**** GUEST BLOG – BY ADAM KNAPIK****
After a rough start of the season Adam Knapik and his team prepared to make noise in Atlanta as Round 2 of Formula Drift Pro 2 season was upon them. Adam again has some issues but jump inside his head for a few minutes and see what he had to say!
***************************** ADAM KNAPIK’s WORDS *********************************
Coming into Round 2 with our back up LS2 stock motor we knew that we would be at a massive power disadvantage over the rest of the field, but we were ready to swing for the fences. We where hoping for a straight forward swap from our ITB/Stroked/Built LS6, but unfortunately we where met with issues and timing delays the whole way. The team pushed through though with multiple 48 hour shifts, and finishing up just in time to load “The Mistress” S14 and make the trek from Southern California to Road Atlanta.
Because of the unforeseen delays we where not able to give the car a shake down after completion so Atlanta would be the first time she would turn her wheels in anger. After unloading and making it late to the venue because of an over pass that had collapsed in the city, we where met with a car that, when loaded was running perfectly, and now would not idle for the life of us. With the car still needing to pass tech, the pressure was on. During tech we where told that our relocated oil filter was not in the proper place, and that the filter, and lines all would need to be rerouted. Although this was our only real tech issue, it would not be an easy one to fix, along with still finding why the car would seize to run properly.
We rushed back to the pits to get our tech in order and scramble about the car to see what gremlin had made its way in during the long haul. Turned out that during the transportation, the car had bounced around, and magically a wire in the back of our bussmann had somehow loosened up. Again proving, that in racing, ANYTHING can happen. High fives all around after finding the issue, fixing the oil cooler lines, and passing tech. But this had cost us sometime, and we missed the first practice session. Now strapping in and getting ready for the second practice of the day we where all excited to see what the car had in it, but during the second pass, the clutch pedal would fall to the floor entering the second clipping zone and putting the car into the dirt.
After getting towed back in and hoping that it was possibly a large air bubble in the system, our hearts sake when we tried to bleed it and saw fluid come out of the bell housing. This signified that our hydraulic slave cylinder (located inside the transmissions for LS based motors) had gone bad on us. We quickly got to work on pulling the transmission as qualifying was immediately followed by the practice session, and we where one of the first to go up.
The transmission was out in no time, but finding a replacement O-ring for the cylinder would be a whole new challenge. Driving up and down the pits frantically asking anyone if they had an extra, we found our hero, Mr. Michael Essa. He had an O-ring that would fit and with no hesitation let us have it to try and make the show. We raced back to our pit and thrashed on the car. We had missed our first qualifying run, and now where hoping that the field would take a little to get through the order. Unfortunately they where quite fast about it. We called our 5 minute competition time out, but in the end it was not enough time. If we had about 10 more minutes we would have had it all together, but the clock had beaten us this time. We where all bummed obviously, but in the end we made the best of it. We were able to see all our friends that we rarely get to because we are all too busy working on our cars, and it was great to see that lots of people liked the all around look of the car.
Round 3 has about a 10 week hiatus, so this give us some time to get the car out to test and enjoy!
We will be back to do battle August 4th in Monroe, Washington!
Adam Knapik is a Konig Sponsored driver that runs 18×9 et23mm Konig Rennform wheels. The Rennforms are flow formed and perfect for the harsh environment that drifting provides. Make sure to follow Adam and his team on Instagram and Facebook:
KNAPIK RACING – FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/KnapikRacing/
KNAPIK RACING – INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/knapikracing/
