Results from SCCA national at COTA

[James A]

Well, Caterhams fared quite well at the SCCA Super Tour event at COTA! In a field of 85 cars in the Production class Caterhams finished 2nd and 6th, and that is in a field that included 4 podium finishers from previous SCCA National Run Offs. It seems that our lack of hp was not so much a disadvantage as we thought going in, that's as long as you used every drafting opportunity you could on the long straight away. Even more rewarding is the fact that many of the teams we beat are quite well funded with professionally built engines and maintained cars. I know that Mike built and tuned his own engine for his Caterham and I did the same for Andrew, and when it comes to support mechanics Mike does all his own work and Andrew and I do all the work on his car.

Below are the Sunday results. Oh we did well on Saturday finishing "third" but,,, got moved back three finishing spots due to a flag violation, and the car was stuttering the last two laps due to low fuel, brain lapse on my part on the fuel.

Great track, and much more Caterham friendly than we thought it would be.

Jim

COTA results 3:13.pdf

Edited March 11, 2013 by James A

[scannon]

Congrats to Mike and Andrew. The only Se7ens in a field of 85 and they got second and sixth!

[Kitcat]

Great results, thx for keeping the se7en spirit alive at the track!

 

What makes the Miata so competitive? At a typical track day I am a handful of seconds faster, per lap, but in this SCCA race, they got 3 of the 4 top spots.

[James A]

Trust me these are not your run of the mill Miata's these are FrankenMiatas that the SCCA has given free hand to for mods. The winning Miatas are built by Prather Motorsports and are have very little in common with the street car. Basically you have a stock Caterham with maybe 160 hp at the rear wheels racing a purpose built race car with 230 hp (?) at the rear wheels. If you look at the results sheet I attached you'll see that something like 50 of the 85 cars in the small bore production class are Mazdas.

[Kitcat]

Yes, I did read those results and was struck by Miata's success. Are you tempted to switch to a Miata then? (Mite at least be fun to do a back to back comparo at a track day and see wh/car is really faster).

[James A]

To run a competitive EP Miata is some serious dollars, getting a chassis is not cheap and the engines are so stressed at a competitive hp that you go through one a season. Add to that a dog box that won't last very long either.

But, I would love to try a competitive EP Miata back to back with our car, I suspect we would find the Caterham out brakes the Miata, has similar grip levels, Caterham turn in would be sharper, acceleration to 80 - 90 mph similar, above 80 Miata runs away because of both hp and far superior aerodynamics.

Don't get me wrong, the Miata that won EP is driven by a fantastic driver, Matt Reynolds, add to that a professionally built car, and a professionally maintained car. Our effort has an engine built by me and a car maintained by me. But it is fun driving up in our 18' trailer and seeing all of the transporters, and big dollar teams we pound on. The same is true of Mike Caterham, he has done all the work on that car and he beats most of the field at any given race.

[twnpipe]

Congratulations on what must be extremely well driven cars. The miata's can be built up to lots of HP but the S2000's start with 240 hp! Good pit crews are essential and even professionals crews miss something all the time. Well done.

[James A]

A great photo on lap one from Sunday. The run order is Mazda, Mazda, Caterham, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda, Mazda, Caterham, Mazda, Mazda. and yes that is an RX-3 in the lead, that car is a rocket ship, and well driven by Aaron Downey. The eventual winner is in second in the silver MX-5.

Edited March 12, 2013 by James A

[sdca7]

The SCCA Miata drivers out here trade paint and bump draft like it's a requirement. How does it feel to be out in a field like that in a Caterham?

 

Justin

[James A]

Yea, there is a lot of debate about the SM "double dipping" in to the Production class as an STL car and some good arguments both ways. Our issue throughout the weekend was that the some SM drivers continued their races in to the Production class as STLs and did not pay attention to passing flags as they were lapped or saw them and ignored them and in several cases turned down in to us after seeing the flag. Look they are involved in a race also, but need to understand that this is the Production Class and when you see the passing flag you need to get the frick out of the way of the race. Or as one SCCA official described it, when the passing flag is waved at you it means that there is a race going on and your not in it!

And your right, SM drivers have no reservation about "bumping" each other and those around them, and it does not take a lot to knock a wing of our Caterham.

The rules say they can run in STL, the club generally wants the revenue, and that's fine, but if your running the the Production class, watch your mirrors, obey the flags and allow the P cars to race each other in their class.

A lot of discussion about this subject in the SCCA and Production racing forums, and I have to say some good points on both sides of the debate.

[dallasdude]

Jim, you are very kind. Not a good weekend for me....We towed back to Dallas Thursday night and changed the clutch. Only got part of one practice session in the rain by the time we got back to Austin and spent the rest of the weekend digging myself out of the hole.

Andrew and Matt are two very talented drivers. I think Matt has a very good chance of winning everything this year at Road America.

I think most of STL cars worked pretty hard when being lapped to get out of the way, of course by the time I was there.....Matt and Andrew and a couple others had already blown by so they were used to being passed.

COTA is an amazing facility. The paddock was overwhelmed by the 500 cars at our event.

For most people, they saw the widest speed range of any track they had ever run on.....about 35 to 125 for most production cars. Our gearing vs the Jerico most of the cars we compete with use hurts. I had several people tell me the used all five gears every lap....for the first time ever.

I think if they have the runoffs there, Caterhams can be competitive, but the SVT setup might be the way to go.

[Kitcat]

500 cars!!!!!!!!!!!

What is Jerico gearing, ditto SVT setup?

Have you ever run at RA? I think speed differential there is huge also (tho have never run, only spectated).

If Matt wins there it will because of driver skill, not car advantage (and watch out for that last lap-like you don't know:)).

[James A]

The SVT Mike refers to is the engine out of an SVT Focus, seems that the heads breath better and are capable of some hp over the standard Focus or Contour Zetec. The downside is you are required to run an extra 100 pounds of weight, but as Mike says the hp advantage on the straights would be a big help. Although, I have never seen any Caterham run as fast as yours Mike, I need to figure out your hp secrets!

The Jerico transmission that "production" Miatas can run is a racing "dog box" that is worth seconds of time on many tracks. This is another example of the screw ball rules SCCA has handed down, Mazdas can run a purpose built racing dog box in a production class, Caterhams must run the bone stock Ford T9 box with stock ratios.

[James A]

Mike, nice battle with Mark B.!

[dallasdude]

Mike, nice battle with Mark B.!

 

Yes it was...I shouldn't complain. I did have a lot of good solid clean racing. After the clutch repairs, the car was pretty good. Who knows with Sebastian Vettel's little brother (Andrew) behind the wheel instead of a fossil it might have been off in the distance.

 

Most of the cars in the class do have the option of a true racing transmission, a close ratio syncro transmission, or a stock one at about 50 pound increments. The Miatas like Matt's have to weight 700 pounds more at the end of a race than a Zetec Caterham. About 600 with a stock transmission. His car has an engine that is less limited in preparation, but has 150cc's less displacement. I believe the rulesmakers thinking is with the torque of the Caterham 2 liter engine and the very low weight, then the non stock transmission options are not necessary or fair. No other car in the class with a 2 liter engine weighs less that 2000 pounds. Saves a lot of money for Caterham racers for sure. A racing transmission and a spare are a five figure proposition. I can't make the 1460 Caterham weight with driver, but adding 6-700 pounds of ballast to match the other cars is not safe or practical. Lotus 7's in FP can use a racing transmission, but the little non crossflow 1500 has far less torque than a Zetec.

 

My original comment....alluded to fact that at COTA the stock ratios seemed to hurt more than other places for Caterhams. I wasn't there, but I understand at Hallett last weekend Matt broke the racing transmission, put one out of a Spec Miata in and still won.

 

Anyone who has a chance should at least try to attend an event at COTA, even if it is V8 supercars which I think are running the short course. I believe they cancelled all the track day events for this year, so not much chance of driving it. Other than the fact the flag stations were pretty impossible to see and not enough room for the number of the huge rigs some of the SCCA teams have, our event came off pretty well so I hope we can race there again.