Gearbox problems.

gearbox sounds right as his restarts looked slow.

Damn, that was a bummer. Seemed like 4th or even 3rd would of been possible if it wasn't for the mechanical issue (gearbox?). You guys were tearing **** up for most of the race, really impressive! I swear, that 61 Mustang, something seemed fishy, the dude was able to pull away from the pack way too easily.

Here's another pic I took today:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-c...407EE78759.JPG

Just to clear this up. BJ told me the gearbox went out so this is more than just conjecture.

Atleast the altima team won ST though.

Yea, they did have gearbox problems but the good news is that they dynoed the top 15 cars right off of the track. So you can bet Grand-am is going to be doing some changes before COTA.

Here's a clip of the Z on the dyno. Can't really see the car since I was over at the Doran hauler at that point and the lighting sucked but you can sure as hell hear it.

Correct. BJ texted me. They lost 5th with about 30 minutes to go. I was sitting at my desk rocking, chanting....come guys. I hate it. Definitly a Top 5 finisher in my book.

Glad to see Lara with CA-Sport bring one home for the ST class. They definitly do not get the exposure that team needs.

P4 with 30 to go. The infield had really gone to crud and the bigger bore cars couldn't put th power down. Another race that just started coming back to us. Really good strategy helped as well and we were in the position with good tires and track position to run till the end.
The gear box / shifter started getting tight...and right before that caution ...it wouldn't come out of 4th gear.
Then during the caution ...it loosened up..but not in a good way.
On the restart which was ,4th gear..webt to 5th but nobody home.
It killed us on the oval.
Car is in one piece...on to Cotas

I couldn't help but notice that towards the end after your gearbox went out you went from 16th to 15th... I laughed a bit knowing that you passed someone with a busted tranny.

Glad the car and drivers are all in one piece, the setup looks promising for the coming year.

The car ahead went into the wall actually, dastaco. :(

Good luck at COTA, BJ!

Well I feel like a bit of a **** now :shakes head:

I was tracking the race via Grand Am's online state updater, so I only saw that BJ moved up a spot at the very end. Never a good thing when someone gets into a wall.

Nice choice of wording....

Well you may not have had the start you were looking for this weekend, but you have fueled my 2013 racing enthusiasm fire. I look forward to seeing the re-broadcast on Speed next weekend and following you throughout the year. Tear some $*(! up.

I watched the replay and all I got to say is I hope that Compass 360 racing continues to destroy their own cars in single car accidents this season. Watching the #76 car tag with out a doubt 100% on purpose the back of the other Honda in an attempt to spin them (maybe a HART car) reminded me of my feelings about this team. I was very happy to see that Ray Mason who caused the contact ended up on the losing end of it. I hope they get back 10x the dirty driving they unleash on this series.

Also, I hope Grand-Am gets serious about cracking down on teams blatantly cheating in the engine department.

LOL! Good luck on that one! I have seen cheats on the Grad Am Series Mini Coopers, Porsches and Nissans over past 5 years. Have several good freinds who have worked on teams and saw engine cheats first hand. Cool stuff too! Cheating and racing have been great partners for decades. No need to stop now.

There is no doubt about that but post race dyno is the best deterrent. Obviously they will try to get slick with hiding maps and more but if you have a standardized ECU they should be able to crack down on that pretty good. Also, all turbo cars should be forced to run pop off valves. The fact that forced induction cars are not forced to run pop off valves is beyond me.

I mean hell I have seen this more often at NASA events at the amateur level then I have at grand-am events.

What's the advantage of no BOV?

Pop off valve is different then a BOV..

A pop-off valve is a valve that will release pressure when it goes above a set amount. Meaning that if you are limited to 17psi of boost and you hit 18psi the pop-off valve will pop and you will loose all your air to atmosphere. You can simply let off the gas and the valve will re-seat and you get back on the power. What it does it limits teams from going over the set amount of boost and if they do they have to get off the gas and let the valve re-set before they can get power again. It makes it harder to cheat your boost levels. When this style of valve is placed in a pipe of the sanctioning body's choice it becomes very hard to cheat. The valve is property of grand-am so they would issue your valve at the start of the weekend and inspect it after the race to make sure it has not been tampered. Indy/F1 and Rally all have used them at some point in time.

Ahhhh I thought that was the function of a BOV. Gotcha. Makes sense to me to require that for boosted competition cars.

I dont think the Mustangs or Astons are cheating at all....they dot have to.
I just believe they made more tq and power than grand am thinks they make.
The mustang was also given a ton of stuff before the beginning of the year.
There is really only one Mustang team that has a lot more development than any other Mustang team....but look at its resources.
New tires at Daytona were worth .6 of a second...any other track over here they are +1.5 to 2 seconds. Nuff said

What up with the red Mustang...seams faster than the other ones! I do not remember the team name.

I did not catch your Z at Daytona. Did you race?

It's the Roush mustangs that you're talking about.

And yes the Z was there at Daytona.

Roush as in Jack Roush Jnr... As in Jack Roush snr is his father as I Roush Yates ...yea that Roush
We were P4 w 30 min to go and 5th gear let go.

I saw you Dwnshift and was cheering you on. Wondered what the hell happened. Are you going to be at the Glen in June this year? 6 Hours, Conti 150 or both?
Mick