> A couple of weeks back I had the pleasure of crewing for Tom "Iron Butt"
> Phelan when he debuted his vintage 2000 at Summit Point. Tom has always
> been a class act and his race car shows his attention to details. The car
> looked beautiful and performed almost flawlessly all weekend.
Normally I'm a lurker and only contribute my rare little tidbits under two
circumstances. One is when I think I have an answer to a tech question. This
is usually followed by the taste of shoe leather as I desparately try to
extract my foot from my mouth. Hence the reason I don't say much.
The second circumstance is when some says something that I feel I must
comment on. So I'd like to respond to Paul's comment above if you'll indulge
me for a minute or or two or you can just hit delete if you feel so
inclined.
I must politley disagree with Paul's statement. As much as I would like to
be considered a class act I must say I'm not. If you want to see a class act
look at these:
http://home.mchsi.com/~tomph/summit/support.jpg
That's Mike Unger with his back to the camera - It was due to Mike's
encouragement that I even considered going to Summit Point in the first
place. I had all kinds of carb problems but Mike said - bring it out and
he'd fix'em! So I did and so did he. Thanks Mike
Facing the camera is Bob Middleton - Bob supplied me with all the spare
parts, nuts, bolts, washers, tape, pens, locktite, etc. that I never even
thought of bringing. As parts fell off he provided the replacements. Thanks
Bob!
http://home.mchsi.com/~tomph/summit/crew.jpg
That's Paul on the left. He drove all the way from Ohio to West Virginia
just to crawl around in the oil under my car looking for loose stuff. Yep -
oil - all over the ground! Back pressure from the catch can pushed oil out
of every possible orafice in the engine. You'd think it was an MG! Thanks
Paul!
Mike "datsunmike" Landskroner is next - we'll get him later.
On the right is Mike Bucher. I don't know who he is. I never meet him
before. He just showed up with Paul and pitched right in. He drove us all to
dinner and stuck around to the very end to help me load up the trailer and
truck. Thanks Mike!
http://home.mchsi.com/~tomph/summit/mark.jpg
That's Mark "stickerman" Dent reviewing our after race check list with me.
Mark brought his young son along to watch the races but still took time out
to help with tire pressures and other chores. He even took movies! Thanks
Mark
http://home.mchsi.com/~tomph/summit/mike.jpg
And that brings us back to datsunmike. Mike was there from the start jumping
right in and under, as in under the dash as shown in this photo. Here he is
putting my clutch pedal back in. That's right - back in. It fell out during
a double clutch maneuver on the back straight. One of the many nuts that
loosened up over the weekend not to mention the one behind the wheel!.
In fact, all of the problems I had were due to something I did wrong or
forgot and it was these "class acts" that put it all right. And they didn't
even spill the beans and tell everyone what a jerk I was or that I must have
been sleeping when I put this car together.
Thanks Guys and thanks to all the others whose name's I've omitted here but
who made it possible for me to go out and have fun!!!!
Thanks
Tom "Iron Butt" Phelan
/// datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net mailing list
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive
|
