Just finished my first endurance race in a 1g DSM!

s1ngletracker · 07-27-2015

Very first outing, took 4th out of 12 in class and 7th overall at the 9 hour World Racing League race at Raceway Park of the Midlands (Formerly Mid-America Motorplex) in Pacific Junction, IA. I was joined by our very own Shane@DB.

This car has incredible capability. Very rough stab at a suspension setup cobbled together from old hand-me-down parts and was able to personally put down the 2nd fastest time in the GP2 class.

Learning how to drive AWD. Handling was very good as long as you kept the throttle matted. We had some lift off oversteer but if you kept the weight transfer over the rear wheels the damn thing would stay very planted.

Unfortunately on sunday it started having some weird misfire issues so we decided to trailer it before we caused serious damage.

Loving it and looking forward to more racing!

**goodhart** · 07-27-2015

Congrats! You need to get some of the build pics on here

s1ngletracker · 07-27-2015

Now that I can spend more than 5 minutes a day outside the shop, I think I will!

**Tachyon** · 07-27-2015

Car looked good out there, Paul. Did you guys experience any cooling issues in that heat while in traffic?

s1ngletracker · 07-28-2015

No, the only time it really seemed to heat up was on friday practice. Other than that, temps stayed really reasonable.

**Halon** · 07-28-2015

Very cool, saw some of your pics of FB. Congrats !!

**Goat Blower** · 07-28-2015

Good to see some DSM love in the racing scene again.

s1ngletracker · 07-28-2015

I already surprised a lot of people I think. There was another 1g that was packed full of aftermarket parts and sloppy work (FMIC, 16g, AFC, etc) and blew up after 7 laps. That's the sort of reputation I hope to change!

Unfortunately we had some minor issues on sunday - misfire and an oil leak (shame on me for using a spectra oil pan, it started leaking at the baffle spot weld) , it was really hot (another upper 80/lower 90 degree day, friday had a heat index of 120), we didn't feel like working on it, and we just decided to trailer it to be ready for gingerman in late august.

**scheides** · 07-28-2015

Any pics of this whip? Freaking awesome!

s1ngletracker · 07-28-2015

a few blips of our car in this video:
https://www.facebook.com/SopwithMoto...3498185524493/

s1ngletracker · 07-28-2015

For various reasons we couldn't get it much lower for this race, and sans windshield:

curt_gendron · 07-29-2015

That is awesome. And I agree its nice to see a DSM out there being very competitive!

s1ngletracker · 07-29-2015

I'll be posting a build thread for this soon. This community has a staggering amount of DSM knowledge and I'd love to harness some for the benefit of racing this thing. Stay tuned!

**asshanson** · 07-31-2015

What sort of times were you seeing at MAM? And what were the top competitors getting?
Congrats on being 4th in class! Good to see a DSM doing work on track.

Edit: are you guys using slicks or street tires? I.E what type of event was this?

s1ngletracker · 08-01-2015

World Racing League, 9 hour race saturday, 7 sunday. GP2 class. My best time was a 1:49.7. Street tires. GP1 class cars were around 1:45 for the top time I think (boxsters, corvette)

**Shane@DBPerformance** · 08-03-2015

We are limited to 180 or higher treadwear street tires. The DSM handled fairly decent for stockish replacement shocks and budget suspension work. It doesn't have much power, so it's not making up much time in the straights.

s1ngletracker · 08-03-2015

My fuel setup, which I was pretty proud of, and worked great in 100+ *F.

**asshanson** · 08-05-2015

That's awesome guys. Let me know next time you run at MAM, if I don't have plans I'd definitely like to come see some racing (only 2 hrs from me).

And BTW that fuel setup looks so terrible...... lol
Of course I'm kidding, but I'm curious about a couple things. Just at the output of the lower/final pump, there is a secondary line to the FPR. Is that a "T" there? It looks like it but I see no fitting. But if so, I like how it's diverted back to a vertical surge tank so the slosh doesn't affect it on corners, a very good setup.

Last question which I've always wondered, does significant back pressure on a pump hurt its life? In your setup you have 2 pumps feeding the surge tank, but most of the time that's not really needed, so they are forced to provide much more than required volume. Consider below scenario:

Pump 3 at bottom is acting as feed for the fuel system. 99% of fuel from the regulator is passed back into the tank at idle.
At the same time, pumps 1 and 2 (top) are trying as hard as they can to push new fuel to the surge tank.

So you get all 3 pumps trying to put fuel pressure into the surge tank. I've never understood how this doesn't cause pumps to fail. Maybe in real work scenarios it works, and maybe I'm missing a key physics element.

EDIT: or maybe the surge tank is at like 150+psi, but I would assume the FPR would be affected at that point, delivering higher than desired pressure alwyas.

s1ngletracker · 08-05-2015

You're very close, but bottom pump is lift pump feeding surge tank

**Shane@DBPerformance** · 08-05-2015

The 2 main pressure pumps don't run at the same time, one is backup pump that can be switched to on the fly when one of the pumps starts failing in the middle of a race, which has happened many times.