We Go To Pikes Peak 2019! Part Two

Action Photography by Larry Chen, Pit and Kitchen Action by Ed Liu

In our last chapter, we had gotten through our first day on the mountain in the Evasive Motorsports/Eneos/ Turn 14 Distribution Toyota 86 and had gotten a taste of how grueling a Pikes Peak effort can be. The next day of practice involves the part of the course from the Glen’s Cove parking lot up to the Devils Playground, where the start of the previous day’s practice was.  This segment of the course starts off with some higher speed turns and straightaways and ends with a series of very tight switchbacks.  Once again, the Evasive Motorsports team had to wake up at 2am and brave the dark and cold to set up the pits at Glen Cove.

Read Our First Segment Here!

One of the reasons for getting up early is to be able to get a pit space near the starting line.  It is so cold that your tire warmers struggle to bring the tires up to anything resembling a decent temperature.  This is one of the reasons why the tire warmers and tires have to be wrapped in blankets.  The temperatures are below freezing with the windchill making it who knows how cold.  You want to be close to the starting line so your tires don’t cool off too much between your pit and the start!

Kelvin Yong spent a lot of time reviewing data and fine-tuning the cars traction control strategy.  This involves manipulating several layers of power management, from boost to timing and fuel cut.  The idea is to minimize wheel spin while making the process transparent to Dai as a driver and still allowing him enough wheelspin so he could use the engine’s power to help control the car.  Kelvin’s work on the traction control was a significant advantage for us from an overall speed through any given part of the course, to a tire management perspective which helped prevent the car from overcooking the rear tires and losing longterm grip over the long course.  Here Kelvin reviews and modifies the traction control parameters.

The Evasive/Eneos Toyota 86 runs on Ignite Red fuel.  This is 98% ethanol with a secret 2% mixture consisting of lubricant and stuff that boosts the power.  We have found that Ignite Red consistanyl outperforms other ethanol-based fuels and with its high latent heat of evaporation, helps keep coolant and oil temperatures down, critical stuff at Pikes Peak’s high altitude where heat exchangers don’t work so well.

Daylight breaks and Dai is ready and strapped into the car.  The bundle in the foreground is a tire and tire heater. It is best to wait till the very last second to get the tires on the car and in line.