On December 1st through the 3rd , GST Motorsports took their new Project L Impreza out for its first endurance race (or any race for that matter) with the help of our partner GOTO:Racing. Now, let’s state the obvious: taking a brand new car out to the longest endurance race in North America is sheer lunacy. Nevertheless, this fact—err, challenge—only fueled our desire to get out there with the car. The hard work of our own Tommy Wu and GOTO:Racing’s Brian Lock ensured the fabrication and build work was completed in time.
After more late nights of thrashing than any of us care to remember, we finally got the car ready to dyno with the new motor on Thursday, the 30th of November (that’s right, the day before the test day). Arriving at the dyno bright and early at 7 p.m., we (Tucker from 034 Motorsports and I) were met by our host Paul of DB Tuned, who in the next few days would turn out to be the man of the hour more than once.
At 1:30 a.m. Friday, December 1st , we finally wrapped up our dyno break-in and tune of the motor. The result? Our little 2,550 lbs L was now making 330 whp in low-boost setting and up to 375 whp without stressing the motor at all (thank you Cosworth!).
Two hours later (that’s 3:30 a.m. for those of you counting), Tucker and I arrived at the track and started getting the car off the trailer so the rest of the team could jump in and work on alignment, nuts and bolts, fuel and all the rest. Needless to say the only springing about as usual was done by Steve Lock, principal of GOTO:Racing and typically the first man out of the blocks!.
Turns out there was a lot more to do than anticipated, so after an clear tech inspection we were finally ready to get the L on track around 1 p.m.. Brian, our primary driver, took the L out for the honors of the first laps. As quickly as he went out, though, he came back in complaining that the car was driving like total crap in terms of handling. He reported some serious power on oversteer and issues with braking as well. We decided to get our new driver J.G. Pasterjak (Production Editor of Grassroots Motorsports) out for a spin in the car while we started brainstorming about the problems. With less than two laps under his belt, J.G. returned complaining about the same problems.
We soon determined that while the KW Suspension and Nitto NT01 Tires combination was working great, we needed to soften the rear spring rates to allow for more compression in the rear to keep those wheels in traction.
By the time we got this and a few other things fixed up, it was time for the qualifying rounds, so out went Brian Lock again with what we hoped to be our newly-improved handling.
After a couple of warm-up laps, Brian came back and reported that the car was now much easier to drive, and that the handling was much closer to where it needed to be. With the daylight all but gone and the cars now sporting their night lights, we told Brian to get a couple of fast laps in for the qualifying so we could get as far up the grid as possible. Brian came through—with a 2:00 which was good enough for 4th .
The following morning we gridded up at 10:25 a.m. to find a Porsche GT3 Cup car in pole, a Mazda sports racer in 2nd , a Stock Car in 3rd and our little ol’ L in 4th . Not bad for the first time most of this car's parts had ever seen a track.
No sooner had the green flag dropped than the Porsche and Sports racer really started to stretch their legs. But soon the Stock Car started having mechanical problems and we quickly inherited 3^rd place—a spot which was soon being contested pretty strongly by one of the Diesel BMW’s. During this time, Brian turned our fastest lap time of the weekend—1:59.24—shortly before settling into a steady 2:00-2:02 pace, all the while short-shifting the motor (5500 rpm) and using our lowest boost map.
About an hour and fifty minutes into the race, we noticed smoke coming from the car and realized we had our first real mechanical issue. We called Brian into the pit, and quickly discovered the rear wheel bearing had gone out. We brought the car behind the wall, getting ready to replace it, only to find that we couldn’t locate our spare rear bearings anywhere! Paul from DB Tuned came to the rescue by lending us the rear hub from his street car. We decided to do our first driver change at this point and get J.G. back into the car. Forty minutes later we were ready to get back out on track, and after a couple of laps J.G. settled into a steady pace and reported that all was well with the car.
Forty minutes into J.G.’s stint, however, mechanical issue #2 hit us, with J.G. reporting a loss of power and a lot more exhaust noise. Once again, we called the car in to inspect the problem: this time—a cracked uppipe. With the car (once again) behind the wall in our paddock area, the team scrambled to get the uppipe and turbo out of the car. When they did, we found a hole about the size of a quarter in the uppipe which, with all the heat escaping from it, had managed to cook through several critical lines and parts—including the power steering line and steering bushings.
After careful deliberation, we decided that we could not put the car back to a state safe enough to continue racing without more time and materials than we had. We could, however, manage to get things fixed up enough to where we could at the least take the checkered flag.
With no mention of giving up on the car, the crew began looking for donor parts that they could build into a new uppipe. Lo and behold, Steve Lock’s Acura race car had a 2.25” exhaust system, so off it came and the crew went to work. At some point in the early hours, one of the guys found a wheel bearing that was as bad as the first, and this time we had no donor car to rely on (who let Paul go home, anyway?). Still undeterred, the crew—lead by Tucker and Joel Gat—went on a mission to locate a replacement bearing. The search proved fruitless, so Tucker and Joel (ever-resourceful!) started making one good bearing from several bad ones. By 4 a.m. the car was back together with its newly-fabbed uppipe and homemade wheel bearing. The crew then woke up Chris Lock to turn a few laps and make sure all was well. After five or so laps, Chris came back in reporting all was well and we parked the car—not wanting to risk not crossing the finish line later on in the morning.
At 11:25 a.m., we got Christian Miller in the car for a brief 15-minute stint before handing the “Taking the Checkered” duties to Brian Lock. Christian went out and started running a steady 2:02 pace before coming in to hand the car to Brian. We gave the car a quick once-over to make sure everything looked good, and soon Brian was back on track, settling into a nice 2:02 pace. Suddenly though, with about 5 minutes left on the clock, he went shooting off up the hill of turn one from what turned out to be the power steering line giving out. Pro that he is, he managed to control the off and get back on track, nursing the car around two more laps before taking the checkered.
While this was not the result or ending we’d hoped for, we are all filled with high hopes for this car for the future as we plan to campaign it in the WERC’s series as a more thorough shakedown for the 25 Hour of 2007. Porsche GT3 Cup cars be warned!!
GST Motorsports would like to thank our sponsors for their continued support:
|  |
