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Coverage | Juha'sSiteCrewing for Team FBR/TransSport Lexus - Puerto Rico Article by: Peter Doane Photos by: Juha Lievonen: www.photosbyjuha.com
I finally got my wife to agree that merging a vacation with the final World Challenge Race in Puerto Rico would be OK and I was able to get her Frequent Flyer seats that matched up with the arrival and departure dates I wanted/needed. The team manager (Thomas Blam) even made the date and room assignment changes with the hotel (Caribe Hilton) for me. Dawn got a little nervous when she perused the Caribe Hilton website and read that room rates started at $200/night, but I kept reminding her that both plane tickets were free (or reimbursed, in my case) and that we would only have to pay for the nights that we were there before the team arrived. When we arrived Sat night, the hotel said there was a "plumbing problem" and our room wouldn't be available until Sun. They drove us to a nearby Ramada Inn, paid that $170 bill, and brought us back the next day. Even better news, was that our room rate at the Hilton (starting Sun) was only $140/night because all the teams were staying there and the hotel was a sponsor of the race. We spent Sunday walking around Old San Juan, Monday lounging around the hotel's beach and pool, Tuesday touring the rain forest called El Yunque, and Wednesday snorkeling off a deserted island from a 50' catamaran. Each of us won $150 at blackjack in one of the casinos, but lost $100 of that another night at another casino.
Three of the regular crewmembers weren't in Puerto Rico, so I was assigned with Franz (the race shop owner) to Tim's car. My regular co-worker, Deiter, was moved over to Fitzgerald's car. That also meant I was on the radio with Tim, while he was driving, but no one bothered to tell me I was primary radioperson. Tim got a little bent out of shape when I didn't answer back right away. The oil temperatures in his motor also started climbing to alarming levels (300 deg F) and his gearbox was acting up, so things weren't going well at all during the 2 Friday practice sessions. We added another oil cooler in series with the first one and that brought the oil temperatures down to a slightly more acceptable 250 deg F. Since the only gearbox we had (that wasn't already in one of the cars) was considered "bad", the only thing we could try for Tim's was changing the transmission fluid and adding a dedicated fan and a heat shield. The heat (90-100 deg F) and humidity (usually about 70%) was really getting to the drivers too, so we added a brake duct hose to each front window opening trying to get more air to them. Brake fade was running rampant with all three cars and bleeding the systems wasn't helping a lot. There was also a rear spring rate change made between the 2 sessions. One of the shop's Puerto Rican customers from way back arranged for his two local mechanics to help us out for the weekend, but their unfamiliarity with the cars almost made things worse. We kept checking over, and sometime re-doing, their work.
I thought Daylight Savings Time would supply me with an extra hour of sleep Sun morning, but alas, Puerto Rico does not practice this lovely custom and I didn't even have time for breakfast in my rush to get ready. We finished up the last of the water-cooled brake systems (securing the tank of water, pump, and the hoses to the brake ducts) and filled the cool-suit coolers with fresh ice. Because we had removed/reconnected the entire front suspension, we also did another alignment on Tim's car. A few laps around the paddock area indicated that the "bad" transmission should be OK. It had been labeled as "bad" because the 4th-to-5th gearshifts were balking and this track didn't require any of that, so we thought it would fine (or at least better). About 20 minutes before the call for our cars to be at the false grid, the dark clouds started rolling in. We prepared the rain tires and consulted with the officials on the last opportunity for changing. Everyone on the false grid kept looking at each other and at the dark clouds (that started spitting rain about 10 minutes before the deadline for changing). When the rain started getting harder, the dark clouds looked endless, and the RealTime Acuras started changing to their wet tires, we changed Tim's car over to wets. 5 minutes before the deadline, he asked us to change them back (because the rain started slacking off significantly) and we just made it. Tim's radio call during the one reconnaissance lap indicated that he felt the gearbox was still bad. They also gridded him in the wrong position (at least at first) for the standing start and his cool-suit shirt developed a leak (forcing him to shut it off), so he wasn't in an optimistic mood at all. On the start, several cars tangled in Corner 1 (including Van Sicklen's Lexus). When Tim slowed for this incident, one of the Puerto Rican drivers in a Honda Civic hit him in the back and sent him smashing into some of the other cars ahead. Tim limped around slowly to the pits cursing and swearing over the radio the whole time. When he pulled in, most of the crew leapt onto the two front fenders that were crunched pretty badly from the billiards-with-cars effects. There were already too many people trying to work on the front fenders and change the front tires, so I started looking over the right rear (which was the initial point of impact) and discovered that the fender was rubbing that tire and was nearly through the sidewall. After changing three tires, prying the body panels away from the new tires, and dialing in visibly reasonable amounts of front toe, we sent Tim back out again. Normally, we might not have bothered for a 37 lap sprint race, but Tim was still leading the Rookie-Of-The-Year (ROTY) standings and every point (they are awarded all the way down to 23rd spot) might matter. Tim pulled in again after one lap and got out of the car. I never did find out why he didn't think it was worth even trying to get some points because he left before the end of the race. It did dry out and Fitzgerald finished 10th (even after slapping one of the concrete barriers) and Van Sicklen (with his crunched front fender) finished 17th. Pushing Tim's car back to the paddock was difficult because something in the front was still rubbing, so it was possible that he wouldn't have finished the race after all, but Tim lost ROTY by 3 points. When we went to check out Mon, all there was of the bill left to pay was our meals and things that we had charged to the room. Thomas had paid the room fees for all 8 days (along with all the other team rooms). Besides the dismal thought of returning to work after 9 days off, our flight home on Monday afternoon was also plagued with a 2 hour wait for our bags in Philadelphia. So ends my Lexus saga for the 2003 racing season. Tim has had no luck securing any manufacturer support for next season and may not want to keep developing the Lexus with his own funds (even though he has started the process of having 2 new ones built up). His options for next season are still wide open, so no one on the team knows what will happen. Mine could be the shortest ever career as a part-time/fly-in race mechanic. We'll see. __________________________________________________________________ Look for coverage on Speed...
Speed Touring - Road Atlanta (Saturday, November 8th @ 1:00 am and 4:00 pm) Speed Touring - Puerto Rico (Saturday, November 15th @ 4:00 pm)
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