LS Fest West 2019 recap, it's going to be a long one!
I headed to LS Fest again this year as a Truck Grand Champion competitor, I would be racing the truck on 2 autocross courses, the road course, down the drag strip and in the 3S challenge (speed stop). I had a lot of prep that needed to be done to the truck to make it pass tech and I feel that I was working on the truck right up until we left, I guess that's because I was
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Day 1 was the road course and autocross course 1. I was nervous about the road course just because I know I need more brakes but it's something that I've wanted to do with the truck so I needed to start at some point. It was going really well, brakes were hot on lap one and my buddy passed me almost immediately in his awesome LS powered 56 Chevy. I was getting the hang of the track and was catching another new friend in his S10 Blazer and was getting ready to shift into 3rd on the back straight and heard a snap and my clutch pedal fell to the floor halfway through the 4th lap. I was bummed but I knew it was an easy fix and I didn't need to be towed off the track! I got back to the trailer and started fixing the linkage, Robbie Unser and Team Speedway had the tools I needed and I was back together in no time! Autocross course 1 was a pretty fun zig-zag down and back with the potential to carry a lot of speed, I was able to pilot the truck pretty well while still fighting a few issues with the rear suspension but I was having a blast so I just rolled with it. I ended up coming in 8th out of 12 in the truck class, not too shabby but I know I can do better next year! Friday night, we went to go to dinner with some friends and we made it about a mile from the trailer when the truck just died, no warning, just died. Got a tow back to the trailer and found that I had blown the PCM fuse, swapped it out and all seemed well. We took off again to go to the hotel for the night, the clutch pedal was feeling weird and the truck died again, same fuse. I replaced that and we headed back to the trailer to get the tow rig and head to the hotel.
Day 2 started with diagnosing what was going on the night before, I found that my driver side O2 sensor was touching the aluminum case on my Dakota Digital signal converter so we got that fixed and moved on to the not so easy fix, the clutch master cylinder. Rob from PCHRODS saw the hood up and came over to see what was going on and he said he might have a clutch master in the trailer that would work, he did! I swapped it out, bled the clutch and headed to autocross course 2! Without him, I have a feeling my weekend would have ended on day 1. Autocross course 2 was similar to course 1 but a little tighter and a little more technical. My fastest run was my 2nd, it heated up and I started making poor choices and hitting cones. I was in 8th in the truck class here as well, mind you I'm still on factory suspension and an unboxed frame, I was very happy with the results! One event that we got to take part in was the vendor poker run, we walked around to the vendors to chat with them and if they participated in the poker run, we got to draw a card. The last card was offsite so we all headed out for that, on the way back, the truck started running pretty terribly and acted like it was running out of fuel but we made it back to the main gate and got towed in the rest of the way. A few minutes of sitting and the truck ran as if nothing had happened. Likely the fuel pump got a little warm and couldn't keep up anymore. I headed to the drag strip that night and got 2 runs in, the first run was a 15.7 with a 2.67 60 foot time, terrible but it was also my first time running it on the strip. My 2nd run was slower at a 16.0 but my 60 foot time got a little better at a 2.58, the truck was just heat soaked so it was pulling timing. I was happy with how it did for sure but I will be working on getting better and faster this summer!
Day 3 coming soon!