Racing isn’t simply an equipment arms race. Classes like the GRIP seminar can help you learn how to take what you’ve got and race better with it.
It can be awfully easy to get caught up in the metal trap believing that if you can just scrape together enough cash to purchase the latest gizmo, it will be the thing that finally puts your racing program over the top.
Sometimes, wins can be purchased with better hardware, but the age-old strategy of trying to buy wins more often leads to frustration when racers don’t fully understand how to make the most of their new tools. Yes, racing is a sport. But it’s also a science, and racers who aren’t continually educating themselves on the science of racing run the risk of being lapped.
Or course, we’re not suggesting you have to lock up your shop and go enroll at the local technical college. Instead, if you know where to look there’s a wealth of knowledge available specific to racing and how to go faster. Obviously, Circle Track has been striving to be that resource for our readers for decades now, and we’ll continue to do exactly that. So we’re always on the lookout for additional resources you can use to help your racing program.
That’s why we’ve decided to get on board with the GRIP seminars as a major sponsor of the annual event. GRIP is the brainchild of car builder and crew chief Gary Crooks of Crooks Racing, and shock and suspension specialist Jason Enders of RE Supsension. Crooks and Enders started the first GRIP seminar all the way back in 2010, and it’s been growing ever since. The idea is to provide racers at every level with hardcore tech knowledge gained over untold hours of testing that many racers simply don’t have.
Dozens of racers met in Mooresville, NC, for three days of discussion on everything from the latest setups utilizing bump stops, to aerodynamics, to tips for getting rid of those radio gremlins that always seem to screw up your communications at certain tracks.
Overall, it was an excellent event, and one we are definitely happy to be associated with. Crooks and Enders led a few sessions in their areas of expertise and also brought in experts from other areas to help the racers. We liked the informal atmosphere of the sessions where speakers invited questions from the crowd and even gave specific ideas based on particular setups. It wasn’t unusual for individual sessions to run long as speakers answered every question from the racers in the crowd. But instead of trying to get time back by shortening the following session of the seminar, Crooks and Enders simply allowed the day to go longer. “We’re used to going late at night in the race shop, so staying late here isn’t a big deal,” Crooks says with a laugh. “Honestly, we understand the people that come to our GRIP seminars are investing their time and money to be here, so we want to make sure everybody gets everything they can out of the experience. If that means spending some extra time to answer questions, well, that’s easy.”
It would be impossible to share with you everything discussed over the three days of this year’s GRIP sessions, but we did want to give you some highlights. Note, however, that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The GRIP seminars are primarily for asphalt racing, and for those of you who race on the black stuff, we highly recommend it.
Setup Skills
Enders and Crooks prefer not to assume any particular level of knowledge or ability when beginning the seminar, so they start off with the basics—setting up your chassis in this case – and then go from there depending on where the attendees lead.
Crooks spent a lot of time talking about tires and tire pressure when setting up the car. First of all, he always sets up the car on scuffed tires. That’s because he says scuffed tires are always larger in diameter than sticker tires at the same tire pressure. Since you are going to be racing scuffed tires, it only makes sense to set up with them so that were set up will get better results.
By the way, he also always sets of the car with the tires at the hot pressure. If you don’t know how hot your tires get midway through a run, that is something you will need to check during your next test.
Finally, always be aware that any run out in your tires can cause inconsistencies when trying to set up your car. Check each tire for runout before you mount it on the car, and mark the high spots. Now, always keep the high spots at the top after every change so that you know you will have more consistency.
One question asked by a racer that got a lot of attention concerned driveline pinion angle. For years, racers have chased pinion angle trying to find that magical extra bit of forward traction coming up off the corners. However, Crooks says that after significant testing on a chassis dyno, he only worries about pinion angle in terms of maximizing driveline efficiency. “I’ve been on the chassis dyno enough to know that I’ll never use pinion angle to try to generate drive,” he explains. “You are only binding up the drive train. And while you may be able to generate some forward drive, but when you include how it can bind up the drivetrain it is a net loss.”
Speaking of Drivetrain
Rex Garrett is an engineer with Earnhardt Technologies Group. Earnhardt Technologies Group is part of the racing brain trust that used to be Dale Earnhardt Incorporated, and now they help racers — mostly in NASCAR Cup racing but also at other levels — with everything in the driveline from the bell housing back. Garrett, by the way, is the one who helped Crooks determine that setting the pinion angle to maximize driveline efficiency is better overall than trying to find forward bite.
When it comes to choosing driveline components for your race car, Garrett cautions that the best option for a Saturday night racer isn’t always to go out and buy used Cup parts. Yes, technologically speaking, they are often the latest and greatest. But just because it was engineered for a Cup car, that doesn’t mean it will always work well in your race car.
For example, a NASCAR Cup transmission is a beautiful thing. You can get them for a good value, and they will give great service for the average short track racer if they are legal in your class. But they may also be quite a bit overbuilt for the average short track racer’s needs.
Because of the incredible horsepower Cup engines generate, a Cup-specific transmission will have a greater center distance between the two main shafts because the gears must be beefier. Often, lower horsepower engines can use transmissions with a shorter center distance between the main shaft and the counter shaft because the gears don’t need as much mass. The result is you can use a transmission with a shorter case that can potentially help drop the entire car lower on the racetrack.
Garrett also had a great tip for racers running a Detroit locker. Generally, he prefers a shorter locker spring, but not for how it actuates the locker. Instead, the shorter spring stacks fewer coils when it is installed in the locker. Because there are fewer coils in the way, it allows more oil to get through the spring which helps keep it cool, and we all know that a cooler spring will maintain the proper rate longer.
Aero Issues
Gary Eaker of the Aerodyne and A2 wind tunnels talked about the things that can be learned from wind tunnel testing and gave some practical tips. As racers, we’ve all seen NACA ducts and probably have one or two on our race cars. But do we know a good NACA duct design when we see one?
A proper NACA duct pulls air into a duct with minimal drag by creating vortices of turbulent air right over the hole. By energizing the air, it creates a high-pressure area right over the intake, “pushing” the air into the duct. That’s why the NACA duct is that funny triangular shape with slight S-curves along the sides. To work best, the edges of the NACA duct must be sharp to help energize the air. So don’t be fooled by a poorly designed duct with rounded edges thinking it must be more aerodynamic.
And by the way, NACA ducts don’t work in reverse. Sometimes you will see racers install a NACA duct on their race car backwards in an attempt to pull hot air out of the cockpit or out from underneath the car. Now that we know how a NACA duct works by energizing the air directly above the hole or opening, it is now easy to understand why a NACA duct placed backwards won’t work. Eaker says you might as well cut a hole in the car and leave it at that.
Shocks, Bump Stops and Springs
If there is an area in racing right now that causes more head scratching and frustration, its shocks. Jason Enders’ presentations on shocks, springs and bump stops created some of the most interesting discussion (and also ran the longest).
The concept that many racers need to rethink is that the whole apparatus of shocks, springs and bump stops isn’t about absorbing bumps and ruts. Instead, you should think of it all as a timing device. Shocks, springs, and bump stops can be used to control where on the track the car fully travels the suspension and when it comes back off the bump stops when the driver gets back on the gas on turn exit.
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Softer bump stops allow the car to travel farther while also taking longer to get there, while stiffer bump stops do the opposite. Generally speaking, softer bump stops work better on bumpier tracks because they help cushion that transition from the car sitting on the suspension to riding on the bump stops. “The rougher the track, the slower you want to load the car onto the bump stops,” Enders explains. “Daytona or Myrtle Beach, places that are dead smooth, you can practically run aluminum spacers for bump stops. It doesn’t matter.”
If you are running multiple bump stops, be aware that the effective rate of the combined set is always softer than the softest stop. Even if all the bump stops are the same, the combined rate will still be softer. Also, stacking one bump stop directly against another can cause them to act erratically. To keep each bump stop acting consistently, always use a divider washer between each.
Resources
Crooks Racing; 704/660-6672; www.CrooksRacing.com
GRIP Seminars; 704/664-2277; www.GripSeminars.com
RE Suspension; 704/664-2277; www.RESuspension.com
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