The third stop on our Gridlife Touring Cup race schedule brought us to Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan, back in early June. Midwest Festival is a massive event that is packed into a small, rural race track. It is one of the highest-attended events on the Gridlife schedule, with several hundred drivers and more than 10,000 spectators. Add in drifting, a car show, food and merch vendors, sponsor activations, and a 2-day music festival, and you've got one crazy weekend.
I went into Gingerman with high hopes, coming off two points-scoring weekends in a row that nearly tripled my points earnings from the entire 2024 season. After experiencing numerous car problems during pre-season testing and at the first round at CMP, my car was reliable again at Road Atlanta.
The reliability proved to be short-lived. When I came in from Practice 1 on Thursday evening, the scale operator told me he noticed a few puffs of smoke as I rolled off the scales. I figured it was some tire slag burning off the front brake rotors. Upon returning to my paddock spot and inspecting the engine bay, Curtis and I noticed that my Valvetronic gasket was torn entirely. Oil was leaking out onto the valve cover, and a few drops were making their way onto the header, resulting in the puffs of smoke.
I had just replaced this gasket before this event, using the spare that I had kept on hand. We were able to find the gasket at an auto parts store an hour away, which meant I missed Practice 2.
Unforced Errors
After fixing the gasket, I measured the oil level to see how much I'd lost to the leak. Neglecting to realize how much the nose of the car was angled down the hill we were parked on, I added more than a quart to the sump. Seemingly fixed, I headed out for Practice 3 on Friday morning.
I returned to the paddock with the other side of the engine bay covered in oil. We couldn't figure out why. It took two more sessions and a lot of diagnosing only to realize I had simply severely overfilled the oil sump, to the point that oil was pushing up the catch can drain tube and overflowing out of the catch can breather.
While I felt silly for having made such an obvious mistake, I had only missed one practice session. I was able to continue with the race weekend, albeit with a very oil-slicked engine bay.
Competition, and More Bad Luck
I qualified slower and further back than the 2024 Midwest Fest, but started moving up the field in Race 1 and Race 2, which were both mostly uneventful.
Halfway through Race 3, my car suddenly developed a severe drivetrain vibration, despite not having been noticeably shocked or overrevved. I had just passed the pit-in point when it occurred, so I limped it around for an extra lap, trying to diagnose the issue in-car with various RPMs and speeds to see if there were any tell-tale signs.
Curtis was quick to observe that the crank damper had shredded itself, bad enough that the pulley portion was grinding into the front of the engine block. I had three crank dampers at home, but I never packed one in the spares bin, because I didn't realize they failed.
This was not a part that could be found at a parts store, and Facebook Marketplace turned up dry. Since we had some extra time in the morning before the final race on Sunday around noon, Curtis and I drove over an hour each way to a junkyard in hopes of finding a manual N52 crank damper. We got lucky and found one, and made it back just in time to make the race.
Unfortunately, when I started the car to head to grid, it was still vibrating. In hindsight, it wasn't that bad, and I should have gone out to race. However, I sat out Race 4 and watched it on the live stream instead. I didn't miss much, as there were multiple multi-car accidents on the first lap, and the majority of the race was spent under a full-course caution.
Race Results:
Qualified: P31 (1:43.87)
Race 1: P28 (started P31)
Race 2: P23 (started P28)
Race 3: P36 (DNF)
Race 4: DNS
Takeaways and Lessons
For many years, for reasons I cannot explain, I have considered my car(s) as a representation of myself. Often, that means I prioritize the car over myself. In other words, I'd work on the car instead of working on myself, whether that be physically or mentally.
I'm still working on this, but I'm learning to view the car as a tool I use to compete. The car is not a reflection of my personality, nor is it a measure of my worth.
I admittedly left this event a bit distraught because the car was broken, and a part of me felt broken with it. Thankfully, my supportive friends and family helped me realize the error of my views.
Looking Forward
Unfortunately, we only had about an hour after Race 4 to further diagnose my car, and the car hauler was staying in the Midwest between Gingerman and Mid-Ohio to save on transportation miles.
We were left with a couple of theories on what could have gone wrong, and we had three weeks to prepare the necessary parts and tools to fix the car on the road at Mid-Ohio at the end of June.
We'll pick up from here in the Mid-Ohio Race Report. Stay tuned.
Thank you, as always, to the entire Condor Speed Shop race team, ROWE Motor Oils, HRE Wheels, Motorsport Hardware, TortSport USA, and CRC Brakleen.
