Sometimes all the prep can only get you so far. I was very stoked to get back to racing the Mini Koopa after spending a weekend down in New Orleans racing with the other Lee Childers. My first job when I got back was to prep the car for potential rough weather. I really wanted to prepare for rain based on the forecast and what I learned while I was racing at NOLA. Since the Mini Koopa had the entire interior removed including heater core and any ducting for air there was no way to de-fog the glass in wet weather, which caused quite a low-visibility situation at the last race. Two things we worked on to fix this was to minimize moisture coming in the car by installing a removable roof, and creating a defrost type system to get airflow over the interior of the windshield.
With those modifications done we could focus on other parts of the race we could enhance. To help us out with our refueling woes I ordered a couple Hansaker fuel jugs that would allow for proper ventilation and smoother flow of fuel into the gas tank. This made it much quicker to refuel and would save us a ton of time in the pits. We also purchased a Garmin Catalyst to help us with feedback and lap recording throughout the race. We actually used this in Sonoma for the first time but was very excited to take it to a track that we had already been to so we could continue to master a specific course.
With all that set up and ready to go we loaded up for the track. Friday morning we rolled in and started setting up the paddock. We took some practice laps and then sent the car through tech and BS inspection, bribing the judges again with another donation to Lemons of Love. After inspection was complete we sent the car out for some more test day practice and that’s when it happened…
(The video is M.I.A., but general idea is big mechanical boom coming through the last corner on the track)
No drive reported. Towed into the pits. When the Mini Koopa got back to the paddock we were able to start it up but were hearing some bad metallic noises when trying to get it in gear. We jacked the front up to get underneath and confirmed it wasn’t a CV axle. The transmission was toast. We made the decision to take the car home since we had the spare parts car there and we could take the cars apart side by side. This was going to be a long night but could be fixable before the start of the race the next day. We divided and conquered; One pair working on the Koopa and one pair working on the spare Cooper, tearing them down in sequence. Once we had both transmissions out we sent some people to bed so they could start the race and Lauren and I stayed up all night putting the Koopa back together.
We got back to the track just in time. Filled the new transmission full of fluid, dumped some water into the radiator and sent the car out to take the green flag. It was a major accomplishment for us because we hadn’t completed that big of a job on the car before, let alone doing it in such a time crunch. After that I took a nap in the truck and then woke up to the car being back in the pits with an overheating problem. We didn’t realize it at the time but we had heated the engine up too much and the aluminum head on the iron block of the motor had warped, causing exhaust air to displace all of the water in our coolant system. We were now trying anything we could to stay out on the track, including swapping the front clip with a new radiator, refilling and taping the coolant overflow cap down, and anything else we could think of to salvage time on the track without swapping the motor out.
In the end we had our worst finish so far, 13th (out of 14) in B-class and 34th (out of 41) overall. We did get some major accomplishments in though. Being able to repair the car and get in 119 laps when you blow up on Friday practice isn’t a bad result. We also improved our best lap by 2 seconds while we were running our 45 minute stints between testing solutions to our overheating issues. We did not get to test our new Hansaker fuel jugs in the pits but we did use them to fill the car at the end of the day and it was a measurable difference in the amount of time it took for the jugs to empty into the tank. I also had Nachofriends observing the work we put into the car and they thought it was heartwarming enough to invite me to drive with them at the 25 hour race at thunderhill! As nice as a smooth race is, it can be more exciting at times when you constantly fighting the gremlins of the car. Hope to see you at the next one!
