FSTU USA 2008

RMIT Racing FISITA 2008 Campaign - A Lead Up to Competition Weekend...

14 - 18 MAY 2008

With the FISITA World Championship set to take place over the the weekend of 14 - 18 May, 2008, the RMIT Racing Team spent the most part of a month in the U.S. preparing and testing the R07 Challenger in order to arrive at the event in the best possible position to retain its crown.

After working hard to organise and prepare for the event at the RMIT Bundoora East Campus, the team was relived to hear that the crate housing the R07 Challenger arrived safely and soundly on U.S. soil. Fortunately the crate arrived in the same condition with which it left RMIT Bundoora East Campus and this gave them team great confidence ahead of assembling it back together. Arriving in time to meet the crate, the first group of team members landed safely in Oakland on the 30^th of April.

After getting accustomed to driving on the opposite side of the road, eating extremely fatty burgers and drinking gallon soda’s, it was time to get stuck into the assembly of the R07 Race Car. The team worked considerably hard and in turn had the car fully assembled and testing in less than four days. Despite some initial teething problems experienced early on in the testing phase, the team worked particularly hard to overcome such problems and as a result experienced quite a successful week of testing ahead of the competition. The problems were most notably during the initial U.S. shakedown after arrival, with a lack of brake line pressure causing an initial hassle. Once overcome however, the desired testing of the available fuel as well as the running in of a new set of brake pads and discs were able to be performed.

Soon after the car was running smoothly, the team began the vital set up testing. With a change in track surface conditions from what the team had been used to, the suspension changes would prove a vital ingredient if the team were to do well at the event. The large open spaces at Oakland proved to be particularly handy with regards to getting all of the drivers up to speed and happy with the set up of the car before what was sure to be an ultra competitive weekend. After a couple of days testing and fine tuning, both the Endurance drivers, Steven and Lee, were happy with the way the car was handling.

With so much happening in a short space of time, the first group of team members were relived with the safe arrival of the second group on the 9^th of May. This gave the team ample resources with which to get the car up and running well and rectify any final issues. It also gave the team ample time to make any final adjustments to suit the change in weather conditions. In contrast to hot summery days during a normal Australian December, the weather remained cool and often raining meaning that arriving early allowed time to acclimatise to the change in conditions.

After testing had been tapered down, the team decided to do one final endurance run in dry conditions (Monday 12 May, 2008). The test was successful; not only did the car perform well and reliably, but the drivers were able to adapt to a new track quite easily. Teams from Helsenki, Joanium, and Colarado were also there testing the track and this gave RMIT Racing a good indication of where they would be in relation to other competing teams.

With the majority of the dynamic testing out of the way, Tuesday 13 May, 2008 was set aside for the team to finish any final design, cost and presentation refinements. As well as that, the team worked hard on setting up the car with the final touches ahead of competition. By the end of the day, the R07 Challenger had new panel work, new stickers, a quick clean up, re lubrication of all components and fresh engine oil. At was at this point that the R07 Challenger was packed up and ready to be transported to the Michigan International Speedway for the competition commencing on Wednesday 14 May, 2008.

RMIT Racing FISITA 2008 Campaign - The Competition Weekend

DAY 1: Wednesday 14 May, 2008

After arriving at Michigan International Speedway at the crack of dawn, the team unpacked and got the R07 Challenger ready ahead of the mandatory scrutineering and registration checks. With a long list of 2008 entrants, the pouring rain made the wait in the cue an enduring one, going on for some three hours time before the team was finally able to enter the inspection area. Fortunately the hard work in carefully preparing the car prior to the event allowed the team to pass the inspection with only a few minor, easily corrected faults. It was at this point that the team was able to rest easier, heading back to the hotel room to work on the Design and Cost Events set to take place the next day.

DAY 2: Thursday 15 May, 2008

On the first major day of events, the RMIT Racing Team were immediately put onto the back foot by failing to make the Design Semi Finals. The team were disappointed and felt that not all of the R07 Challenger's main chassis features were discussed enough however there was no turning back the clock at that stage. Despite this unneeded set back, the team worked hard to ensure the car was in the best possible position to take the challenge to its main rivals in the Dynamic Events.

In between the Design and Cost Events, the team successfully passed the brake, tilt and noise tests. With these tests out of the way, the team was ready to take to the track and compete in the all important Dynamic Driving Events. Receiving a well deserved score in the Dynamic Cost Event, the team had to unfortunately settle for a slightly lower ranking in the Cost Report due to the added expense of the R07 Challenger over some of its cheaper main rivals. Nevertheless, the team kept pushing and were confident ahead of the Presentation Event.

From what seemed to be a common occurrence throughout the day so far, the dramas seemed to continue to unravel as the team experienced some computer technical difficulties during their presentation. Regardless, the team put on quite a good show even if a few more aspects of the manufacture could have been touched a little more deeply next time around.

DAY 3: Friday 16 May, 2008

Starting the day in a slightly lower ranked position than desired, the team were motivated to turn such luck around. Cueing up for the first of the acceleration runs, the uneven surface of track deemed the ride height of the R07 Challenger too low to participate in the run. Frantically, the team changed some of the suspension geometry and as a consequence raised the car enough to pass the test. While the team's first run was little to be excited about, Paul Scalzo took the wheel for the second attempt and put in a brilliant run in the slippery and dirty conditions to end the event in a fantastic final finishing position.

After a change in suspension set up and a check on the flat patch to rebalance the corner weights, the R07 Challenger was not the nicest to handle in the Skidpan Event. Unfortunately the snappy and bouncy nature of the car combined with the uneven characteristics of the track made for a disaster. The car simply wouldn't handle as the drivers had become accustomed to and this was consequently effected in the final rankings.

After having to make quite a number of changes and spend quite some time adjusting the suspension, the second of the two Autocross drivers Steven Todkill wasn't able to walk the track before his final laps. This proved costly until long time driver Lee Mitchener took to the hot seat. Despite bogging the car down as he took off, the time set was enough to keep the RMIT Racing Team in touch with the leading teams ahead of the all important Endurance Event.

DAY 4: Saturday 17 May, 2008

With the weather leading to a beautiful sunny day at the Michigan International Speedway, RMIT Racing were set and ready to tackle their most renowned event - the combination of the Endurance/ Fuel Economy. RMIT Racing had no doubt that with a strong showing here, depending on their main rivals finishing positions, an outright event win was not yet out of the question.

Being ranked in the group finishing in positions 1 to 40 (inclusive) from the previous day's events, the RMIT Racing Team were apart of the second team to go out in the Endurance Event. After heading onto the track behind UMR, the car was going quite strongly until UMR had an unfortunate spin directly in front of the R07 Challenger. During the UMR entrants spin, the R07 Challenger drove past before pulling away strongly. In spite of the greater pace of the R07 Challenger however, the RMIT Racing Team were given an unfortunate blue flag to let UMR pass by.

Then, as clearly observed by the team prior to receiving the flag, the UMR entrant was given the blue flag to let the quicker R07 Challenger by. With further drama seeing the same process repeat itself, the RMIT Racing Team was put further behind the yardstick when the R07 Challenger was made to come to a stop to allow the UMR entrant to pass. This caused the car to stall, in turn holding the team up further and leaving it up to the final Endurance driver, Lee Mitchener to push hard to make the time up.

With less drama after the driver change, the team were looking in good position for a relatively high overall finishing position. The car used 2.3L of fuel throughout the event and this allowed the team to once again take out the Fuel Economy Event.

DAY 5: Sunday 18 May, 2008

A final wait ahead of the Design Finals (where some of RMIT Racing's nearest rivals were competing) was in order before the final points calculations could be made. For the final day of the event, the RMIT Racing team had done all that they could to secure the crown for a second year running.

Unfortunately however, a few costly points losses in a variety of events meant that the maximum the team could achieve was an overall fifth position. With less than forty points covering the first five finishers, the team were proud of the effort despite not being able to retain their crown in one of the closest competitions to date.

In the end however, a first placing award for the Power train and a third overall in the Dynamic Events left the team some prize for a close fifth finish at the U.S. Event.