This is an exerpt from Luke and then Doug chimed in. I'll copy them below. The brighton is done. I can't describe the disapointment. It boils down to goofy electrical issues we can't nail down. Likely caused the first problem, and after trying to road tune the second time, we were having the same issues and didn't want to destroy a second engine. From an outsider standpoint, it would seem we were pusing the limits of the engine. But Doug was actually conservative w/ the tune, and it's the same setup we had last year - and that car is still running awesome. A huge thanks to COBB. Christian worked with us the entire time to swap the short block. I took a nap to prepare for the 9 hour drive ahead of us. When I woke up at 2am, Trey Cobb was there helping out, unbelievable. Super nice guys, very nice shops, lots of engineers and computers going on, they really know what they're doing. And i saw the carbon car! Also thanks to: TopSpeed - Doug built a car that could've won. You'll see it at some events in the near future - dominating. Ultimate Racing - turbo kit ftw. Rota - rock solid wheels, as always. Robert Zafaras - he bought my old STi and wanted to pay our entry fee this year. if you need any land development work in Pittsburg, look him up. Thanks Bob. Racing Brake - 6 piston kit ftw. Bill @ SoJax while we talk a lot of smack on the boards, the GSC, SOG, Boxer4Racing guys are all very laid back and groovy. we've all helped each other out along the way - which is part of One Lap. edit: This is Doug, I just wanted to post something techincal since I am sure alot of people will ask. On our way from Mid-America we had our oddesy battery break a plate causing an over charge condition. This cause the large ground wire from the battery to melt, we never caught this problem before going out with the new battery at Miller. At miller the car was breaking up not plugs but the car was physically turning off. Luke made it two laps before the car stated to smoke. During the first two laps we were actually 3 seconds faster than the DaVia porsche and only .5 seconds behind the Hennesey Viper. A very Huge thanks to COBB, they went above and beyond to help us get the car back on the road. When the motor was ot we found that the number 1 cylinder's skirt had broken. At around 3:30am we were done with the shortblock swap and began out drive to pueblo. Arriving at pueblo to a huge crowd of clapping onelaps we started feeling better about our decision. After unloading the car and putting some racegas into it I went out for some road tuning. This is were things got screwy again, the car was not runing or reacting how it should. But would run very inconsitant almost like we had a huge grounding issue or the ecu twas TKO'd. At this point we threw in the towel, not wanting to risk anything and still being able to drive the car back to south bend. Only thing I can assume is when the oddesy battery went it took out more than just the large ground. We will get the car back to the shop and figure out what happend. Expect to see up around as we will be running some of the east coast time attacks. Like the saying goes "see you next year" Doug -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Last edited by lukerussell : Today at 09:05 AM.
Sorry to hear the bad news. But it seems to have brought out other good things! Good luck next year, the subie will prevail......
Man that sucks so bad. I know what its like from when I raced dirt bikes. Traveling the country to have a mechanical issue and not be able to race/finish is the worst. The only positive is that the experience will be very motivating to have a sorted and tested and well maintained race vehicle before traveling. That might not have helped in your case, but would've made the difference a few times for me. Best of luck next time!
Well on the plus side Doug will have an entire year to make this car even better. In the meantime looks like Matt and SS are doing exceptionally well.
One Lap As much as I hate to admit it Doug is a pretty cool guy. I had a good time hanging out with him and Luke on One Lap. I truly hated to see them go home early. I told Scott I was willing to stay an extra couple of hours at Miller to help them get it back together but luckily they had all the help they needed. They had a car capable of winning and I even heard DaVia talking on the cell phone about them. He was worried. The car is awesome and Luke is a great driver. I've got something in the works for next year so hopefully you will see two subarus on the podium. Matt
Just thought I would post here as well. Found out yesterday what happend, the oddesy battery that crapped out on us durring the drive to miller had broken a plate (which we allready knew). Which allowed the polarity of the battery to jump across to the ground (which we also knew). Which in turn melted the ground, blew a couple of fuses and also melted a few of the ground wires under the dash. We caught the blown fuse, broken battery, but not the large melted chassis ground from the battery during onelap or the melted ground wires under the dash. It was these melted wires which we couldn't see untill pulling the dash out that kept us from competing after the new motor was installed. These wires allow the ecu to get a good ground, along with some engine sensors. After further inspection it has shown that our fuel pumps were running about 50% of what they should have been. That along with the lack of a good chassis ground caused our injectors to lean out which took out the number 1 piston. She is all fixed now, ready for some carbon pieces and racing slicks, we are going to goto the larger time attack events that come to east coast. Look for us at the Grassroots Time Attack, Primedia Time Attack, and GT Live. I can not say it enough, A HUGE THANK YOU to all those who helped us make the event. Doug
Glad to hear that you got it figured out Doug. It's the simple little things that make it look like a big issue that in turn make you feel like you were shot in the foot. Keep your head up and plan for next year!