Fun SR20DE racing (long) pt.1 of 2

[Tim Rogers]

Well, this weekend was the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Road
Atlanta.
http://www.arrc-online.com/
This is the unofficial championship for the Sports Car Club of America
(SCCA)'s regional classes that can not compete at the national championship
Valvoline Runoffs at Mid Ohio.
Greg Amy (pronounced Ami) came down from Connecticut to run his 1992 NX2000
in the ITS class.  http://www.improvedtouring.com/
Greg had finished 3rd in the Valvoline Runoffs in 1992 in this car when it
was a Showroom Stock car (in a field that was at least half NX2000's) so he
knew how to get this car around the track quickly.

Or so he thought.

Thursday was a test day, and Greg was planning on breaking in a newly built
motor, reacquainting himself with the track and fine tuning the suspension
in the four sessions available that day.  The track had been widened and
some turns had been reconfigured -in the unsuccessful interest of bringing
F1 or CART to the track- since he last ran here in 1992.  So, Greg went out
on his first lap and came around for his first time through turn 1 at speed
and promptly spun the car and backed it into the tire wall.
A quick inspection in the pits showed just a slightly creased rear fender
and a slightly askew rear spoiler but no real damage, so we sent him back
out.  Two laps later, the black flag comes out, the wrecker goes out, and
Greg is the only car not to come back to the pits.  So, we wait for the car
to come back in on the wrecker and when it does, Greg hops out of the cab,
reaches back on the flat bed and shows us an SR20DE rod that is still too
hot to touch.  It had gone through the front of the block, bounced off two
of the header primaries and struck the NISMO radiator, causing it to leak.
Luckily, Greg and his crew chief Matt had brought a spare motor "Old Betsy"
with them and Matt and I spent the rest of the day changing it out.  But not
before Greg and I had gone to my house to pull the NISMO radiator (stock on
a '93 NX) and header out of my white hardtop (as seen at the convention
:-P ) and grabbed my engine hoist to assist in the task.
We would have gone for a Mike Jez record beating attempt, but we had to
transfer all of the ancillaries, cams and oil pan back into "Old Betsy."  So
at 6:30 that night, the motor fired up to the applause of our paddock
neighbors.
Greg had a chance to walk the track that night to get a little better idea
of how it should be driven and was philosophical about the motor issue.  "If
it had to blow, its better that it went on the practice day than during
qualifying or the race."
Tim