Think Racing

Crewing in the Charge of the Headlight Brigade 13-hour endurance race

There is no better way to get experience than to participate. This was good advice that I received once encouraging me to crew for a team if I truly wanted to learn about racing.

Inmy 32 years of motorsports expereince, the only crewing I had done was for my dad, but that was back in the early 80s.

I had a chance to participate thanks to Stephen Figura, my instructor from the September PDX event at Carolina Motorsports Park.

Matthew Littleton, SCCA driver and car owner recaps the event below.

WDC Region SRX7s Again Dominate in Enduro

The SM2 Motorsports SpecRX7 fendedoff all competitors and overcame several mechanical difficulties tofinish first in class in the "Charge of the Headlight Brigade" 13-hourendurance race held at Virginia International Raceway on November 4th 2006.

This continues the car's unbroken record of endurance racefirst-in-class finishes and further reinforces the level ofcompetition resident within the Washington DC region SRX7 community. The car qualified 56th out of 80 and finished in 63rd place overall. The night before the race, car owner Matt Littleton took to the trackfirst for the 30 minute night practice session.

Confirming that thecar was in top race form, the car was driven by Marshall Lytle and Steve Figura for the night qualifying session. Setting a blistering pace, they outqualified cars such as the T2 Nissan 350Z (co-driven by none other than Rob Hines). The crack SM2 pit crew sprung into action following the qualifying session, ensuring the car had new brake pads all around, a fresh fuel filter, and was topped off with fuel. Race day dawned clear and cold? really cold. After removing the custom SM2 Motorsports engine block heater (two halogen floodlights) from under the hood, the car was fired up and brought to the grid by SM2 crew member and fellow WDC region SRX7 driver Chris Hubbart. Matt Littleton started the race and spent the first stint easily keeping pace with the two IT7 cars in the field. Marshall Lytle took over approximately 1.5 hours into the race and maintained race pace while also ensuring that the grass in several turns was kept to the appropriate length (which, for the uninitiated, is the ride height ofa SRX7 at full tilt on non-paved surfaces).

After managing to avoid the swarm of SMs, SSMs, and SRFs for over 1.5 hours, Marshall handed the car off to Steve Figura who ensured that the grass previously mown by Marshall had not grown back since it was previously cut. To further ensure that the spectators had an unobstructed view of the action on track, he engaged in a variant of slash and burn tactics known as "spin and burn." Deciding that the smoke from his tires as he exited the track backward in T4 was not enough excitement for the spectators and race officials, he continued his excursion until he reached the tire wall, executed a graceful SRX7 downshift (accompanied by the standard flame thrower effect from the exhaust) and promptly set the grass on fire under the car as he returned to the action ontrack. The firefighting action off the track dominated the race control net, requiring four backup firefighters to extinguish the blaze and ensured that we left our mark at VIR. The SM2 team will be having an internal vote to decide if "Smoky" is now an appropriate nickname for Steve.

The fourth stint of the race again saw Littleton in the car. Prior to jumping in, he was heard to ask, "what the heck is all that grassdoing hanging off the car?" Receiving the standard "I don't know"shoulder shrug from his co-drivers, he assumed that someone else must have brought it on track and leapt into the car following another flawlessly executed pitstop by the SM2 crew.

Several laps into thestint, the smoke filling the cabin of the car (conveniently appearingat the high speed T10 on track) indicated something was amiss. As the smoke momentarily cleared, he had enough time to think? "perhaps that was some of the dry grass catching fire and then burning out."Immediately following this thought, the belt that was being dragged across the now seized water pump finally failed with a loud bang and nearly every warning light on the dash illuminated and the water temp immediately began climbing. Radioing back to Chris Hubbart that he was coming in with an unknown problem, the pit crew was ready to leap over the wall (after Chris issued the emergency round up call) and diagnose the problem.

The car was immediately taken behind the wall to the paddock where Kyle Russert, with the same precision of a trauma surgeon in the ER, took charge of the repair efforts. Putting his RPPerformance experience to good use, he directed the cannibalization ofthe water pump, alternator, and air pump as a complete assembly from the spare engine (also built by RP Performance) as he dove into the now crippled engine and began ripping off coolant hoses. He was heard to utter words to the effect of, "Golly, that really 'is' rather warm"when the boiling coolant shot over his hands and arms. Paying no heed to the pain, he continued directing the repair efforts directly assisted by Travis and John V. The three drivers served as tool-fetchers and had the good sense to get the heck out of the way. Kyle is now under consideration for the nickname "Bolt Killer" as his superhuman strength was just too much for several of the bolts associated with one of the front pulleys. As the repairs were beingfinalized, Joel, Chris, John and Steve led the refueling, tire and brake pad change on the car as Littleton re-strapped in to return to the track. DTR Pam Linger was standing by at the tech shed to ensure the car got the proper paperwork for race re-entry.

Once again in race form, the car continued on but developed an unknown vibration that required several trips to the pits for new tires, re-torquing of the lug nuts, wheel bearing and driveline inspection.The problem was ultimately diagnosed as "it's a SRX7, shut up and drive? you'll get used to it." During this drama, driver Littleton failed to notice the voltage needle slowly moving left as the cannibalized alternator failed. Absent the info that the voltage had dropped, the wild gyrations of both the stock and aftermarket tachometers, coupled by the miss in the engine led the crew to diagnose the problem as a faulty igniter. Kyle again leapt into action and stripped the distributor from the spare engine and installed it into the car as Steve Figura strapped in. After the car failed to turn over due to the nearly dead battery, the car was push-started by the crew and taken back to the SM2 paddock where the alternator swap occurred faster than some of the crew members could walk from the hot pits to the paddock spot and redefined "Charge" ofthe Headlight Brigade for the SM2 team. DTR Pam leapt into the car and rode down to the tech shed to again process the paperwork required for track re-entry.

Steve then brought the car on track, waved to the corner workers that still smelled of smoke, and drove a consistent pace into the night. During this stint, the car also had a rattle and an undiagnosed "ringing" noise on several occasions. This was diagnosed at the next stop as Pam's cell phone that had fallen out of her pocket into the passenger footwell of the car while she rode tothe tech shed in the paddock. Removal of the phone and return to itsowner cured both problems.

Marshall Lytle then assumed driving duties for the longest stint of the race and managed to avoid the still furious SM, SSM and SRF battles occurring at the 12 hour mark in the race. After returning to the pits on fumes, the car required a shot of starter fluid to fire, likely due to the fact that the car's timing was set at "about there"during the hot swap of the distributor. The final portion of the race was driven by Matt Littleton. After taking the checkered flag, he brought the car to impound on pit road where the engine promptly and quite fittingly died at idle.

Rejoicing in their class win, the SM2 crew was heard to say? "So? can we eat now?"A true team event, the outstanding first in class finish and overallbeating of cars such as a BimmerWorld prepared BMW Z3 would not have been possible without the work of the crew. The drivers of SM2 would like to thank: Pam Linger for serving as DTR, Chris Hubbart for hismultiple duties including designated gas can man and supplier ofdistilled water/coolant, John Vacca for going over the wall as wheelman and engine maintenance, Joel Gallun for going over the wall inengine, wheel and other duties, John Counts for duties as team bartender, photographer, and fire bottle man, Fred McConnell for duties in the pits and repairs in the paddock, Travis Ashley for mechanical assistance in the multiple engine issues during the race, Jay Vacca and Cody Linger for outstanding paddock logistics and transportation support ensuring the team was always ready to execute its fuel stops, Kyle Russert for his duties as master mechanic and resuscitator of engines, Keith and Lori Ashley for their support infeeding the unruly mob for the duration of the event.

A special thanks also goes out to: Dave "Kitty" Ade for supplying the drivinglight assembly from his 2003 12-Hour at Summit Point class-winningSRX7 (also co-driven by Littleton and Figura), Bret DePedro for allowing the team to borrow his custom endurance race pit light setup, and Matt Geidl for lending a spare clutch that, thankfully, wasn'tneeded.A fantastic experience, SM2 Motorsports is already planning for its next endurance race challenge!

(Editoral Comment: In the interest of journalistic integrity? and since you read this far ? we were the "only" SRX7 in the race! Inspite of our mechanical difficulties, we did manage to beat one of theother two IT7s in the race. It is also important to note that threefirst-gen RX7s started the race and all three were still running atthe finish of the race.)SM2 Motorsports consists of 'S'teve Figura (former SRX7 driver,currently piloting a SM), 'M'att Littleton (SRX7), and 'M'arshallLytle (ITS/E/R BMW)