DAL Motorsports Announces Daytona 250 Result

[erobbins]

For those of you who missed the television broadcast, our website has been updated to reflect the latest news.

http://www.dalmotorsports.com/



DAL Motorsports Announces Daytona 250 Results

Team completes off-season changes with no time to spare, shakes out bugs in race practice sessions, drivers Bailey and Duarte finish in the top 1/3rd overall at the Daytona 250

Feb. 19, 2004

The recent off-season was very busy for the DAL Motorsports team. In addition to normal between-race vehicle maintenance, the team also built up a new race motor for the #51 Acura NSX, secured engine spares for future use, secured additional sponsorship, and started work on a strategic marketing plan to enhance their already successful business plan. The team also added an additional driver / owner and started construction on a second Acura NSX for the Grand-Am Cup series.

To recap the end of 2003: The team saw a 7th place finish in class during their inaugural outing at Virginia International Raceway in Early October, following by a disappointing 18th place finish at Daytona, after retiring the vehicle during race lap 47 due to an engine failure.

Such a busy off-season left little time for testing the improved #51 NSX, so the practice sessions at the Daytona opening race served as extended test and tune sessions, with good results. Unfortunately, an electrical problem prevented the engagement of Honda’s VTEC, which delivers increased horsepower through optimization of valve timing and lift during high RPM engine use. Even without VTEC operational, the team still managed to qualify 21st of 28 cars in the Grand Sport (GS) class in the race.

Shortly after the race start, the team was able to pick up 10 positions very quickly, but the car suffered some minor damage in race lap 13 following contact with a tire wall in turn one. The pit crew was able to accomplish some body modifications that allowed the team to re-enter the race in 48th place overall, but with reduced aerodynamic performance at high speed.

Even with all this adversity, drivers Vaughn Duarte and Brian Bailey were able to continue to consistently pick up over thirty positions in the remaining two hours of the race. The team reached 15th place overall just prior to their last refueling stop, and ultimately finished the race in 19th place overall and 15th in class.

The team’s next scheduled races are at Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 27th, followed by Phoenix Int’l Speedway on April 10th. The full Grand-Am Cup schedule is available on the Grand American website at http://www.grandamerican.com/.

DAL Motorsports is sponsored by: Goodson Acura, Exedy Corporation, Cobalt Friction, and EXP4 Additives. Additional supporters for the Daytona 250 entry include Autoscope, Jotech Motorsports, Courtesy Acura, First Class Automotive of Orlando and Hondacura.net.

The team also wishes to extend special thanks to Nabil Amaly with First Class Automotive, Tim Johnson with hondacura.net, and Mike Baenen with Courtesy Acura.

For further information on the team, including sponsorship opportunities, please contact:

Eric Robbins, DAL Motorsports – Dallas, TX
[email protected]

Rob Morrison, DAL Motorsports – Atlanta, GA
[email protected]

Susan Tableman, Goodson Acura
[email protected]

 

[sjs]

Thanks for the update Eric. I, and I'm sure I speak for many, look forward to regular posts as you progress through the season and no doubt up in the ranks!

 

[erobbins]

We're making it a point to get the news out more frequently, and to make sure it's in the places that people will find it easy to get to.

I'm also preparing some updated web content for the team website that has some pictures, info about the cars, drivers, crew, etc.

This will hopefully be an exciting year for the team.

Personally, I'm quite humbled that there are people taking the time to follow our racing.

 

[docjohn]

Are you Kidding,every day that I sit at work I dream of doing what you guys did!So I'll just race through you all, ala Mitty.It takes tremendous effort to mount a full season campain!Heck if you can get two cars going you might attract some $ chunked up arrive and drive guys, who could help fund a third car.

 

[erobbins]

...if you can get two cars going you might attract some $ chunked up arrive and drive guys, who could help fund a third car.

Part of our business plan is to operate an arrive-and-drive program by renting out a seat in a second car, and we are on-target to start offering that seat in the spring. The second car is nearly complete, and we're really looking forward to the challenge of running two cars in the series.

This is an exciting time for the team. Things are going well (though not without any challenges), and we have a fantastic group of sponsors supporting our effort. If it were not for them, we would not be racing. I can't say enough good things about Goodson Acura in Irving TX, Cobalt Friction, Exedy, EXP4 Additives and The Driver's Edge.

Thanks for following us, and I encourage people to come out to a Grand-Am Cup race in their area of the country and stop by our paddock area!

 

[docjohn]

I wish you guys all the luck and speed in the world!I did'nt blink fo the beggining of the first race on speed watching for your car!I cringed and started yelling at the other bozos as they bumped and grinded through turn 1.

 

[1BADNSX]

Thanks for following us, and I encourage people to come out to a Grand-Am Cup race in their area of the country and stop by our paddock area!

See you at Homestead. I will be running my M3 in the support race that weekend. Let me know if you need any help in the paddock.

Bob

 

[erobbins]

I will be running my M3 in the support race that weekend.

I've been wondering what the support race is - BMWCCA? NASA? SCCA? We just show a generic "support group" on our Cup series schedule.

We will likely arrive at Homestead-Miami on Thursday night, because rig parking for us is on Friday morning, with Friday being a private test day.

 

[1BADNSX]

I've been wondering what the support race is - BMWCCA? NASA? SCCA? We just show a generic "support group" on our Cup series schedule.

The support series will have a race each day. A sprint race on Saturday and enduro on Sunday. BMWCCA series is organizing the event, but I think they are also inviting the PBOC (Porsche BMW Owners Club). I run in both series and they have similar rules. A big difference is you guys (Grand-Am) will run the NASCAR turns #3 and #4 banked turns, while we run the infield portion inside these turns.

Bob

 

[erobbins]

A big difference is you guys (Grand-Am) will run the NASCAR turns #3 and #4 banked turns, while we run the infield portion inside these turns.

Same thing happens at our home track (Texas Motor Speedway) with SCCA. I've never understood it, because most of the T1 cars are faster than us.

Is it because of an oil starvation issue related to the level you are allowed to prep your engines? That I could understand, but my answer would be to permit better oiling systems to be used.

 

[eg9]

Here's a nice picture a friend of mine took at Daytona. The car looks great.

 

[Bryan]

I was working the Daytona race weekend and it was nice to see an NSX out there! I only got to speak briefly to one of the team members, but it sounds like it was a hectic weekend. I think they even borrowed an ECU from a "civilian" NSX owner on race day.

The NSX was able to get down to 2:09 race laps, which was only two seconds behind the fastest cars. An impressive performance given all the distractions during practice and qualifying and the horsepower disadvantage. The NSX may be giving up 100HP to the high horsepower cars in the class and Daytona is definitely a horsepower track. I'm looking forward to seeing the results from Miami. Too bad the GA Cup is not coming back to Daytona in July.

 

[1BADNSX]

Same thing happens at our home track (Texas Motor Speedway) with SCCA. I've never understood it, because most of the T1 cars are faster than us.

Is it because of an oil starvation issue related to the level you are allowed to prep your engines? That I could understand, ...

It isn't for oil reasons in this case. In our series we have some cars that are much faster than the Grand-Am cars and we have some that are much slower. When using the banked corners at Homestead it effectively makes the straight longer and magnifies the difference between the cars. For safety reasons they don't use the banked corners. Not using the banked corners also better shows driver ability. Coming off the back straight onto the road course is one of the toughest areas at Homestead.

Bob

 

[erobbins]

I think they even borrowed an ECU from a "civilian" NSX owner on race day.

True story.

We weren't able to get our AEM ECU properly tuned and tested prior to this race, so we went with our factory ECU with one of Steve Dinan's chips in it. Unfortunately, a wiring harness failure led to the ECU shorting out during qualifying, and also had the unpleasant side effect of forcing us to qualify without the benefit of VTEC.

Wei-Shen Chin (also NSXCA president) put us in touch with Nabil Amaly with First Class Automotive in Orlando, who introduced us to Tim Johnson who owns a red 1991 model which was at Nabil's shop.

Tim graciously let the team pull the ECU out of his car and use it for the race. Timing was tight - the borrowed ECU got back to Daytona Beach and put into the race car with about 20 minutes to spare before the race.

So, a formal thank-you to both Tim and Nabil for helping us out with this. We hope you like what we're sending you in the mail.

I should probably build a Rolodex full of owners within 50 miles of the tracks we race at who'd be willing to help us out like they did!

The NSX was able to get down to 2:09 race laps, which was only two seconds behind the fastest cars. An impressive performance given all the distractions during practice and qualifying and the horsepower disadvantage. The NSX may be giving up 100HP to the high horsepower cars in the class and Daytona is definitely a horsepower track.

Daytona is a difficult track for us, for all the reasons you list above. We make up for the lack of horsepower in reduced weight, which also helps the car handle a good bit better. We're at 2730#, a good 200-300# lighter than most everyone else in our class. Only the E36 M3 is lighter, at 2600#. We also suffer from having to use the NSX's notoriously underwhelming factory brakes.

 

[ncdogdoc]

As seen at the RaceSite

 

[erobbins]

Ouch!

Ouch! That looks like it hurt!

That was the damage from some contact with a tire wall going into turn one on lap 13. The team was able to do some quick bodywork in pit lane to get the car back out, but we couldn't gain back all the time we lost.

The car went back out on race lap 16 or so in 48th position overall (we think - the lap chart hasn't been published yet). Even with the front-end damage adding significant drag, the drivers (Vaughn Duarte and Brian Bailey) were able to advance up to 19th overall (15th in class) by turning lap times that were just off the race leaders.

We've got the car back together and are ready for the next outing at Homestead.

As a side note - there is a very good chance that we will be auctioning off the hood you see in the picture below on eBay to raise some operating $ for the team. If anyone wants to make an offer before we do this, feel free. It would make an interesting conversation piece (I actually may bid on it myself).