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PARTNERS
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News For June 2nd, 2007
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Soggy Crew But Not Soggy Spirits |
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Watkins Glen, NY – Co-op Racing ventured out to New York with Midwest Eurosport in order to provide support
for Porsche Club of America drivers at Watkins Glen Raceway. The exciting events that transpired during the weekend
triumphed over soggy crew and problematic cars. From scorching heat to flash flooding, the crew seemed unaffected
and kept busy with a variety of challenges that arose.
Beautiful sunshiny weather started the weekend off on Thursday during shake down. During shake down, Mike Keck’s car developed a surge when the engine was |
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loaded and the turbo was producing boost. This was a condition seen at the last few
events, but was at its worst this weekend. Crew members rotated shifts working on the car on Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday. Swapping parts from other cars and replacing many other parts, the problem was not getting resolved. It
was not until another team said they had the same problem and found it to be a split air inlet hose. The crew pulled
off the air lines only to find the hose going into the air intake of Keck’s car was split on the bottom side. Fixing
the hose helped, but did not totally fix the issues with the car. Previous changes of the DME did not fix the issue,
but seemed to help. Changing the DME one last time finally fixed the issue. Soon after changing the hose and DME,
Keck was back on the track pushing the car to the limits.
Shortly after putting Keck back on the track, he broke the left front ball joint. This was the same component on the same side he had broken at Road Atlanta a few months earlier. Eurosport crew made quick work of replacing the ball joint. Keck was released to the track once again, but at this point dark clouds loomed over the event, not just him. Keck was not the only one to have trouble this weekend. Steve Pattee was another lucky Eurosport driver to enjoy car problems. On Friday, his clutch was not engaging correctly and at times would stick. His crew chief, Jason Hartnell, began by adjusting the linkage, which at first seemed to help. Steve decided to put a new clutch in the car, so the Eurosport team pulled the transmission and mixed parts to make a good set. Saturday morning began with the final adjustments to the clutch linkage and Steve was back on the track turning laps. During the sprint races on Saturday, rain started to sprinkle on sections of the track. Since the drivers went out on slicks, many started to come into the pits. A couple of teams changed to rain tread, but most just went to the garage. Communications between Pattee and Hartnell lead to Steve skating all over the track in low visibility to finish the race first in class. After the race Pattee was greeted in the garage with comments like “Your crazy!” and “Are you nuts?” With a grin from ear to ear, he shared the stories with the crew and other drivers. Later that day a corner worker even came to tell Steve how amazing he was sliding the car on the edge of control around the turns. Sunday morning started with a little cloud cover, but seemed like it was going to be a great day for endurance races. Cars were prepped and ready for the endurance races. John Muller ran in the first endurance race that without major events. Six Eurosport drivers began the second endurance race. About half way through the race it started to rain. The crew scrambled to prep tires so drivers could pit and get rain tread. As communication to the drivers began it started to pour down rain. Within minutes pit lane became a river, and the race was red flagged and finished. Just before the flag was thrown, Gary Boss slid into the retaining wall while co-driving Pattee’s car. All the other drivers made it back to the garage safe but wet. With the races over and rain still falling, the crew packed the rigs so they could head for home. It was an action packed weekend that was plagued by little problems and a lot of rain. Hopefully the next event with NASA at Mid America Motorplex on June 30th will be a little less wet. |
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SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR RACING PARTNERSEurosport Racing is a premiere Midwest Porsche street and race specialist. They specialize in Porsche service, track support and transport, engine design and rebuilding, dyno tuning, and suspension setup and alignment. They also offer a full line of OEM, aftermarket, and high performance parts and accessories. More information on Eurosport Racing can be found at www.midwesteurosport.comKauth and Mayeur provides the finest import services in Peoria, IL. They offer a wide range of maintenance and repair services for import cars. Specializing in high performance streetcars. Kauth and Mayeur can be reached at (309) 673-1412 or http://www.kauthmayeur.com. |
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