Friday morning we left the shop early to wash the car and then check the alignment at a local alignment shop in Pavas. The BAD day started when the car wash people put tire dressing on the tires. This looks great but is an oily and very slippery substance which you NEVER put on a race car! We then left for the alignment shop but we were late for our appointment and there were 4 cars in line before us, so we decided to go to another shop. We ended up wasting 3 hours looking for another shop before returning to the original one to get aligned. By the time we got to the track is was 2:00PM in the afternoon! We quickly prepared the car but realised we had left behind some important tools and fasteners for the car. We did the best we could to get the car ready and I suited up to do some later afternoon practice before the day was over. I went out and immediately had very slippery tires (tire dressing). I was going slow to give the tires a chance to wear off the oil but even at reduced speed I lost control of the car in the last turn before the strait away. I was going to exit backwards if I tried to hold it so I decided to drive the car off the track to try to stay off the wall. I was able to drive off and bring the car back onto the track but in the process I lost the front spoiler, bumper, grill, dive planes and bent some metal.
To make things worse we had a major oil leak on the top of the engine which we thought was from a bad Vanos oil line. Then to make it even worse, during testing in the pits we got a low oil pressure light on the dash! We spent two hours trying to figure out why we would have low oil pressure. It turned out that the oil pressure switch had failed (the motor was fine). So we quickly started calling for a new oil pressure switch and got help from BMW Club member Oscar Avilla to go the next morning at 7:30 AM for the part! Thanks Oscar!!!Saturday morning we sent off Luis (Chief Mechanic) to get a replacement oil line, and Javier (Concursante) off to get the spare front bumper and spoiler from the shop in Pavas, and me on the phones to get spare hardware from Valverde Racing. Oscar showed up with the oil pressure switch and the oil light was fixed! Luis showed up with the oil line and we installed it. We worked all morning to put the car together. By mid afternoon we had the car back together but had missed all the practice sessions and the qualifying session (So we were going to start in last place). But as the rain started to fall we finished the car (minus the front spoiler) and I decided to drive it to make sure the car was ready to go. So we went out in the rain and did a 1:50 lap in heavy downpour which is not a bad time with that much water. The car did pretty well and could go faster if pushed, but I was tired of working on the car and did not want to go too hard and crash the car. We worked late and fixed more broken items so we could install the spoiler the next morning.
Sunday was going to be a busy day with four heats plus a morning practice session. We got the spoiler on the car and tested the car successfully in the dry. The car still had a bad oil leak which we could not find because of the huge amount of oil on the engine
. We did not have any time before the first race to do much so we added some camber to the right front wheel and put some more oil in the car and quickly tried to get on the grid but we were late, so we had to start the race from the pit lane exit! This was not too bad since we were going to start last anyway since we did not qualify the day before. As the field passed by they gave me the green flag and I launched the car as fast as possible. I was on the back bumper of Malavassi in 1/4 lap and quickly passed him exiting the lake. Barrantes broke then Rodriguez went off giving us 8th place. Back in the pits we desperately searched for the oil leak. We removed the VANOS solenoid and sealed it with sealer and the removed the cam sensor and found the o-ring was crushed! So we put in a new o-ring and added some sealer and got ready for the next race! We started at the front this time (reverse order) and quickly passed Malavassi after turn one. We tried for Escobar who was slowing but could not catch up with the low power on the straits. We again finished 8th. The car was handling better without the oil getting on the tires from time to time making the car unpredictable. The front rotors are definitely warped now but despite the shaking were were braking well compared to the other cars. The big issue was a lack of power. In the corners and under braking we were competitive but in the straits we were very slow? When we got back to the pits we verified that the oil leak was fixed but now we had a new oil leak from the oil filler cap. This is not good as it usually means that the rings are not sealing well and combustion pressure is pushing oil out of the crankcase. We adjusted the tire pressures and got ready for the next race. We did similar but maintaining the same race lines were a second slower due the the failing power. We got Malavassi followed by Rodriguez who slowed at the end finishing 8th again. For the last race we hoped for heavy rain as we feel the BMW will have the advantage in those conditions but overall the plan was to drive hard and try to gain some positions. I pushed the car and drove aggressively to hold off the other cars. We maintained position in the lead pack twice as long as in the prior races but eventually all the top cars passed us in the straits. The lack of power was very obvious now as it took 3/4 of the strait to get into 5th gear. We passed Malavassi, Chaves broke, Aguilar broke and Barrantes slowed enabling us to pass. We tried for Rodreguez but we were far to underpowered. By the end of the race in light rain we had gained another position and finished in 7th place.After the race we decided to do a compression check on the engine to verify what we knew already. Our compression numbers were #1 105#, #2 110#, #3 135#, #4 110#, #5 120#, #6 105#. For all of those that don't know this engine with the raised compression from the head being cut 1mm should be around 145# on all six cylinders. The motor is dead. We have two weeks before the next race and no spare engine...
We evaluated the weekend and have the following comments:
The excellence of the BMW chassis is evident, as unlike the other cars, we maintained our lap times within 1 second from start to finish. The handling is very smooth and we are able to keep our tire temperatures and wear in balance. The tires are not going away like the other drivers are reporting to us.
The brakes are working well and after some machine work on the front rotors, we should be even better, we experienced no brake fade all weekend and have full confidence now in the brakes. We can still improve them further with an after-market pedal assembly with a balance bar and driver adjustable balance but we are focusing on getting the ABS to work and add a hydraulic adjustment for the driver and a switch to turn on the ABS for the rain.
We were able to reduce the weight of the car from the last race buy 60#! We did this buy removing the bumper supports, some interior sheet metal and simply running less fuel in the tank. We feel we can reduce the weight a further 50# and plan to do so before the next race.
Considering the engine is making 30%+ LESS power than it should we can expect to be VERY competitive with a new engine!!
So what is the plan for the next race??
We are going to see if there is any way to have a new engine ready in two weeks. There are two issues with this. One is the fact we need about $3000 to do this. Two, even if we have $3000 we have very little time to get this done. So we are going to decide today or tomorrow if this is possible. We MUST have a sponsor to make this work. Any help from the Forum for potential new sponsors would be very helpful. I will post an offer in this regards in a separate post but help is a must to keep our BMW effort alive!
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We were rooting for you man :)
I was puzzled as to why you could not close the gap to some of the cars in front on the straights... now I know 
Once the engine is fixed should be no time for you to be running in the middle pack... front pack just a few tweeks away :)
