Lisa Devlin's Racing Diary

Double Regional at SPIR

by Lisa Devlin

What do you mean Double Regional at Sears Point? What happened to Laguna Seca? I think the Tire Incident was trying to tell me something. When I didn't listen, my roommate kind of put the final nail in the issue and so the car is up for sale and I'm not going for points this year.

I still wanted to do the Double Regional. So, instead of more about Laguna Seca, this diary entry is about the Regional at Sear Point.

With the new muffler the car sounds GREAT. Loud enough to annoy the neighbors. Since the race at Thunderhill, I finished taking off the rest of the smog (namely vacuum) lines and put the muffler on (well, I took the car to Custom Muffler to have the muffler put on).

While the muffler was being welded on, the shop noticed a gas leak from the carb into the exhaust. This is a problem. This would also explain why the car was hard to start; it was flooding. I picked up the car Wednesday night before the race and practice was on Friday morning, so I had 24 hours to find the problem or take the car off the trailer and spectate (and I was at the end of my Mazda knowledge).

So Thursday I drove around with my car in tow, ready to take it to where someone who knew something could look at it. I figured it was probably just a "duh" problem and I'd done something wrong in removing vacuum lines (although that's probably the simplest fix on these things).

I ended up hauling it down to Paul at Rotorsport. He looked under the hood and spotted the problem immediately. It seems that we were a little overexuberant in plugging vacuum lines and had inadvertently plugged the carburetor vent. Duh.

Ted had to work Friday so I was pretty much on my own for practice and qualifying. I knew everyone around me, but they all had their own cars to get to the track, so there was a moment of panic when I went to start the car to let it warm up while I changed and found out I had a dead battery. I changed and recruited a few people to help me push the car out of the pits and get it going to bump start it.

I arrived at grid half put together, couldn't let off the throttle in case the car died. I made it out on the track and was just finishing a warm up lap when I see frantic waving flags through Turns 9 and 10. Someone had stuffed it in 10 and the entire track was blocked with car, tires and tow truck. I stopped and waved my hand out the window. Someone still went blowing by me. Not wishing to cut up my tires, I waited till the tow truck waved me by.

We waited on grid for quite a while for the incident to be cleared. I was a little worried about whether the car would start, but I figured it would be easier to get help pushing it on grid. The car started with no hitch and everyone bunched up on the first lap. As I was turning into Turn 4 (downhill left hander) I felt a bump from the back. This is ridiculous, people. This is PRACTICE.

As I got out of traffic, I started noticing that I had no power. Wait a minute, that was supposed to be fixed with removing the smog and adding the muffler. The car was running at the perfect temp. Nothing appeared to be wrong, just whenever I went below 5000 rpm I had no power. I was checking turn rpm's and I was revving higher than usual (shifting sooner, etc.) so I figured I wouldn't worry until I looked at my lap times. Timing and Scoring didn't have the computers running yet, so they didn't have anything on me, and I didn't have a crew, so I wasn't sure if it was time to panic or not.

Then came qualifying. YECHHHH! There were a few times coming up into Turn 2 that I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the top of the hill. When I lifted to downshift I just lost it completely. This is no fun. Then I got my times - 2:12. This is 6 seconds off my best time here. This is what happened at T-Hill. Maybe it wasn't the heat. Something was seriously wrong.

I lifted the hood and the engine was still there. That wasn't the problem. I saw nothing obvious and I was expecting to have to drive back to the Bay Area to pick Ted up, so I figured I'd worry about it in the morning. I ended up not having to pick Ted up - but that whole drama is another story.

In the morning we pulled the plugs - they looked perfect. A couple of them were a little loose, so I kinda hoped that might be the problem (you know, the spark not close enough - I'm sure you Mustang people are saying "that chick's whacked" but you Rotary people are nodding your heads saying "yes, the distance the spark plug is in the rotor is an important factor, but she's grabbing at straws." I was grabbing at straws.)

While I was at it, I checked to make sure all the ignition wires were attached fully. Everything looked OK and I had to be on grid for the sprint race so I figured I could last it out for fifteen minutes and get back to the drawing board.

The sprint race was OK. It wasn't long, so I only got lapped by the two lead cars. I also had a pretty good race going with a Pinto (yes, the same Pinto from driver's school, but with the owner driving.) I really knew something was wrong now. I can usually pull away from the Pinto, but today I had to work my butt off to keep up to him. Every lap I was getting closer to him, but couldn't get the acceleration out of the turns to actually pass (yes, I was full throttle).

As the pit board got more and more depressing, I just concentrated on getting past the Pinto. I saw Ted on the wall, waved to him and pointed at the Pinto - next lap, he's mine. Without power, my best bet was to outbrake him. We got caught in passing traffic at the top of the track and I lost him between Turns 2 and 4. I caught up with him by late braking into 7. Almost, but not quite. Without power, I was going to have to wait until 10 or 11. I came out of 10 on his tail, went into 11 on the inside, braked late and got around him.

Following the race, we rounded up diagnostic tools and brain power. We got a second opinion on the plugs (again - perfect), we checked the throttle for full open (no problem), we checked the vacuum advance for the secondaries (fine), we checked the timing (set to spec), and as a last ditch effort, we checked the compression. The front rotor was fine (90) and the back rotor was "marginal, but OK" (75). Nothing that should be causing the power drain I was getting. I put the car back together and figured the motor was toast and I'd be putting in a new one, or selling the car "as is" for less than I had originally planned on.

The second race was pretty uneventful. No one to race with. I wasn't having fun, so I withdrew from the second race on Sunday.

That night at the social, I was talking to Kevin Rogers and his crew chief Carl. They said they'd been watching me at Turn 2. They said I looked really good and smooth, I just needed to get on the throttle. I was on the throttle. I proceeded to tell them of the trials and tribulations of the day. They both came back to the timing. Timing is critical in a rotary (Kevin used to race and RX3) and you need to play with it. (For you non-rotary types - Have you ever tried to time a car with two #1 plugs? Me neither. And there's no explanation in my manual. I kind of understand the theory, but I had gotten someone else to check it for me.) Kevin said he'd check it for me in the morning...

Well, guess what? The price of the car just went back up. Kevin played with the timing (it was way off race specs) and I took it out to the access road at SPIR. (You know the hill that goes back to the parking.) I put it in second gear at about 4000 rpm and pointed it up the hill. It zipped right up.

So, now it's bleed the brakes and be ready for Laguna this weekend. Maybe the last race with the RX7...?

To send a letter to Lisa, email to devlin@thunval.com

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