We have a new nose and front splitter coming soon that are supposed to create more down force with less drag and less weight. Can't wait to try them out. Our version will be in carbon fiber and without headlights.
Record Setting Pace As Season Gets Underway
Race cars are a finicky lot. They'll up and quit on you in an instant or some times do a slow deterioration that drives you mad. We scratched out of the first race weekend this year when an electrical gremlin showed up that we couldn't fix with the spare parts we had with us at the track. We immediately ordered a new wiring harness from Norma in France, put it in and the problem was solved.
At Laguna Seca a couple of weekends ago, we opened the season with a bang. We were the fastest car on track every session out, broke the qualifying track record by about .7 seconds with a 1:22.261 lap time, won both races, and missed getting the P1 race lap record by a tenth of a second.
This past weekend, we raced in a Majors Series race at Thunderhill. Same result, fastest car on track every session out, broke our own qualifying track record by .5 second with a 1:36.458 lap time, won both races, and missed breaking our own P1 race lap record by a tenth of a second. Watch the qualifying record lap here.
So far, we continue to make good progress in developing the car...we've knocked 4.5 seconds off our fastest lap time set at Thunderhill a year ago shortly after we received our new Norma. We have a few more upgrades in the works too, so more speed to come.
Some Assembly Required
I go down every few days to Jason's new shop in Modesto, it's less than 10 minutes from my home, and check on the progress of the build as the car gets put back together after the winter tear down. I'm posting some pics of where it was a week ago and now today with some serious gearbox work being done. Glad this is him doing the work and not me...this is master mechanic stuff.
Fascinating inside look at F1 in the '70s with Walter Wolf
The man brought Harvey Postlethwaite, Patrick Head, Peter Warr, Jody Scheckter, and the young machinist Ross Brawn together and they won their first race as a new team started from scratch...sounds impossible today! The full length article has even more interesting details including his friendship with Gilles Villeneuve and GV's tragic death.
http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/magazine/from-the-editor/tracking-the-wolf-of-formula-1/
A look back at the Runoffs but focused on 2015
Robert Carpenter just surprised me with a great New Year's gift, a highlight reel from last year's Runoffs experience. For those of you who don't know him, Robert is Cranbrook's COO and communicator extraordinaire. He deftly manages people, organizations, websites, situations, you name it...all with ease. He is the brain behind this website and is trying awfully hard to make me look good. I can't thank Robert enough for his friendship and support in helping us deliver the inside look at Team Cranbrook Racing. Watch highlight reel here or head over to the Race Video page.
Check out our 2015 race schedule on the home page and print a copy. We'd love to have you attend a race this year. Jason and I have big plans for going faster and the development work is underway. The #1 goal is a win at the Runoffs this year so follow along on our "Road to Daytona" journey.
Making a statement about 2015!
We finished the season this past weekend at Thunderhill. We went with only one goal in mind and it was to break the 3 mile track records and prove the validity of our private testing results at this track in preparation for the Runoffs. I'm proud to say we now hold the record for the fastest race lap ever run (1:37.576) at Thunderhill in San Francisco SCCA competition. We also set the new P1 qualifying record with a lap of 1:36.925. The upshot is we look to be very, very competitive at this track for next year's Majors race in April. If you want to watch a track record lap: watch it here
We are formulating our attack plan for next season now and will announce our 2015 schedule in early December. We accomplished a lot in a very short period of time given that we only took possession of our Norma M20FC in March of this year. It looks like we may be able to continue our development work and gain additional speed next year.
What an Experience!
Photo by Fernando Sam Sin
Start of the race. Photo by Wayne Richter
Just got home from the Runoffs and wanted to give a quick update of the "Race" and 'after party'. Finishing on the podium in 3rd with a quality drive and getting to go through that whole experience (multiple media interviews, trophy presentation, sponsor photos, spraying champagne, etc.) was for me a really cool ending to the journey that all started one year ago. Of course I'd have preferred to win and even thought it possible after being the fastest car on track in Q3 and achieving a personal best lap time ever of 1:23.234 with more in reserve, but the car wasn't handling the same on that cool Friday afternoon. Lee and I at least made it an entertaining race--giving the fans a show so to speak. Being able to do that in front of a home crowd of raucous family and friends was something special.
Then to have an 'after party' with all the Team Cranbrook supporters was just a great ending. I couldn't even sleep after it all and replayed the whole thing over and over...life long memories now formed. I will continue to post new photos, links, etc. as they become available.
In the meantime see this article on the race highlights and subsequent interview posted on the SCCA website: http://www.scca.com/events/news.cfm?eid=6670&cid=52070
I get quoted extensively in the article.
Watch the feature length race video courtesy of speedcasttv.com: watch it!
3:50 - Green flag
12:22 - Yellow flag
20:55 - Restart
28:32 - Lee’s pass (not shown)
36:20 - Checkered flag
41:20 - Lee discusses the pass
41:55 - Jim’s post-race interview
Still leading Lee at this point. Photo by Wayne Richter
Photo by Don Huston
Q3 Success--Starting Outside Pole
With the pressure on after yesterday's fiasco, we got it done in only two clean laps at speed right at the start of Q3 by posting a 1:23.258. This was the fastest time of the day and only eclipsed by Chris Ferrell's time from Q1 two days ago at 1:22.986...now less than 3/10s behind. Grid for the race tomorrow is set by your fastest time from all 3 qualifying sessions so Chris will be on pole with me next to him and Lee Alexander in 3rd and Kirk Kindsfater in 4th. I predict the race winner will come from this group as we have seem to have a gap on the rest of the field. Norma was hooked up today and more speed was available. Unfortunately, other cars had issues (like catching on fire) that black flagged our session and cut our track time short. Just glad I was able to get it done and hopefully we can put on a show tomorrow for everyone coming to see the action. Today's times follow: https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/5181430
Gutted by the Laguna Sound Czar
After running multiple weekends at Laguna WITHOUT running afoul of the sound limitations, today we got bit. We were black flagged after only one hot lap and forced to sit out the rest of the session. It seems so bogus given my car is one of the quietest of all the cars here at Laguna regardless of class. The only logical explanation is some how we are getting a weird harmonic with my exhaust aimed directly at the sound meter station. I drove to a local muffler shop and scavenged through his discard pile and came up with the turn out piece shown below. Jason was able to modify it to work and we shall see if we are ok tomorrow. Sound limit here is 103 db and sound Nazi says I was 106 today after never having been near that before. Hopefully all better tomorrow. Worst part is we lost two positions to others who jumped ahead of my yesterday's Q1 time...now sitting 4th. Car felt great in the one hot lap I got and it was a 123.9 so was expecting a good session. Just need to be able to have 3 or 4 clean laps in a row to really go fast. The other cars were able to get that string of laps once I was forced in to the pits.
Let's hope this does the trick.
Q1 Done and Sitting 2nd So Far
Norma is running fine and despite only getting a few clean laps we were able to get within a tenth of a second of our previous best time at Laguna and sit 2nd in the standings. We have two more qualifying efforts ahead and hope to improve our time but pleased with the first effort. We continue to tweak on the setup. See time sheet: https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/5181239?sortmode=qualifying