Redemption in Shannonville
SHANNONVILLE RACE RECAP:
It was an incredible weekend for the DOTmotorsports team. We unloaded Friday with 86.78% confidence we fixed the fuel issues from Calabogie. Thankfully 11thenths Racecraft hosted a lapping night where we could get the truck tested and shake the dust off from the last 9 weeks out of the seat. The test went great and the truck never skipped a beat which confirmed the fuel system was fixed by replacing original pick-up with a Holley Hydra-Mat. (look it up if you never heard of this product and prepare to be amazed).
Saturday morning started as expected, we qualified near the back as we primarily used the session to learn the track layout as we’d never been there before. The race started at 9 AM pretty calm and we were holding our own not pushing it too hard. Our strategy from the beginning was not to kill ourselves in the 37*C plus humidity heat as well as get a baseline for fuel mileage. This meant 1-hour stints for each driver all day. Having not ran a full endurance race before, we were all surprised just how energy consuming 1 full hour of racing in the heat was as most of us got out of the truck seeing stars from exhaustion. Thermal imaging camera showed the floorboards had surface temp of around 100*C! Air temps had to have been over 50*C. Despite the heat we keep up a good pace and primarily stayed on track with no major issues apart from 2 minor spin outs. In the mid-afternoon it was becoming clear we had a chance at a podium as we moved up to 5th, then 4th in class. With less than 2 hours to go, the leader blew a transmission which moved us up to 3rd position. The final stint of the day felt like it was never going to end. But it did as the clock struck 5 PM, we had managed to not only hold our position but all put the 4th place car 1 full lap behind us! WE DID IT! We finished on the podium with a freaking pick-up truck! Beyond exciting for our small team who believed in the dream! At this point, even though the drinks were flowing, we still had to prep for the 9-hour race on Sunday and required some sleep after the long day…
While we were hopeful to back up our performance with another drive to a podium finish on Sunday, unfortunately our engine had other plans and said goodbye to us around 3.5 hour mark. While this was a little disappointing, we aren’t dwelling on Sunday’s performance as this engine served us well and we probably didn’t help ourselves in Calabogie running it lean several times throughout the weekend. We will investigate the failure and determine proper action to avoid the same failure in the future. We learned a heck of a lot and we will be back in the hunt for more Trophies in the future!
We’d like to thank all the sponsors we don’t have, as well as family and friends for all their great support! Huge shout-out to Lucky Dog Racing Canada for running the event as well as our competitors for the clean racing. 11tenths Racecraft added some prizes at the last minute and we were lucky enough to be voted most sportsmanlike which was an a huge honour to round out the weekend!
