This weekend was the third Nasa Midwest weekend at the Autobahn Country Club in 2011. Being just the following weekend after Nationals the overall attendance was a bit on the low side. TTS had only three entries on Saturday.
The first session of the day was a cool one and the track was still cold. Great for horsepower but a bit low on tire grip until things warmed up.
In just the second session of the day something wasn't feeling right with the car. A lap time of 1:35.2 was ran despite the car not getting off the corner very well at all. After spending some time going over the car in the paddock on Saturday the problem could not be diagnosed. The car was running on four cylinders, but one of the cylinders was running much cooler when comparing exhaust manifold temps for each cylinder.
Two events in a row the car was finished for the weekend after just the second session on Saturday. Luckily the time that was ran in the second session proved to be fast enough to secure second place in TTS on Saturday.
Sunday we awoke to rain that would end up sticking around for the entire day. In order to get some points for the season Jeff borrowed and drove an Infinity G35 in the last session on Sunday. This was a strategic move towards securing points for the season that would prove to be helpful.
After spending much time and effort trying to diagnose the problem, it was finally discovered that the car had a broken exhaust valve spring which meant the car was not making power in one of the cylinders. In order to get this fixed the head was pulled, head job done and new valve springs installed. All of this was able to be completed in just 3 days to make sure the car was going to be ready for the upcoming season finale event at Road America. Thanks so much for all the hard work Dad in getting this issue resolved!!
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