Winland Racing 2009

10/15/05

Diary of a hard core racer,

The engine damaged in Chowchilla was far worse than originally anticipated.  It was found to be blown up with the #1 rod broken which caused the broken cam and internal damage to the motor block.  This damage was noted at 7pm on Tuesday night.  A decision was made by WR to remove the motor by himself.  By 11pm the motor was removed and disasembled for an early morning delivery to the engine shop when at 11am on Wednesday was told of the motor block failure.  WR scrambled to find a new motor finally locating a few old motors in Scotts Valley.  WR drove to Scotts Valley and had the motors delivered to Griffin Auto Parts and Machine Shop.  WR was able to hire the owners son to complete a teardown and complete rebuild.  This rebuild started at 7am and was completed as a long block by 6pm.  WR took the motor home and continued with the assembly and install by 11pm that night with help from long time crew member John Byram.  WR then spent Friday (13 hours) trying to get the motor hooked up and running.  The motor ran good but had a noticable noise sounding like a top end ting,ting or exaust leak.  Anyhow, the decision was made to run it with the statement "WE WILL EITHER WIN THE RACE OR BLOW UP THE MOTOR TRYING!

WR made it to the speedway and started in the 13th position out of a class of about 15 cars.  The 66 car was not fast but it kept pace and passed a few slower cars.  The temperature hovered around 230 degrees.  WR pulled into the pits to have the crew cool the motor down.  The radiator was completely out of water with no clear indication as to why.  WR had to pit again after another 20 or so laps at which time a decision was made to quit.  Winland surveyed the damage to the motor and found that the water pump belt was not on.  Winland ran to his truck to retrieve a new belt, installed it and decided that he was going to run till it blew up.  WR completed 10 more laps when the car stalled.

WR ended up taking 7th place with 105 laps.  Shawn Smith in the 11 was in contention for the win early but also experienced motor failure.  He finished 8th.  Dan Reed in the 58 won for the second week in a row.  His car was set up well and he was able to run the low and high lines.  I believe his mom Ruthie came in 3rd or 4th, his father also experienced motor failure and placed somewhere between 10th and 13th.  Josh Roberts in the 95 car , running his first ever enduro battled some tire issues and hesitation issues and ended up coming in 6th place. 

All in all it was a great night of racing-minus the motor problems.  WR's goal was to make it to the first ever enduro at Petaluma and that goal was met with many dollars & hours spent.  The great news is that Petaluma is expecting to run 3 races next year.  This is a great track and a lot of fun to race on.  The staff is top notch which makes it a place that a racer wants to come back to.  There are a number of tracks that act like we are just a nuissance to them, not Petaluma.

Thank you for all that have supported the Winland Racing efforts and the Enduro Racing efforts as a sport.  This is a great form of auto racing and is extremely challenging.  Not every car can make it 200 laps.  This racing is extremely hard on the cars and it takes a true champion to get their car to the end of the race. 

Now it is the off season, time to put the cars back together and get them ready for 2006.

  It is getting tougher to find pit help, thankfully I talked my brother Kevin into coming.

Motor on Thursday night before it was installed        Pit shot, 15 cars entered

                                              
                                                   On track action

10/8/05 Chowchilla 200

15 enduro cars made the tow for an evening of destruction.  WR started in the 6th position.  The race started with the field parked sideways on the back stretch.  The green flag dropped and the race was on with cars trying to take positions right off the bat.  WR was firmly in 3rd place by the time he crossed the start finish line.  WR comtinued on his pace settling in around 2nd or 3rd place for the next 50 or 60 laps untill the car temperature rose above 230.  WR pitted and had the crew cool it down.  WR then reentered the track to go about 10 or so more laps when the motor quit.  WR was able to pull into the infield.  Further diagnosis revealed that the distributor is not turning probably indicating a broken timing chain.  We will then need to fix the motor and get it ready for Saturday the 15th for the 1st annual 200 lap enduro and destruction derby in Petaluma.  Our finishing postion was 12th.

Dan Reed in the 58  won the race with his Dad, Frank coming in second.  Great Night for the Reed Racing Team. 

Motor Update: Cam is broken.  Will replace cam and be ready for 200 heart pounding laps at Petaluma Saturday October 15th.

10/1/05

3 Enduro cars made the tow to the Petaluma Open show for a test and tune for the upcoming Petaluma 200 lap enduro to be held on 10/15/05.  Dan Reed in the 58, Josh Roberts in the 95 and Ken Winland in the 66.

We were all in different heats.  Each Enduro car was no match for the faster pure stock cars. The 95 and 66 made it into the B main.  The 58 had engine problems and was not able to make the B main.  The B main was 15 laps.  The 95 and 66 were fighting for the final transfer spot on the last lap when a car got loose and almost took out the 95.  The 66 was the last car to make the main field.

Main Event

A flat tire took the 66 out at lap 3 returning on lap 8.  Competed for the remaining laps then took an intermission.  Restarted in a field that was down to about 13 cars after an initial field of 22.  The car was getting more competitive after a series of adjustments.  Ended up loosing an oil line and ended the night early.  WR placed 19th out of 22 cars.

It ended up being a good test and tune.  Numerous adjustments were made due to a carburator problem, never got over 180 degrees and the car handled well.  Now it is time to get it ready for the enduro at Chowchilla on 10/8/05.

4/16/05

Chowchilla 100 lap Enduro

The Silicon Valley Construction and Radiatorland sponsored Chevy Malibu #66 showed up to Chowchilla to race and compete against other equally prepared cars for 100 heart pounding laps.

WR started in the 6th position out of a field of 12 or so cars.  Winland quickly moved into 3rd place starting to get into the groove of the slick track.  The track had a large dogleg (peanut) between turn 4 and turn 1 making things interesting. 

The car started to heat up causing a quick end of the night at around lap 30.  The car was brought into the pits and after a diagnostic it was determined that the night was over for the Winland Racing crew.

Further diagnostic on Sunday revealed a broken waterpump.  The motor will be torn down to check for any further damage.

UPDATE 5/11/05  The motor has been repaired and we will be running in the 200 lap rescheduled Altamont race on Sunday May 15th.  The heads were warped, a few burnt valves, a few burnt guides, a few burnt wire boots, bad waterpump.

 

 

Winland Racing started in the 14th position.  The race started counter clockwise.  22 Cars were set to battle for 200 Laps.

Winland got into the pace of the race holding his own for the first 100 lap segment but was no match for the 3 or 4 fastest cars.  Winland got lapped a few times and even spun himself a few times trying to get a feel for the slick track.  Turn 3/4 was especially tricky for some reason.  The #66 continued at his own pace missing a few other cars that also had spun themselves.  At around lap 40 the car developed a pretty good miss.  Winland pulled into the pits to have the crew troubleshoot the problem.  It was found to have one or more spark plug wires that came loose.  In Winlands haste to quickly get to the pit stall, he was reprimanded for going too fast in the pits which resulted in a 5 minute penalty.  Then the car would not restart so it took another few minutes to get the car jump started. Winland completed 68 of the first 100 lap segment.

The crew dilligently worked on the car during the intermission to try to make the car more competitive.  Winland started the second 100 lap segment in the 4th position.  Winland chugged away for 85 laps when all of a sudden the tranny stopped working.  It was found to have a blown tranny hose at the cooler.  ( After further diagnostic, the torque converter lost or sheared off the bolts to the flywheel)

All in all, it was a decent race.  Winland completed 153 out of 200 laps and took 14th place.  The car is still in one piece.  It is now time to get the car ready for memorial day in Chico.

Special thanks to Windshields for Less.  They provided a windshield and installation for the race.

WR#66

 

Memorial Day May 30, 2005

WR showed up to the track filled with anticipation of the excitement to be had.  WR picked one of the last starting spots during the pill draw so he ended up starting towards the end of the 22 car field.

WR quickly got into the pace of the race running hard and determined to finsih well.  He had a few good battles with some other cars and finished tied for 4th after 100 laps.

The crew (just Ken) diligently worked on the car during intermission trying to make it a bit more competitive.  The car had a slight miss which required quite a bit of feathering of the throttle.

Apparently the timing may have been adjusted a bit much since the car overheated around lap 30.  WR came into the pits to have the crew (actually other drivers crew that Ken pitted with) cool down the radiator.  Temperature went form 235 to 170 quickly, Ken then put the car in gear and it stalled never to restart again untill the next morning on the trailer.

WR will need to diagnose the problem with the probability that the timing was off and the starter going bad.

  Final result was a tenth place finish.

3 races this season

14th

11th

10th

Now the goal is to improve on these finishes and break into the top 5.  Maybe WR will end up running in July or August at either Roseville or Kings speedway.  If not the next scheduled race is Chowchilla and Watsonville in October.

Sponsors needed.  Inquire within.

Shawn and Ken prerace in the pits                                         Lining up to start       

After race                                                                Pre race focus