BURROWS: Clutchless In Miami
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Kinetic Motor Sports drivers Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood
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March 9, 2010
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2008 Continental Tire Series champ Adam Burrows shares some wrenching tales about cartoon anvils falling from the sky at Homestead last weekend.
As a driver, it's impossible to go into a race weekend without envisioning everything going smoothly.
As you pack your driving suit and helmet, you review the schedule in your head and think about how you are going to tackle each session . . . whether it be to sort out the chassis of the car, or up your personal game by practicing pit stops and driver changes. And maybe because, as a driver, you crave being behind the wheel so much that you just don't want to imagine not being on track for every available moment.
But, as we all know, when external forces intervene, there are times when those best laid plans just have to be crumpled into a ball and lobbed into the trash.
That was pretty much the case for my co-driver Trevor Hopwood, and me this weekend for the second round of the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.
Sequestered between the outskirts of Miami and Everglades National Park, the palm tree lined Homestead Miami Speedway is familiar to many, not only for it's striking turquoise retaining walls, but also as the venue for the final round of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.
Although most will catch the stock cars or Indy Cars tearing around the one and a half mile oval, much like Daytona, Homestead also houses a 2.23 mile road course . . . which, surprisingly for south Florida, even contains a modicum of elevation change! This Grand Prix of Miami weekend was a bounty for sportscar racing fans as, in addition to Continental Tire, the packed schedule included great races from the Rolex Sports Car Series, Ford Racing Mustang Challenge and the Skip Barber National Championship.
Fresh off of a productive test between our last round at Daytona, Trevor and I arrived that the track early, anxious to get behind the wheel of the #12 Kia Forte Koup to see how the new developments would work at Homestead.
Although the Kinetic crew had done a fantastic job of going through the cars with a fine-toothed comb, our car chief, Lee Web, noted a "soft" brake pedal before we even turned a wheel on track. A review of the entire braking system uncovered a misaligned fitting that was the source of our problems. Unfortunately, the required repair meant that we would even step into our racing boots, much less behind the wheel, for the first on-track session. Not a huge concern though, as we had plenty of track time left in the weekend. And, as any driver will tell you, brakes are kind of important.
With the brake repairs sorted, we got into our gear and got ready for our next session. With Trevor at the controls, an initial installation lap confirmed that everything was in order in the braking department and we could get down to the business of sorting the handling for Homestead's twists and hairpins. It is a two-part track—flat out for the oval section of course, and then a key focus on mid-corner/exit speeds for the tight, abrasive, infield sections.
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Kinetic Motor Sports car #12, repairs
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A few minutes into the session, I hopped up into pit wall to take a look at how the rest of the field was going, only to see that Trevor was running at an extremely reduced pace. Trev radioed in that the clutch was slipping and brought it into the pits for a quick bleed. Unfortunately, this didn't solve our problems and it was back to the garage to take a closer look at things before the next session. As this is a brand new racecar, teething issues like this are part of the development process and, as drivers, it's our job to communicate exactly what's happening with the car and where it's happening on track.
After a series of adjustments that we thought might solve the problem, I hopped in the driver's seat to take to the track for our last session. On the first lap, as I accelerated out of Turns 6 and 7, it was almost gut-wrenching to feel the clutch slipping. I thought about how, at that point, we had lost valuable track time to learn more about the car and, in the back of my mind, I knew that getting at the clutch on this car would be a substantial, time consuming operation.
I came into the pits for a re-bleed and some adjustments to the clutch pedal travel but, to no avail . . . it was back to the garage. A few hours later, after some hard work from the guys, I was staring at an empty engine bay while the car got a new clutch. So that was that, test day done, a total of seven laps between us, and we were no closer to sorting the chassis. Applebee's was calling.
As we got to the track the next morning, I think both Trev and I were feeling the pressure of being a little behind the eight ball. After all, qualifying was today and we'd really done next to nothing to sort out the handling of the car. Fortunately, the #10 car (so-named to promote Kia's 10-year warranty—these Kinetic guys are thorough!) of Nic and Andy had run flawlessly throughout the weekend and we were able to adopt their suspension set-up. Good to have teammates you can lean on at a time like this.
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Kinetic Motor Sports car #12, Adam Burrows and Trevor Hopwood
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Due to the scope of work required to complete the clutch, we would miss the morning practice session while the reassembly was finalized. At this point we were beginning to see the humor in being at the track but not actually driving a racecar. As much as we hated to watch rather than drive, it was hard to be frustrated given all the effort that the guys were putting in to getting the car ready to go.
We would make the second practice session but, as I accelerated through the gears, I knew things still weren't right. With trepidation, I pressed the radio button, "Guys, I hate to break this to you but, we've still got a problem." After all of the hours the team had put, that was NOT the call I wanted to make. I returned to the pits a few times for a bleed and some adjustments to the throw of the clutch pedal but, still….to no avail. I turned behind he wall, slowly making my way back to the garage, having the sinking feeling that we wouldn't be qualifying the car and wondering what we were really up against.
Later that afternoon, Trevor and I stood in the Kinetic pit box to watch Nic qualify the #10 Forte Koup while the engine and transmission were taken out of our car for the second time in twenty-four hours. As all of our friends and competitors rolled down pit lane, I leaned over to Trev and mentioned how odd it felt that we were both standing there watching the qualifying session . . . something that had never happened in all the years we've raced together. That evening, with the guys still replacing the gearbox, Trevor and I would leave the track with a total of just ten laps between us over the past two days and wondering what raceday would bring us.
We got to the track early Saturday, knowing that our 8:30 practice session would be our final chance to see if our problems had been sorted. When we walked into the garage, it was great to see the crew calmly tidying up some final details on the car. No shouting, no running around . . . it was uplifting and confidence inspiring.
I strapped into the car with some anxiousness. As I gently put the car in gear and rolled out onto pit lane, I knew this was our last shot before the race. Being careful with every shift of our new gearbox, I headed out on track but, as I accelerated out of turn 4, my heart sunk as I saw the telltale a rapid rise in revs and felt the lack of forward motion. You can imagine my ambivalence about once again pressing the radio button to tell a group of guys who had been slaving away on this car that we were still fighting the same gremlin that had been plaguing us for the past two days. Again, we attempted to make adjustments with the throw of the clutch pedal. And, though it did improve, there continued to be some slippage.
At this point, I was beginning to think that this weekend was simply not meant to be. It's easy to be frustrated but, with something like this that's out of your control, you really just have to roll with the punches. Our car chief, Lee, was clearly dismayed . . . and I felt for him. There wasn't a moment this weekend that I saw him anywhere but in, or under, the car covered in dirt and grease. With a new clutch, gearbox and slave cylinder in place, we made the decision to replace the clutch pedal assembly and master cylinder for the race. Could this be the final piece to a seemingly unsolvable puzzle?
As it turns out, yes, it was. Even on the pace laps prior to the drop of the green flag, just feeling the clutch grab and hold throughout the rev range was heartening. And, reassuringly, laps into the race, everything was working perfectly. I relayed to Lee and Trevor that care needed to be taken with the new gearbox but, otherwise, it felt like we were in great shape. Though we had a slight hiccup in our mid race pit stop, Trev hopped in and brought us home to a solid 17th pace finish . . . an improvement over Daytona and a testament to the reliability of the car. Additionally, Nic and Andy brought the #10 car home in 20th, giving Kia it's first double finish in North America.
For sure, this was not an easy weekend . . . particularly for the guys turning the wrenches. Yet, as foreboding as things looked for the first few days, the outcome was intensely gratifying. Additionally, we can feel the car getting better as we make our way up the grid. Barber Motorsports Park is next on the calendar, a bit of a "home" race for Kia, as their new factory in West Point, GA is only a few hours away on the AL/GA state line.
Burrows won the Continental Tire Sports Car Championship with co-driver Trevor Hopwood in his rookie season. After making the move to front wheel drive machinery in 2008, his race wins made him a threat in the championship battle as he closed out the year second in the year-end standings. The 2010 season will see him once again partner with Hopwood at Kinetic Motorsports in ST competition as part of the factory Kia Forte Koup campaign.
When he is not at the track racing, Burrows is an avid bicyclist, recently riding from New York City to Washington DC to raise money and awareness for charity. He also is a skilled guitar player, snowboarder and active traveler. In addition to working as a driver coach and representing iRacing.com, Burrows career as a consultant in the automotive marketing industry has seen him working with scores of manufacturers through the last decade.
Learn more about Adam at http://konichamps.wordpress.com/
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