Now what?
High Hopes and Heartbreak
What can go wrong will go wrong.

By Andy Kress

It has been a while since I wrote any Lemons race reports. As you can see from Greg's write-up, racing has been going on. Brian Shorey is still racing his Milano on the West Coast. I have a number of other customers racing across the country. I was part of a team racing an Ljet Spider. A lot has been going on.

As I read Greg's description of events from that weekend, there are two things that jump out at me: The first is that this has been going on for nine seasons! HOLY MOLEY. It is hard to believe it's been that long; I guess time does fly when you are having fun.

The second is just how enthusiastic and resilient Greg and his team have been. Believe me, in the nine years, there have been some R-E-A-L-L-Y heartbreaking moments. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory more than once. Massive mechanical failures – often fixed at the event – some self-inflicted, some due to the nature of the beast (Milano). Through it all, Greg has been positive, committed, enthusiastic, and resilient. In my opinion, it is an attitude that is required for success in racing (for sure it is imperative to have fun in racing) and, I think, not many have it.

During this nine years' time, Greg's Milano, "Angelina", has been subject to extensive development – some of it on purpose, some of it randomly applied by others. Angelina started as a rusted-out 2.5L car. Now she is a rusted-out but heavily developed 3.0L car. It started out as a fast and fun top 1/4 car – with occasional bursts into the top 10. Since Loudon last October, she is the car to beat – leading and setting FTDs.

Ironically, one thing that has helped drive this development has been the failures – not necessarily in the obvious sense. It is a funny side to human nature that people will tend to stay with what they have – rather than risk moving on to something that MIGHT be better – because It might be better but, it might be worse. Besides, it takes time (and money) to make changes and we might not have the time … all real considerations.

But when something fails catastrophically or the car crashes … well, nothing to lose at that point – now we can try something new. The perfect "When life gives you Lemons (you should pardon the expression), make Lemonade" moment. When the 2.5 engine was blown up (a missed shift zinged the motor to maybe 9K) at a practice event at Thompson … now was the time to put in the 3.0. When the flywheel exploded at NJ (after we pulled the engine, there was obvious sheet metal damage under the car where the drive shaft had done some flailing), it also highlighted some unibody tears – the sort of thing that you are vaguely aware of but now is screaming at you, "FIX ME NOW!". Those repairs were made at trackside and the car was better.

A year later, at the same track, a back marker was black flagged at the start/finish line and inexplicably slammed on his brakes – at the fastest part of the track, AND right in front of Tom. There was time for some heavy braking, but Angelina slammed into it at probably 80 mph. Hard. Enough to bend the front end pretty noticeably. Greg took the opportunity to really go after the weak front-end structure in a big way. As he so aptly put it, "There are some structural members up front, but they are all held together by .030" sheet metal!". After making repairs to the bent parts (plus all the parts that had just torn up due to "normal" heavy abuse), he patched, reinforced, and added structure to the front end. Greg had been complaining that the car never felt secure under heavy braking, and once he looked at the torn-up unibody it was clear why – there was nothing to hold the front wheels in alignment. Heavy braking led to heavy self-steering with the car darting all over the track! No wonder turn-in never felt crisp and the car always understeered no matter what adjustments were made. Now, the front of the car is much stronger than ever, with handling and braking much better than ever. Lemons to Lemonade. Over nine years there have been sooooo many opportunities to make lemonade.

This season, the team had very high expectations. After the experiences at Loudon last October, it was clear that the car was fast enough to win outright. Some of the ongoing technical problems had been solved and Angelina led most of that weekend, until a fitting loosened on the brake proportioning valve and she lost brakes shortly before the end. Time in the pits put her out of contention, but the message was clear. Now, this car is fast – fast enough that you could say that she is the car to beat.

Team Pro Crash Duh Nation gave a pass to the first race this season in NJ. We had high hopes for Thompson, though. She was always fast there and the drivers like the track. High hopes indeed.

The race schedule was a little unusual in that Saturday was to be a very long day. Keeping driver changes and fuel stops to a minimum is a prerequisite for doing well in endurance racing. In addition to the obvious safety factor, this was one of the reasons for the fuel cell installation. The car now carries five gallons more than the stock Milano fuel tank, allowing a longer time on track between fill-ups.

On a typical LeMons weekend, Saturdays are about 7 hours long and Sundays from 5 to 7 hours. As fast as she is, Angelina only uses around 6 gallons/hour. On a good day (and track), a driver can reliably get 3.5 hours of run time on a tank – if he is tough enough.  So, in 7 hours of racing, two drivers do nicely.  However, this Saturday was scheduled for 9.5 hours, meaning that the team would need three drivers on Saturday and two on Sunday.   

The driver lineup was excellent. Greg went first, then Frank, and then Lon. The plan was to be at or near the front Saturday night, and then Sunday bring out the HAMMERS and break the other teams' hearts. Nick Fonte first and then Ted Wollmers. Nick is way faster than everybody except Ted – and with a good car, Ted can usually be counted on to set FTD at any race. Most teams are lucky to have one "hot shoe" – we had two. Both are screaming fast, competitive, aggressive, and smart racers. Greg had bested pretty much everyone on Saturday. On Sunday we would crush them all! (Insert evil, maniacal laughter here.) Said so, right here in the "RACE PLAN".

In fact, the plan was working. As Greg reported, even after starting dead last, he was soon running in first place with a cushion of several laps. Temps were good, transaxle was acting fine, brakes excellent. A little oil smoke under braking but not bad. Frank & Lon maintained pace and place and it was looking good.

Until it wasn't. Lon started reporting that oil pressure was "a little low" – at WOT, the gauge was only showing 50psi at 7K rpm (instead of the 70psi one would expect – and want). If he let off the gas, pressure would drop to about 40 psi. We all looked at each other and said, "That's not good". Greg had been worried about an oil leak. He saw smoke under braking, but we could never see any real exit path. Levels had dropped during practice on Friday, but it did not seem too bad, so maybe we could make it. There were only a couple of hours to go, so we decided to keep Lon out on the track. An hour later, he radioed in: the car had stopped. Engine DEAD. Would not even turn over on the starter.

When she finally came in on the hook, someone pulled the dipstick out to check oil level … and then could not get it back into the sump. "That's not good". Finally, after climbing underneath, we found the exit wound – a hole about the size of a silver dollar at the back of the sump. That was a very low moment. It was now official: There would be no heroic comeback from this one. Our race was over. Finito. Our chance for victory absolutely, positively gone. "Crestfallen" does not begin to describe the depths of depression the whole team was feeling. Someone made the inevitable comment at times like this, "That's racing". Greg's response was, "How come they only say 'That's racing' when things turn to shit? How come I never hear anyone say 'That's racing' when they win?".

It is amazing how much fatigue sets in during those moments. Saturday night dinner was awfully quiet.
I showed up Sunday morning to help pack up. Shockingly (not), Greg was completely upbeat. "I think I am going to build two engines – maybe even keep the rebuilt 2.5. If I'd had a spare on hand, we could have changed the engine in an hour and a half. We could have easily done that last night and be racing today." God love him!

As he wrote, the carnage was EXTENSIVE. Work has been ongoing. Results spotty. He is on his fifth crankshaft; all of the replacements he has sourced have been damaged and/or 2.5 cranks! Typical. In any case, progress is being made. Loudon is fast approaching, and it looks like we are going to make it.

High hopes. High hopes.

Come cheer us on. Don't forget, Saturday night is the Team Pro Crash Duh Nation pasta feed. See you all there.

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