To: ev@...
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Subject: Battery Beach, OJ, and Swamp Buggies
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:48:21 -0500
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From: lawlessind@...
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To everyone involved with Battery Beach...
Thank you for all of your hard work. My whole team had a blast and we
look to return next year!
We finished OJ and the "AGNS" (Acronym for all go no show) minibike at
12:30 pm on Thursday and headed south to Jupiter, FL.
We drove straight through, had breakfast in Cocoa at 5:30am and were at
the Moroso raceway by 9:00am. When we got there we were joined by
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of incredible Ferraris. (If I had
known we would have stowed the 308 in the trailer). I stood next to no
less than 6 different Enzos, dozens of F50's, F40's, vintage racers,
the whole lot. Bill and Derek came with the A123 battery around 11:am
and we spent the day fitting and wiring it to OJ.

The gates opened for drag racers at 6pm. We set up camp in the pits and
went through tech. We charged up, talked to a million different folks,
recorded segments and interviews for the TV show, and headed to
staging. Unfortunately, about that time a motorcycle crashed at full
speed. The driver was injured and life flighted out of the track. I do
not know his condition but our prayers are with him. This event brought
everything to a halt for 1-1/2 hrs. When we finally got in our first
test run it was after 10pm. 12.69 secs @ 116 mph with the Zilla set at
at about 1/2 available power, and easing off the line to a 2.22 60 ft
time. We charged up, did more interviews, reprogrammed for 80% power
and headed back to staging where we waited till 11:30pm for run # 2.
Upon launching the car fought traction and linear stability all the way
down the track. Brian(our awesome driver) saved it no less than 3 times
and once just before the 1/8 mile mark where he was already well over
100 mph that made me flinch. He straightened it out and coasted the
rest of the way though the lights with a 11.63 at 98 mph. Talking to
experienced racers after I realized that the biggest reason for the
lack of consistent traction on the run was that a track spray truck had
immediately proceeded Brian down the track and it was still wet, only
having seconds to evaporate. Run 2 was to be our last run of the
evening according to track officials. They were tired from a whole day
of racing and wanted to go home. Shawn Waggoner saved the day with a
last minute compromise that allowed us 1 more run if went immediately
to staging after run 2. We took what we could get and got in the
staging lane. No time to charge, no programming changes, just a drop of
air pressure from 8 to 6.5 lbs. Run 3 was still severely traction
limited but by feathering the accelerator Brian was still able to keep
the car straight. 1/8 mile was slower than run 2 at 102 mph, but he was
able to stay in the pedal most of the way and managed a 10.96 at 120.00
mph even.  This car, on this track, on this night, was like trying to
drive an unloaded 2wd pickup truck up a hill on a wet road.  We gave up
at least 1 1/2 seconds and 15-20 mph.  The battery, Zilla, charger,
motors, all performed perfectly.  We need to lower air pressure, do a
much better burnout, relocate the battery pack down low where the old
one was, and find a compromise of power and traction.  This is hard to
do when you get only 3 runs on a car with new motors, new controller,
new battery, new weight distribution, etc... OK no more excuses.  We
came to see single digits and we failed in that regard.  But man, what
an exciting ride!!!

More to follow tomorrow. We drove straight home from FL today and I've
got to pull the kids around the yard on the snowtube then get some
SLEEP.

Shawn Lawless