SHANNONVILLE, ON – The last 2 events of the CASC SoloSprint series were held at the Shannonville Motorsports Park on September 13th & 14th.  This not only marked the end of the season, but also we’d see the final results of a seasons worth of competition.  Some titles had already been clinched, some were not.  For the MadDogMotorsports team, we only had to show up and turned one timed lap to clinch the Class Championship….but what’s the fun in that.

Saturday morning was chilly and overcast.  A decent total of 51 competitors showed up for the event.  The “Fabi” configuration was set for this event which is 2.23 kms (1.4 miles) consisting of 6 right turns, and 3 left hand turns.  The team had never run this configuration, therefore, this was more of a learning experience than a competition for us.

Ray Vachon at Driver's meeting

After a brief driver’s meeting, open lapping began for approx. 1 hour.  Our first lapping session did not go very well.  The combination of no-experience, and cold tires made for a very slippery experience along with a semi-flat spotted RF tire breaking at the end of the long front stretch.  Joe the Car Chief decided to come for a few laps for the experience.  Results were not much better, and that’s when we noticed the limited slip differential (LSD) was not working at 100% (maybe 30-40%) therefore making any good acceleration off the corners nearly impossible.  We were hoping for a 3rd lapping session, but the way the organizers were doing it this time, it did not work out.

MadDogMotosports' Black Betty in action on Fabi course.

Before heading for the weekend, we had decided on a goal of 75 seconds for the Fabi configuration based on previous results.  The 2 morning timed session didn’t go well out all.  Grip was non-existent and we couldn’t get out of the turns because of the worn out LSD.  First session we managed a 75.851 lap, and a 75.137 on our 2nd timed session.  This was within our goal of 75, but not good enough to top the SGT3 class which was a 73.087.  Over 2 seconds off the pace.  The afternoon sessions were a write-off for almost everyone as the track got greasy, and we only managed a 75.746 best in the afternoon.  Some lapping seat time is in order for this configuration prior to the 2010 season.  Overall, it was a very frustrating day.

On Sunday, only 46 competitors shows up for the last event of the season.  For today, we were running the Long configuration which is the entire facility; 4.03 kms (2.5 miles) which is mostly a combination of the Nelson & Fabi configuration linked together.  We had some success at Nelson in June so that was something to look forward to, but we still had a bad LSD and with all the turns, we knew that was only going to make it even more challenging.

After the morning lapping session, we felt a little more confident as the track felt grippier.  We did not have any goal time for this layout as no one had any experience here yet so it was anyone’s guess.

Our 2 first timed session came in at 125.443 & 125.393 respectively.  Once again, we were 2 seconds behind the pace as first in SGT3 was at 123.369.  In the afternoon sessions we did not improve with a best of 125.864. Now that we have a benchmark to work with, next year, we’re shooting for a 121 second lap.  Big goal?  Yes.  Attainable?  Definitely.

Now that everything was said and done, here is the announcement on the final season standings for the #73 NiagaraSynthetics/AMSOIL MadDog Motorports Trans Am:

• SGT3 Class Champion
• Toyo Top Novice
• 3rd Novice Overall
• 18th Overall Standings

In the end, we are VERY satisfied by our rookie season.  Getting the class championship and a Top 3 in the rookie standings in our first year is truly satisfying.

We would like to take this time now to thank our partners that helped us get good results all year, and a great overall finish;

Talon Tire & Toyo Tire – Overall great service, and great tire.  They help up good for an entire season of abuse on a 3200 lbs car.

Carbotech Brakes – The XP10 pads help up to everything we threw at them including abuse of small tight tracks, and the long stretches of Mosport into turn 8.  Even after a whole season, the pads still have over 1/3 left.  We look forward to working with them again in 2010.

Wildgoose Performance – Thanks for the great support all season.  Great service, great guys, great prices.

And finally…NiagaraSynthetics/AMSOIL – The synthetic products kept the entire car rolling through 30 min lapping sessions with hanging 5500 RPMs, and 150 MPH stretches.

BOWMANVILLE, ON – On Saturday August 22nd, TAC (Toronto Autosport Club) hosted a Tune & Test/Lapping Day on the bigMosport Grand Prix track.  From 9 AM to 5 PM it was non-stop and what we learned about the track and car was invaluable to the success we had the next day.  The weather was perfect for a weekend at the track, and we were glad as Mosport in the rain would have been REALLY scary.

For the lapping day on Saturday, we ran with the Hoosier scrubs from the Koni Challenge series instead of wasting the competition rubber.

The first session we took it easy considering the track was still a little damp from the morning dew.  For the 2nd session, we pushed it a little harder to find that these Hoosiers really had nice grip.  From the stop watch, it looked like we were turning 1:37 laps which is over 3 seconds faster than the July 5th Solosprint competition time of 1:40.3.  The remaining 2 session we worked on different lines for different corners trying to find the optimal line for the car.  Overall, it was a great learning day which transfered to next day’s competition.

We began the day with some morning lapping to check tire temps & pressures, and what we found is that the Saturday lapping/practice gave us more confidence in the car, and handling of the track.  The Toyo R888s were not as sticky, but still felt great overall.

The competition start at around 10:30 AM and we were part of the 1st run group.  We were one of the first cars on the track.  Our first session felt great; car handled great and it felt like we turned a good lap time.  We later found out that we did a 1:38.129 which was over 2 seconds faster than our best time of 1:40.3 in July.  Fantastic news!  When our 2nd timed session came along, confidence was at an all time high and shooting for 1:37s was a definitely possibility.  Unfortunately, it was not so.  We started experiencing clutch slip in 5th gear of the backstraight severely cramping our top end speed, and losing time.  Our fastest lap of session 2 was only 1:38.612.  There was also a bad vibration that developed under braking which meant a warped rotor.  This did not help things at all.

For the 3rd timed session, we weren’t expecting to get much better with an ill car.  The clutch was getting worse, now slipping in 4th & 5th gear, and the brake vibration was also worse.  Our best lap of that session was a 1:38.604, again slower than our 1st session.

Weekend results are as follows;

• 2nd in SGT3 Class (out of 6 class competitors)
• 8th Overall Fastest (out of 55 competitors)
• 5th in Novice division (out of 14 competitors)

Weekend results can be seen HERE.

Overall results HERE.  These will change once the last 2 events are completed, and the best of 6 events is calculated.  Let’s hope we can manage a Top 10 overall.

Even with the car problems for the 2nd half of the day, it was still a great weekend overall.  The experienced we gained of the track & car was worth it.

We’re looking forward to the final 2 events Sept 12-13th at Shannonville Motorsports Park.  The Fabi & Long configurations will be used which again favors HP.