DanS.02GT

It's been so long since it happened, I don't even remember who won, so It'll be kind of like watching a new race. This Sunday at 1:00 Eastern. Your clock may say 2:00 if you forget to turn it back for Daylight savings time.

Evil_Capri

Cool!! Thanks for the reminder!

How you been Dan?

TMSBrad

The #59 TMS Mustang finishes 10th. I think this is the race where Ford Racing reflashed several of the Mustangs just before the race and uploaded a corrupted file, causing several of them to not crank. I think the #55 was an hour late to the race.

Rara

Brad, you are correct, except NONE of the Mustangs would crank after the reflash . . . I think only two of them got corrected in time to make the grid. Our #59 got out on track after 5 laps went by. Oh, and the #58 was the one that finished 10th, the #59 car finished in 18th because of the computer reflash fiasco.

DanS.02GT

So, what was the deal with the reflash? It seems, in retrospect, that that might not be a good thing to monkey with right before a race.

Rara

Long story, but it came directly from Ford Racing . . . Normally there are no issues with that type of reflash, but the calibration file got corrupted before getting uploaded to the cars.

Most of the mustangs had been having temperature issues in the heat all through practice, so this was an attempt to keep the temps down and help them live through the race.

f1-cobra

I felt bad for the Zippo Mustang, (it's a good thing he didn't have the Shaker 1000 in there ). I did see the 58 & 59 a few times, which was a thrill, even though the cameras were focusing on the leader. All in all I think all the stangs did a great job even with the cirrcumstances they were given.

DanS.02GT

Yeah, that was a pretty hard hit for the Zippo car, though not as bad as flipping it in turn 8 on the first lap at Mid-O last year.

I heard on the Speed TV forum that there was a homologation problem with the ECUs caused by Ford using two different configurations in the production cars, leading Grand Am to think that the race cars weren't using production ECUs, which contributed to the reflash problem. Any truth to that rumor?

Rara

Dan,

There is a bit of truth there. What happened was, the early cars and engine packages from Ford Racing were delivered with an EEC-V processor and harness setup because the newer harness and processor wasn't going to be ready right away (there were no 4.6L 4V applications for the new processor, so Ford Racing had to start from scratch)
Once they were done, any cars or engine packages were delivered with the new processor.

Grand Am felt there may be some sort of issue with the existance of two different processors (despite the fact most other teams can run things like Motec etc.) for the Mustangs. So, everyone that had the older processor had to swap over to the new one. the #59 car included.


As far as the Zippo car, those guys amaze me. They can take a car that should be tossed in the scrap heap, and over night, in the paddock, they will make it raceable again. Case in point, at VIR, they took a horrendous front hit during practice, and over night, they cut the whole thing apart, and re-welded it all back together, put new fenders and hood on it (borrowed from us ) and raced it the next day and did pretty well.

DanS.02GT

Thanks Rara, that pretty much clears it up.