THE ipd VOLVO DRIVEN BY ROB GORDON WINS AT THE ROSE CUP RACES
Saturday, June 15, 2013
The ipd Volvo 142, driven by Rob Gordon, wins the first of two Rose Cup Race at PIR (Portland international Raceway)
Competing with Porsche's (914/4, and 911), Alfa Romeo, Datsun roadsters and a Ford Capri.
The Porsche 914/4 out qualified the Volvo in the first practice session, then Rob went faster in the second session and took the pole from the 914/4.
When the green flag dropped the Porsche took the lead because of its superior top-end speed and led the first lap. Then Rob caught in the in the tighter and twisty returns and then passed him in the very fast turns 8,9 &10. The cars ran extremely close for the next two laps then Rob began to slowly gain about a half second lap. The Porsche had the superior top speed but was no match for the handling of the Volvo. With nearly a 6 second lead the Porsche is still fading and about three quarters to the race the throttle linkage broke on the Porsche putting him on the sideline – although the race was pretty much determined by then.
Rob was a full second faster in this year's rose cups than he was in 2012. A little bit of tweaking over the winter paid off.
The second race is scheduled for Sunday afternoon and we’re sure there'll be a good battle once more for the win at the prestigious Rose Cup races.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
The ipd Volvo 142, driven by Rob Gordon, wins the second Rose Cup Race of the weekend at PIR (Portland international Raceway)
Starting next to a 911 S Porsche, which has a substantially higher terminal speed, Rob follows him into turn one and was right on his bumper coming into the high speed Circus 9,10,11 & 12 however, he could not pull away from the Porsche this time. The two cars ran very close for the first six laps until the Porsche bobbled under pressure in turn five allowing Robert to put some distance between them.
As the race wore on, Robert was able to challenge cars in higher classes but not as easily as the day before. His times were about a 1.5 seconds slower than the day before but we couldn't figure out why, although nobody in the race were as fast as on Saturday.
Robert took first place in front of Porsche 911S, two Datsuns VP2 (D production in their times) roadsters, two Alfa Duettos, A Ford Capri and even the Lotus Cortina (driven by Monte Shelton). We kind of thought he would be ahead of some of the higher class cars like he did before. Nevertheless, two wins on the same weekend is quite a statement for a car with the aerodynamics of one brick on top of a bigger brick and a tractor-like engine.
When Robert came back to the pits he couldn't figure out why the car was slower, but he did say the car wanted over-steer badly in some of the turns where it stuck to the track like glue and he was able to put distance on him and his competitors; even the cars and higher classes. He was a bit perplexed, although his times weren’t bad, they simply weren't as good as the first two days. Then sitting in the trailer, he looked past the left front wheel of the car and noticed that the moment arm of the front sway bar had broken which caused the mass over-steer. Well what would you expect?--this is the same sway bar that we fabricated in 1978 when we first built the chassis-- so it prooves that nothing is forever.
The car will be repaired and ready to run the historic car races at PIR in the first week of July, and then probably another vintage car race at The Ridge in Shelton, Washington in late July.
So once again this old boxy Volvo is running with cars, some of which were far more sophisticated and with bigger engines, has proven again that a lot of hard work and a very experienced driver can do the “impossible”.
As a side note: He ran this week with the same engine and same tires that he ran all last season with. Fresh tires would probably be worth another half a second a lap and the engine ran like a sewing machine – – no water leaks, no oil leaks, no smoking… Just perfect.
