session.

Before the first race everyone looked to the sky and saw a small dark cloud that looked like it would pass over quickly. We were all wrong! The race started with a bit of sprinkling and this continued to a full out rain for the entire race.  The 8legs racing team powered through the rain on their slicks giving #10 a phenomenal 2^nd place finish, behind the only AWD car on the track. Car #11 finished with a respectful 5^th in class.

In practice the following day car #11 experienced some electrical problems that spelt the end of the power steering for the car. After a bit of diagnostic the crew thought that the problem was resolved. Practice was uneventful for car #10.

In the second race the same electrical problem in car #11 reared its ugly head. This meant that Eric Hochgeschurz had no power steering which took a few laps to adjust to. Sadly this adjustment allowed two cars to pass car #11 which put him in 7^th place, where he finished. But for the 8legs Racing team, this race was all about #10. Car #10 started in 2^nd place and although the car did not go flag to flag in the same position, Arek Wojciechowski was able to finish the race with another solid 2^nd place.

The 8legs Racing team will be back to the track for the next event at ICAR June 3-5. At this event we hope to have both drivers on the podium!

The weekend was beautiful and packed with people. Campers lined every inch of spare grass and along every corner. Over the weekend the temperatures peaked over 30 degrees and even being in the shade didn't offer much relief from the heat. Thursday was a full day test day where the team worked on set-up for Mosport as it has been 3 events since we had been at this high speed track. The set-up was extremely different then the past few tracks and the test day was nice to have to ensure the car was handling.

Qualifying went well with Eric pulling off a nice 1:33.577 in the 2^nd lap. This proved to be his best time after small mechanical failure left him only being able to idle. With the car back in the paddock we were able to determine the problem and fix it in a timely fashion. Qualifying left us in p.9 to start the race. Race 1 had a very interesting start and was red-flagged before the end of lap 1. A re-start was ordered and the race was shortened to only 20 minutes. Within this short 20 minutes car #11 pulled off some quick consistent times and ended up with a 6^th place finish.

Race 2 started without all the commotion of race 1 and car #11 drove a clean consistent race but after a spin in corner 1 Eric ended up in 9^th place.

The next event at ICAR is the final event of the series. The 8legs racing team is currently sitting in 6^th place only 46 points away from 3^rd. The race for third will go down to the line and we are hoping to replicate our earlier results at ICAR and finish the series in 3^rd.

Hope to see you all there!

With some fresh paint after the Toronto weekend the car was looking good. The heat of the weekend played some tricks on our brakes and sent us to an emergency trip to Canadian Tire. A few feet of dryer hose later and we had some functional brake ducting and were back in the game. Qualifying left car #11 in 14^th place but after the 30 minute sprint and some great driving by Eric we finished in 8^th. Race 2 ended with a similar 8^th place finish and a great end to the weekend.

After an exciting race at ICAR we were hoping to replicate our results. Sadly this didn't happen. Our first race was cut short due to mechanical failure resulting in a DNF. This meant that the next race would be a battle from the back.

The second race started off amazing. A great start by Eric and after a few laps we were back up into a top 10 position. Nearing the end of the race number 11 started battling with another car. In the end both cars ended up going into the wall. Eric was able to drive it back into the pits; driving on the rim, with a broken tie-rod. After the race the flatbed came and we said a sad goodbye to Toronto.

The next race is GP3R, which is tight track where we have a good chance at another podium.

See you all there!

The 8Legs Racing shop is starting to get heated up as we all get a little excited for the Toronto Grand Prix (it also might be a bit hot because of the crazy temperatures!)

The car needed little attention after the fantastic finish at ICAR but we did install a carbon fibre lip, check it out.

It was a great weekend. Loosing my exhaust in race 1 and thinking I had a broken suspension. Then hearing Arek explain that the muffler was banging the car and just "keep driving hard"... priceless!!!

It was a sweltering weekend at Mirabel this past weekend but luckily there were some high winds that kept us cool. (So high that during a race we almost lost our brand new tent) We arrived early on the Friday test day to get in seven 30 minute practice sessions which allowed us to try some different set up options. The day went really well and every session seemed to end with a bigger smile on Eric's face and some quicker lap times. After scrubbing some new tires in, we called it a day and got the car ready for Saturday.

Saturday morning's practice session went well and we finally started using our whiteboard to ensure that everything was done on the car. This helped contain the usual chaos in the pits and added a new level of calm that has never been in the 8 legs racing paddock area. Qualifying left us in a good position for race 1 and after every time on track the car seemed to be getting faster and faster. Race 1 was our best finish of the season so far with a 4^th. This was great because race 2 had a photo-op at the start and we were sitting pretty in the 2^nd row.

Sunday morning gave us a bit of a scare as it looked like we might see a bit of rain; luckily, this passed and the sweltering heat and wind came back. The first practice was uneventful and our new "whiteboard calm" made us ready for the race earlier then usual (which was still a bit later then everyone else). During the pace lap a bit of confusion was had when car number 16 (which was in 2^nd place) pulled off and we were unsure as to what the protocol was. We got it all sorted out and we started the race off in 3^rd. The race was extremely exciting, with some great battles between us and the other top runners. In the end the race gods were looking down on our car and after car number 66 flipped his car on the front straight a red flag was dropped and Eric had his first podium in 2^nd place!

After the emotional podium celebration we packed up and headed off to the go-kart track. Although the go-kart track was a lot of fun it only proved that I am the slowest one on the team.

Next race is in 2 weeks at the Toronto Indy where we hope to have a repeat performance of this weekend. See all you race fans there!

We brought the #11 car down to ICAR for a private test day last week.  We also brought along Andrew and Andy Wojteczko from Auto Analyser in order to help tune the setup of the car, and to provide some driver coaching.  After a small issue with registration (noone knew we were coming!), we get setup in the paddock.  It turned out that we were the only car testing that day, and only one student in the ICAR Mustnag would occasionaly be on track ... essentially, we had the entire track to ourselves. A perfect test day, and even the weather cooperated.

As Andrew was dialing in a baseline setup on the suspension, a problem with one of the shocks was found ... the low speed bump knob was not stopping, and instead going round and round.  We had no idea what the setting was.  A couple of calls to Moton, some heavy lifting to stroke the damper, and the settings were discovered (and marked!).  We were ready to go, but not before Andrew (with a straight face, no less) explained that what we thought was the low speed bump knob, was actually the high speed bump knob ... so much for twittling our knobs at Mosport and thinking we were making good adjustments!

Andrew went out first to set a baseline.  He right away got a great time, we made some small adjustments to the car.  Amazingly, not much was required!  Andrew was happy with the setup.  It was Eric's turn to get in the hot seat.  A new car, different gear box and diff ratios, no ABS ... this was a lot to re-learn for a first session!  Eric set some decent lap times, and got used to the car.  We made some more adjustments to the car (Eric felt the car was a bit too tail happy ... unusual for us!), and we discussed some of the driving.  Improvements were seen.

At lunch, we all went for a track walk.  Always an enlightening experience, this proved no different.  There is definitely more time to be gained on this track!  It's time to try it out. Finally, we are goetting somewhere!  The combined efforts of car setup and driver coaching has brought Eric's time to within 1/2 second of Andrew's best, and the consitency is getting better as well.  At this point however, the tires we were using were quickly nearing the end of their useful life ... which meant that it was MY turn to have some fun ;-)

I got in the car, drove out on to the track, and promptly forgot all about the shiftpoints ... boucing off the limiter, shifting into 5th instead of 3rd ... boy this car really is different than our old e36.  The next lap was better, and my best (slower than Eric's though!).  After that, it was drift mania at ICAR, with the rear end sideways at nearly every turn.  This ended is a dramatic high speed 360º, at which point I (and the tires) were done.  We swapped the dead tires out for some nearly dead ones (sigh).

The last hour of the day was spent with Eric working on consitency and line ... pushing his braking points deeper, and trying new corner approaches.  We felt the car is nearly there setup wise, and while it can of course get better, it's not a matter of simple adjustment (ie: time and money, and parts!).  We examined some data on the ride home and had a great dinner with good discussion.  All in all, a terrific and very productive test day.  Thanks to Andrew and Andy for coming down with us, and we look forward to the next ICAR event on July 3/4!

Important things we learned:

• organized data capture is of utmost importance.  If you don't have data to refer to, you can't make educated changes
• capturing driver debrief sessions in a consitant manner will help the crew fix the problems
• The Motec data aquisition systems is far (and I mean FAR) supperior to the Racepak IQ3 system .. particularily the software
• GPS track mapping and comparing lines between runs appears to be useless with the IQ3.  This is too bad since we could learn a lot from this
• knowing which knobs to turn on your suspenion is a good thing (duh).

Another awesome weekend is over, and again a nice calm weekend. The number 11 car ran well and is starting to come together, no wrecks, no major problems, just lots of fun at the track. The only time we felt pressure was changing tires, from dries to wets, at the very last minute. We think the change was the best option but about half way through the race the rain stopped completely and the track started to dry, but Eric stuck it out and pulled off a nice finish.

The car finished 10^th in the feature race (second race) and we were happy about this result. I expect we will improve on this finish at the next race at ICAR.