DAN'S DAYTONA DIARY
Thursday  February 8, 2001

Dan continues his chats with Gary Buchan, Sugar Free Racing at the conclusion of Day Three in preparation for the Discount Auto Parts 200

Gary.   Dan, this has been a long day with a lot of activity. Can you give us a recap of what happened at the track today.

Today, we started with a morning practice at 8:45.  The first thing that has to be done is warm the oil in the car. That's a twenty minute process. You jack the car up and get the rear wheels spinning to get some heat in the rear end. You don't want to go on the track with everything cold. We made some minor changes, but basically used the same set up we finished with on Wednesday. We ran a modified qualifying lap this morning. We ran a 48.80. The practice session was only 45 minutes, so any changes we wanted had to  done in hurry up fashion. We changed the intake manifold. We were able to do this in about 20 minutes because of the changes made by Chevrolet on the new SB2 motors. It's a single piece intake, separate from the water jacket, so you do not have to drain the engine. We went back on the track thinking we would gain about 5 hp. The run was slower than the first run that morning, about a tenth of a second slower.  Inspection in the garage showed that the gaskets were not properly fitted in the change. Not knowing exactly where the problem was and not wanting to take a chance in qualifying, we decided to stick with what we had the day before.

Gary.  We hear so much about getting ready for qualifying. Can you give us some insight on what teams do to prepare a car for qualifying.

The first thing we do is hook up the cool down unit on the engine and get the water temperature as cold as possible, usually in the fifty degree range. We use regular water and ice, lots of ice, and you just keep circulating the ice water through the engine. For the engine oil, it is just the opposite.  You want the oil as hot as possible to reduce friction. We drain the engine oil we have been running and we put in  a zero weight engine oil in the engine. This oil is good for about two laps. The viscosity is so low, run the car too long and the oil pressure will drop and you will blow your motor. We drain the rear end oil and the transmission oil.  We replace these oils with lighter weight oils. Then you work to heat the oils up as much as possible.

The carburetor is leaned out one or two jet sizes to get the motor to run at maximum horsepower.
The timing on the motor is turned up one or two degrees. The front of the radiator is totally taped off., so you get no air intake on the front of the car. This gives you better airflow over the total car.

We change the rear gear, and put in a lightweight ring and pinion gear.  This reduces weight and spins more freely and gives you additional horsepower to the rear wheels. The rear pump that pumps oil through the rear end is totally removed. We do not need it for the two laps of qualifying.

All the air ducts on the side of the car are taped to make the car more aero dynamic. The brake pumps are backed off with a screwdriver. We push the brake pumps totally away, and you safety wire the brake pads away from the rotor. You still have brakes, but you have to pump the brake pedal three or four times to get brakes back after you finish the qualifying lap.  Lightweight hubs are installed with lightweight grease to reduce friction. The lug nut studs are cut back so no threads protrude past the lug nuts.

As the car goes through inspection the cool down unit and generator are still connected to keep the engine cool and the oil hot. The hotter the oil, the less friction. Less friction, the better the engine parts spin. The freer spin increases horsepower. 

When you go through inspection, ARCA issues the restrictor plate and spacer, they put it on, and you bolt the carburetor on while they watch. The car goes through the template inspection again and all templates are checked, the rear spoiler being the critical check. Then the cars are placed on pit road and you wait your turn to qualify. Once the cars are placed in line for qualifying, nothing can be done except keep the generator on to continue to heat the oil. When you are three cars from the next out, the generator is disconnected, you enter the car, strap yourself in, and prepare to make your two laps of qualifying around Daytona.

Gary. After all this, how much increase in horsepower and how much faster is the car.

Well in most cases you will see as much as fifteen to twenty more horsepower to the rear wheels of the racecar. You should see about one to two miles an hour speed increase on a track like Daytona.

 Gary. Today, you qualified thirteenth. Are you satisfied with your qualifying lap.

No, not really, and I don't think our crew chief, Larry Moore is satisfied. After all our preparation, we really had no speed increase. We picked up about one tenth of a second. With all that we done, we should have seen a two to three tenths increase.  At this point, we are not sure what happened, but we accept what we got.

Gary. Tomorrow, you are scheduled to have one short practice session in the afternoon. Will you give us a visual of driving a lap here at Daytona.

No problem. See you tomorrow.

Day One
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Day Three
Day Four
Day Five

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