Lucky Dog Racing Canada –
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park May 13-14 weekend report:
What a weekend.
We started off by rushing to re-assemble the engine on Friday afternoon. When a head stud started spinning in the block, we half expected that our weekend was over before it began. Fortunately, we installed a heli-coil, and it held up to the required torque spec for the head.
Later in the afternoon, while installing the exhaust on the turbo, a stud in the turbo snapped off as well. We decided to finish assembling the car to make sure that the engine would run, which it did. We packed up and finally arrived at the track just before 8pm on Friday.
Early Saturday morning, we started tearing the car back apart to replace the snapped turbo stud. Unfortunately for us, it broke inside the turbo housing. We missed the Saturday sprint race as a result. Tony, our mechanic/chef, made a quick run to Canadian Tire in Bowmanville for another heli-coil kit.
Finally, around noon, we were able to start up the car and run it. Everything looked good, so we strapped Doug into the car and sent him out to bed in the new front brakes, and scrub in the new Falken RT660’s. An incident-free 40 minute run (almost half of it under full course yellow), and we brought the car back in to check on everything. The repairs seemed to hold up, so we swapped on some well-used Hankooks, then Taylor and myself each did 40 minute test sessions at 80% effort. We called it a day and prepped the car for Sunday’s sprint race.
Sunday morning came, and we were cautiously optimistic. Taylor strapped in for the race, and off we went. It was immediately clear that the car and driver were working well, and Taylor was chasing the #75 Honda Civic of RD Racing for a potential podium. The race itself was interrupted by one of the endurance cars having a hard crash between turns 1 and 2 that led to a 15 minute stoppage. When the race re-started, we were around 2-3 seconds behind the Civic, and well clear of the rest of the sprint field. With one lap to go, we were still around 3 seconds behind, but the traffic gods smiled on us. Taylor closed the gap on the Andretti straight, and pulled even through the Esses, setting up a drag race across the line. Our horsepower advantage came through, with Taylor taking the checkered flag by a nose. Our first win as a team!
Thanks to our partners/sponsors,
Bruiser Automotive & Tire,
Haven Brewing Company,
GoFast Photography,
Fast Wheels and
DriverCal nd thanks as well to the entire Lucky Dog Racing Canada team for putting on another great event.
Now to start prepping for the next race weekend at
Calabogie Motorsports Park.
