Riding on the highs of the Cresson race weekend. I was hyped and ready for ECR. But before I could just load the car on the trailer, I had to make sure I did my post track inspection.

The welds on the trumpet number 1 broke off. After 3 seasons the welds gave up, and the flange split. Happens with racing. At least I can improve the ITBs. I sent my ITBs to my friend Nelson who welds professionally for oil and gas. So he knows a thing or to about welding.

We redid all the trumpets even though it was just one that failed. Granted it was only a matter of time before the others failed.

Nelson made new flanges and used a stronger aluminum with tungsten for the welds. Hopefully this should last longer then 3 seasons. I joked about next time I should just cnc mill trumpets out of a single piece of aluminum instead. Nelson is down for that. Glad for friends that share the same passion.

I destroyed my 3rd bumper on the race, and I needed another bumper. The old one I had was a cheap fiberglass aftermarket bumper with a 3″ lip. I think it was a Goodline replica. It was nice, but I wanted to go the OEM route to avoid the lip penalty. I didn’t think the 3″ lip did much to me go faster. I was actually faster without that bumper.

Lenard had a zenki bumper lying around, and was able to work out a deal. I’ll get the bumper in exchange for installing taller 5th gear in this t50 transmission. Fair trade. I had the kouki bumper brackets so I had to make a custom one. Travis at the shop had some scrap metal and was able to save money from buying another mount. Super cheap!

ECR is very hard on the brake system. I ordered fresh pads from Porterfield and got the R4 compound. The R4 compound last an entire season which I think is very good value. I had about 40% left on the old R4 pads so those will be spares. The rotors I had for 3 seasons, and showing signs of fatigue. I bought solid vented rotors for the front for $55 shipped. I sure love cheap maintenance.