Roush, Zacharias Win GS, ST Pole Positions

Apr. 23, 2010
Michael Harker


DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 23, 2010) - Jack Roush Jr. scored his first career pole position in the GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge on Friday at Virginia International Raceway by the slimmest of margins, and he will lead a pack of 31 Grand Sport (GS) class cars to the green flag for Saturday's Bosch Engineering VIR 200.

The two-and-a-half hour race, also featuring the Street Tuner (ST) class, will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Roush turned in a time of 2:03.351 (95.434 mph) in the No. 61 ROUSH Performance Products Ford Mustang GT. He'll share the front row with Joe Foster in the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports/Bayshore Recycling Ford Mustang Boss 302R. Foster's time was one thousandth of a second behind - 2:03.352 (95.434 mph) - in a bid for his third consecutive pole position. It did, however, mark Foster and co-driver Scott Maxwell's fourth straight front row start.

Roush and co-driver Billy Johnson have a victory and second-place finish in their last two races after failing to score points in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. They are sixth in points. "It was intense," Roush said. "I had only one lap with traffic, so I was lucky to get in a few clean laps. The car felt a little different from practice running with sticker tires in qualifying, so I took time to feel it out and get a good time." Third was Steve Cameron (2:03.409; 95.390 mph) in the No. 46 Fall-Line/Trim Tex BMW M3 he shares with Rob Finlay, while fourth was defending race co-winner Bret Seafuse (2:03.524; 95.301 mph) in the No. 37 Trumansburg ShurSave Ford Mustang Boss 302R he co-drives with James Gue. Fifth was Charlie Putman (2:03.561; 95.273 mph) in the No. 48 Sparco/Battery Tender BMW M3 he co-pilots with Charles Espenlaub. GS points co-leader Andrew Hendricks was 20th in the No. 45 Stable One Racing BMW M3 he shares with Terry Borcheller.

In ST, BJ Zacharias ran his fastest lap late in the 15-minute session and garnered the pole in the No. 196 Cruise America/4 Winds RV Mini Cooper S with a time of 2:10.085 (90.495 mph). Zacharias is co-driving with Owen Trinkler. "I'm only in the driver's seat," Zacharias said. "Owen is doing everything - he even drives the transporter, getting here at 4 a.m. the other day. They're giving him some rest, so they put me in for qualifying. The Mini Coopers are good in the turns, but any time we can get a draft, it makes a big difference. It did today."

Qualifying alongside Zacharias was Zach Lutz in the No. 75 Skunk2/HPD Honda Civic Si, who timed in at 2:10.606 (90.134 mph). Lutz's co-driver is Ryan Eversley.

Third was Eric Foss (2:10.923; 89.915 mph) in the No. 27 Mazda/Performance Friction MAZDASPEED3 co-driving with Randy Pobst, and fourth was Mark Pombo (2:11.284; 89.668 mph) in the No. 26 Mazda/Aventura Technologies Mazda MX-5 he shares with Andrew Carbonell.
Rounding out the top five was David Thilenius (2:11.341; 89.629 mph) in the No. 74 Skunk2/HPD Honda Civic Si that he shares with points co-leader Lawson Aschenbach.

 

Congrats, look forward to watching them in person tommorrow!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAFdP...layer_embedded

RSR Mini's have won the pole in two of the last four races and three of the last five !!

Sarah in the 197 @ Miami
BJ Zacharias in the 196 @ VIR.

Owen won the pole at VIR last year.

 

Time to strike back! Good Luck guys.

 

Big CONGRATS!!
Watch out for those meanie KIA's and have a great race!

Jim

 

Randy, best of luck to you and the team!

 

Greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat greatgreatgreatgreat!!!

 

Twas another dismal day for Automatic and RSR....

 

196 . . . after winning the pole, the car led the first laps. The engine then started to misfire. We swapped the MAP sensor before discovering the fuel pump was failing. A number of futile repairs were attempted before intentionally retiring car. The car slowed to a point where we were a moving chicane. This continues the electrical saga we have had with this car all season. We will soon replace the stock electronics and wiring as we convert to the Bosch racing, engine management system. It can't happen soon enough . . .

197 . . . threw a belt on lap 5. The car went down 3 laps while it was changed. The data shows an aggressive downshift at turn one flipped the belt off. Belts are always a problem with supercharged cars and we got 'bitten'. The car ran quickly thereafter but after losing the laps, we were relegated to 16th place.

After the fiasco at Barber, I don't feel that bad about VIR. Both cars were fast and laid down top 5 lap times. A BRAND NEW faulty fuel pump and a minor driver error took us out of contention.

Lime Rock is next and all three cars should be back. We will have the Bosch electronics on at least one car and hopefully all three by then.

The race will be televised next Saturday on Speed.

Randy

 

Hang in there Randy!! You are correct, the cars are fast and you will get another podium and possibly a win this season! You and the team a doing a great job representing the MINI brand! See ya soon!

 

Belt was the culprit hey? It was flying for the first 5 laps and from our vantage point between turns 3 and 4, it appeared to be loosing power/slowing and sounding worse over the next few laps. we thought maybe it was overheating and the ECU finally shut down and you had to pit and reload. Did run much better after the stop, but didn't seem as good as at the first... What was the problem with the other car? Couldn't find anyone at the hauler just after the race to talk too and we had to leave.

Better luck next time!!

 

It was the Black car (197) that chucked the belt ... about lap 5.
The White car (196) was the one with the fuel problem. We brought it to the pit a few times before finally retiring it. We tried the usual misfire stuff . . . MAP sensor front, MAP sensor rear . . . recycle the computer. We finally attached the computer and determined low fuel pressure. The bit*h about the whole thing . . . the pump was brand new. We think this issue may lie within the wiring harness (which will hopefully go away by Lime Rock).

Very frustrating! The car works perfectly for 3 hours of testing, tuning, practice and qualifying . . . the race starts and it takes a dump.

Oh well . . . next time.
Randy

 

Don't you have a fuel pressure gauge in the car? Is the other one the one that needed a new body harness?

 

Tough luck about this weekend. We plan on being up at Lime Rock to support you guys.

Good luck getting the Bosch electronics installed before then.

You guys are qualifying great! Keep up the good work.

 

How'd it get back to the pits once it tossed the belt.... In T1 none the less. I know when mine has chucked the belt in the past it would barely move. On top of that, the belt turns the SC which turns the waterpump so the thing would cook it's self in a heart beat. Hopefully no engine damage was done..

 

We do . . . the fuel pressure was showing +40 on the guage. Eventually, the pressure dropped to 20.

It was the computer data that showed the lean air fuel that convinced us to park it. We checked the filter after the race and it was clean. We have not checked inside the tank to see if anything when wrong.

Randy

 

There's always the two pump set up, with a switch.

Good luck at Lime Rock - may be moving then and probably not be able to attend.

 

Dang, the fire at the fuel tank at Barber and now a fuel pressure or pick up problem...Maybe the whole fuel system needs a review...

 

You are reading my mind . . . . ALL the fuel cells are being removed and the design being reviewed.

We use a two pump setup now. The pumps are external and include redundant filters. We are thinking the fuel may be vaporizing and the pumps are pushing air. That would account for the gauge showing pressure when in fact there is no fuel.

The fuel system is a 'return' system . . . which means the fuel flows to the fuel rail and the excess returns to the tank. The return fuel is heated by the engine at the rail. It may be causing the fuel to vaporize. We have run this setup for four years without incident.

The question is . . . why now? We are investigating.

Randy

 

Quote:

The question is . . . why now? We are investigating.

Randy
-

Bingo!
One would have to wonder....

 

The belt was shredded at turn one but it didn't totally came off until the top of the Oak tree straight (we can see the boost on the AIM data tracks). We were lucky that the car was close to the pit entrance. Had it happened elsewhere, we would have been stuck. We are using a kevlar reinforced industrial belt that is really tough. It hung in there much longer than the belts we were using.

The car will run without the belt but it will quickly overheat! There was no heat damage to the engine.

This was some positive luck . . . something rare in the RSR paddock!

Randy

 

Wow what kind of belt was it Randy? If that sucker shredded in turn one and went through 2,3,4,5, up through the esses and Oak Tree before it came off...I want one!!!

 

That is fairly common with the belts. The belt jumps one of the grooves and rides in the edge of the pulley. Eventually, the belt starts to slip and shred some more until it finally comes off.

The belt we are using is an industrial belt that eliminates the A/C pulley (in our case the deflector pulley) so it doesn't work when a longer one is required.

Randy

 

Been there. It doesn't work. You'll keep throwing them. Put the A/C pulley back on. Haven't thrown one in 3 years since.

 

There was a lot of internal debate about this . . . But, we don't really have a choice. There are cooling ducts under the motor that interfere with the deflector pulley. The ducts blow cold air onto the front of the engine to cool the crank pulley and the belt itself.

The deflector pulley is made of plastic and it melts!!