On my way home this morning after nearly two weeks at the SCCA Runoffs (national road racing championships) at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
I was hired by a team to engineer their 3-car DSR effort, but in spite of our best efforts we got crushed... :cry:
One car crashed out at the start when the guy ahead of him spun. Their slight contact did very minor external damage to the car, but cracked the radiator side tank (he was using a VW rad with plastic tanks). The second car fell out after slight contact sep up a high-speed shimmey. And the third driver put a rod through the side of the block -- a post-race inspection found a missing oil fill cap... :evil:
One strong lesson driven home to me is that it is very difficult to be both driver and crew chief. The team brought three mechanics and a crew chief, but the CC was also one of the drivers, so his attention was often away from car preparation.
Another lesson I learned is to walk away from some situations. One driver brought another engineer to the race (without telling me before hand), and then hired a third while there! We 3 then had to work together, and the car ended up a compromise between the 3 setup preferences. The second guy withdrew after the first week, which is when I should have gone, but I had promised to stick it out, so did. Nonetheless, I won't do that again.
Still, I had fun. The Runoffs are the highlight of the season for me, and I'm already looking forward to next year. I also had a chance to talk with the SCCA tech folks about running a TD or TDI. They were actually supportive of the idea, having also read about the growing poularity of racing the cars in Europe. I'll be working with them over the winter to develop a rules package. Wish me luck!