MJ2 Racing Team - Working It Out

Carruthers climbed on an overseas shipping container converted into a spotters' stand as he watched Jefferson circle the track. After a couple laps to warm up the tires, the driver turned the engine loose for a few quick circuits before bringing the car in for another spring change.

Then Carruthers sent him out to do it all over again.

"The biggest surprise is how soft the springs have to be to get the nose down," says the crew chief. The second surprise is how little change in sway bar size seems to make to the way the car responds.

The team began with bars barely over an inch thick, and ended up with pieces twice that size.

"It's hard to imagine any car could twist a bar that size," says Mike Warn, the team owner.

"Late Model cars are very sway bar sensitive," Carruthers mulls. "But on these cars, even a big change didn't make much of a difference."

"Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do doesn't mean it's useless." -Thomas Edison

The laps piled up and the knowledge base about the new chassis increased. Jefferson says he is satisfied with the way the car is turning, but wishes he had another car or two at the session to gauge progress.

"We're happy with what we have to work with," the driver says, "but we are still at the point where we are trying to find out what it does when we do something to it."

Because Jefferson raced the cars when he ran what used to be Winston West and later the Grand National Series, he had an idea what to expect from the heavier cars. That wasn't the case with Jim Warn, who is a rookie this year.

They are the biggest, heaviest, slowest cars he's driven on an oval.

"In the Late Model you just toss the car into the corner and it responds," he says, "but these things just react so much more slowly. In the lighter cars you are always thinking one or two corners ahead, with this one I find I'm taking it one corner at a time."

Carruthers used the times that Late Models turn at the oval as a gauge to their progress.

"We're off their times by just a tenth or two," he says. "I think that puts us in the ballpark."

During the session the drivers turned well over 200 laps, all in short stints on the track. During one of the longest runs, the back end of the car began to step out on Warn, who caught it before there was any damage, but not before eliciting a gasp or two from the spotters' stand audience.

"Well," he says on the radio, "I guess I learned my limit."

The test session was further complicated by a restriction on the number of Goodyears NASCAR allows each car. Much of the day was spent on Hoosiers, which are similar-but not identical-to the tires from Goodyear.

"We can get about 90 percent there on the Hoosiers," says Carruthers, "but that last 10 percent really needs the tire we are going to race on. And the car changes when we put them on."

There were other teething pains. A steering wheel that was too high, a brake bias control that never seemed to work right, rear calipers that needed to be swapped.

"I'm a worrier," Carruthers admits. "I was up early this morning, wide awake, wondering about what I forgot or didn't do. You always expect something. You just don't know what to expect."

At the end of two days, the team was ready to pack up and head home. Team members discovered things about the cars and about how they'll have to work together to be successful.

Carruthers gathered the volunteers around for an end-of-the-day summary and critique. He laid out what they learned, what went well and what needs work. But he was upbeat and optimistic about the way both the car and crew performed.