The inaugural NASA Nationals East Coast was held at Road Atlanta August 29-31, 2014. In attendance competing in the Factory Five Challenge class were Paul Arnold, David Evans, Roger Fusse, Paul Kaiser, Eric Kostamaa, Mike Tuck, and I John George. The weekend predicted to be great weather a little on the hot and humid side, with two 30min qualifying races on Friday/Saturday setting the grid for the 45min Nationals race. FFRs were in Group B along with SU/ST1/2/3 cars but with our own start. Thursday was an optional Test/Tune day.
I arrived early to do final prep on FFR#48 at Joe Camire’s house Tuesday changing front brake lines, and a sticky rear caliper. #48’s engine knocks a little at idle, sounding like possible piston slap, and there is a little blowby smoking out of the breather, the engine, a borrowed shortblock from Wayne Patterson’s well used parts depot hoping it would last through Nationals. Tuesday PM packed the car back in the RV headed to get a good spot in line for Wednesday’s track loadin day. We were lucky to get our paddock near the fuel pumps all FFR’s together with exception of Dave Evens who also running TT parked with the TT guys.
Thursday test day saw a couple of competitors utilizing the extra track time to work on car setup/etc, with me staying parked not wanting to put extra time on the engine. Paul A. kept chasing issues all day as his car not running right seemed to be electrical/fuel related kept plugging along at it, Mike found a lower balljoint had loosened up with help from Brian Casella’s mechanic got it welded up and was ready for Friday’s qualifier race, Roger and Eric also tinkered with their cars fighting minor issues.
Friday schedule had warmup early, qualifying and Quali Race #1. Qualifying saw me on pole, followed by Paul A, Paul K, Mike, Dave, Eric, and Roger. Paul Arnold was still diagnosing his FFR#5 not running for the start of the race, Roger generously offered his car for Paul A. to use in Fridays race. Because of this Paul A was gridded at the back, so Paul K. took his spot in P2 for the start of the race. The race itself was a blast, Paul K and I battled a fair amount until my engine overheated and had to back off to cool the car finishing 2nd, Paul K. with the win, Mike 3rd, followed by David, Paul A. and Eric (who also fighting rpm brake-up issues.)
Friday after the race with FFR#48 not running good at all Joe Camire, Jim Schenck and I decided the best course of action is to get another Ford Mustang shortblock from a local junk yard, and put it in the car. Joe still at work Jim, my dad and I went to the junkyard and purchased for $550 a 1995 Mustang shortblock with alleged 70K miles. The engine itself looked good, so spirits up, trucked it to Joe’s house. With my RV already situated, I put my street license plates on FFR#48 and off to Joe’s house I went.
Joe, Jim and I worked from the time Joe got home from work – 5pm, until 6:30am when we left to take the car back to the track. For those who have never done this before, it takes a while to take the old engine out, strip all of the parts off the shortblock (accessories, heads, intake, flywheel, clutch, etc.) rebuild with a different shortblock, reinstall back in car, fill back with fluids, start the new engine, set timing.. lets just say a LOT of work was done during the night.
I cannot thank Joe and Jim enough for their help in this, without them I could not have done it period!
As Joe, Jim and I were swapping out an engine, Paul Arnold and crew drove to Summit Racing’s warehouse in Atlanta twice looking for replacement parts including new injectors, and other ignition related items to get Paul’s car running.
Saturday morning had a warmup session at 8ish, followed by the race around 10am. I took #48 out in warmup and immediately got showered by oil leaking from the engine. I came in and found the 90deg oil filter adapter leaking from the outer rubber o-ring. RTV saves the day after cleaning it and re-installing it leak on drivers side fixed. The passenger side was oil soaked as well, looking like maybe a valve cover gasket was leaking. Off comes the valve cover, RTV the gasket real good, reinstall back on the car hoping that would fix my oil leak for qualifying race 2. Started 2nd as our grid was the finishing order of Friday’s race #1. quickly finding out my oil leak is not fixed at all. The ‘meatball’ flag along with #48 sign was thrown as I drive past start/finish calling me into the pits as there is something wrong with my car. The race saw Paul Arnold win, followed by Paul K, Mike, David, Roger, Eric (still having electrical issues), and me with a DNF.
Having all day left to diagnose the oil leak the nose came off the car allowing easier access to the engine bay for closer analysis. As it turns out the oilpan bolts on the passenger side, and up front were not fully tightened (I take full blame as during the Friday night thrash it was my responsibility to tighten these.) On top of the leak the blowby on this junkyard block was much worse then the old engine, so we got ‘creative’ finding a solution to minimize the blowby. with PCV valve hooked up recycling most of the fumes back into the engine a catch can (a 5qt oil jug) was ziptied/duct taped in place and a 1″ hose run from the front of the car to the trunk carrying the blowby fumes into the trunk along with the oil which may spray out. On top of all of this stop smoke additive was added to the 20w50 oil, and pb blaster was sprayed on all of the pistons through the sparkplug holes in hope of loosening up the piston rings. Joe, Mike, Jim and I finally went out to dinner hoping our Saturday thrash would hold up for the Nationals 45min race Sunday.
Sunday race order set by points from both races has Paul K. on pole, followed by Paul A., Mike, Dave, me, Eric, and Roger. The race started fast and furious with lead changes through the field eventually settling with Paul A, closely followed by Paul K, me a ways back, Mike, David, Eric, and Roger until a double yellow caused the field to bunch back up. Paul A, Paul K, and I were nose to tail for the restart with me getting a good jump on Paul K attacking until finally getting past him. Paul A. used lapped traffic and the fact Paul K and I were battling to his advantage able stretch out a lead the length of the front straight till the race finish.
Congratulations to Paul Arnold for a great win! I came in 2nd with Paul Kaiser 3rd, Mike Tuck 4th, Roger Fusse 5th, David Evans 6th, and Eric Kostamaa 7th.
And the ice cream bars after the races
More Pictures here: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/368
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