SKANDSEN Motorsport

2009-03-18T21:25:00.000-07:00

More design studies:

The car that will become a Spec3 racer

2009-03-07T13:21:00.001-08:00

Today I went and picked up the car that eventually will turn into a Spec3 racecar. The price was ok, not bad, but with my used car score there is probably something very wrong with it. However, it's got a few parts I hope to sell to earn back a few bucks. Like the 17" wheels, the Pioneer stereo and very decent floor mats. Not much, but something. Maybe I can even get a buck or two for the worn interior? Doubtfully. Already I've discovered a problem in the driveline. Engaging the clutch creates a little clunking sound and some creaking sounds from the rear. Don't want to speculate quite yet what that is. Also, it sounds like a roller or belt tensioner is shot. Nothing new on a BMW really. A lot of work is needed on this car anyway. The best assurance on reliability is that it's new and you have done it yourself.

Here is some pictures of the car right after I brought it home (not washed even):

Race car design II

2009-03-04T19:40:00.000-08:00

After some photoshop'ing I have come up with the following pictures:

It is now only white with blue stripes. It will of course look different with decals and numbers. But I'm not sure if I'm quite happy with it.

First HPDE in 2009

2009-03-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

My first HPDE for 2009 happened at Virginia International Raceway. The event was held by the BMWCCA Tarheel chapter. A great event organizer!

The weather had warned of lots of rain during the weekend. And it held true to it's word. We got about one hour on Friday when we arrived before the rain started. From there on we had continuous rain, except for a few of hours in the early mornings, throughout the whole weekend.

Driving in the wet is a real challenge. It demands more smoothness on all inputs; steering, throttle, brakes and clutch. In a 318iS I thought I'd be safe doing harder upshifts into the higher gears. But after scaring myself and my instructor when I shifted to 4th and got sideways, it was obvious that smoothness was needed at all times. I had to learn how to drive the underpowered four cylinder as a high powered vehicle. Which was great! Also to add to the challenge was the new sealer that VIR had put down in the corners. Coming on and off this high grip surface really unbalanced the car if you were not careful. And while driving in the rain it was hard to spot the transitions, but you could definitely feel them if you got them wrong.

Sunday got cut short due to freezing temperatures and a snowstorm on the horizon. I got two full sessions in before the end. The first just as it started to rain again after the Instructor group had almost dried up the line. The driest session throughout the weekend, but still far from dry.

The car worked great all weekend. At first it felt a little unsettled in the rear, but some higher pressures in the Sumis H4 did the trick. I ran 40psi rear and 39psi front, which seemed to work. A better setup might have been found with some research, but I think for me, as the driver, to work on something consistent, I needed to leave the pressures alone once I was happy with it.

And then the way back! It started out as rain, turned into slush, and then snow. Several cars off the road. We were one of the first cars to the scene when a Cadillac CTS had spun and crashed into the ditch. Luckily the driver was ok. Car was repairable, but far from driveable. We made it home after 7 hours of careful driving. A trip that normally takes us 4 hours.

Here's a little video my good friend Craig took by the start-finish straight on Sunday:
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Here's the link to Craig's onboard camera at the same event:
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

Racecar design

2009-02-08T11:55:00.001-08:00

The draft that's been made is currently how the race car hopefully will look like. It would be easy if the car is white, but it might not be. Paint is on the bottom of priorities, but I felt the color scheme is important. As You see it is primarily white, with silver and a blue accent. This will be the team color scheme as well. More images will be made in the future with Photoshop.

BMWCCA Winter Karting League

2009-02-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

2009 started with me joining the BMWCCA NCC Chapter's Winter Karting League at Allsports GP (www.allsportsgp.com) karting facility out by Dulles Town Center. The league started in December 2008 and runs pretty much every Sunday during the winter months. I joined as a rookie and did the first 5 events out of 10 total. While great fun and close competition I decided not to do the last half due to budget reasons. An event has 30 drivers competing in 3 different groups depending on qualifying. I learned a lot about racing lines and sharing the turns with other drivers as well as being smooth and consistent while also aggressive. Still lots to learn however. After 5 events I was competing for the rookie of the year position while also in the top 5 in my weight class. Overall I was happy with my performance and speed, but could also benefit from more seat time, as with everything. Even though the karts are very similar, differences are hard to eliminate. The staff do a great job keeping the kart as close as possible, but when the drivers are very close it becomes a matter of what kart you get and how soon you are able to adapt to it's characteristics. A valuable lesson to learn also. Also I learned to keep your head cool and be patient. Dealing with "racing' incident can be frustrating, but it never gets better if your loose your cool on top of it. More to learn for sure, but that's what I could do this year. Maybe next year I can join for a full season.

Some Spec3 racers already built

2009-01-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

I hope these guys don't mind me showing their pictures of their cars.

NASA Spec3 rules release

2009-01-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

NASA has just released the rules for the upcoming Spec3 racing series. This is the series I'm hoping to start racing in and it looks good so far.

The rules can be found here.

Here's the press release from NASA.

The team

2009-01-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

I realize I need some help to create a motorsport team. Nothing would be better to have my closest friends and family involved. So I've asked my brother, Atle, to help me out with design and marketing, my two best friends, Joar and Stig, to help me out with technical stuff and web and media, respectively. And of course my wife, Lindsey, to help me keep it all together financially. I still need someone as pit crew. This is a demanding position that I'm afraid of asking someone without the right incentives. We'll see who pops up in the future. My brother and two best friends are located in Norway, and physically distant to the whole thing. But I hope in todays modern world we can still have fun together even though we are at two different locations.

As of today, Joar and my wife has accepted the invitation to be part of SKANDSEN Motorsport. Great news!

First post

2009-01-15T14:04:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Anders Skandsen, and I live in Washington DC, USA. Since I can remember I've been excited about things with wheels on it. I still remember the excitement when I first tried a tricycle. Since then it's grown to cars and especially BMWs which my family has been driving for a long time. I adopted BMWs as a great driver's car, but didn't make any serious effort to take it beyond the regular street driving. This was when I lived in my home country, Norway. Though I always wanted to race cars it just seemed financially impossible in Norway. When I moved to the United States I realized the opportunity was there. Lots of tracks, people and cheap cars (compared to the triple prices from Norway at least). And a great community with tons of nice people.

That's when I thought of SKANDSEN Motorsport. I start by driving High Performance Driving Schools with a goal of starting to race in 2010. I'm very excited! The team aspect of it gets me probably as excited as the driving itself. I hope I can bring some of my friends and family together and have fun with motorsport. The future will tell. For now it's an idea in development, but I got lots of energy for this.