Mike Unger wrote a little blurb about the SVRA races @ VIR this past weekend
and I'd like to pass it along to the rest of you. I'm sure Mike won't mind and
many on this list know him.
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Unger
To: datsunmike
Sent: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 8:12 AM
Subject: Re: VIR
Hi Mike: Thanks! It was another eventful but gratifying weekend. That will be
it for me this year as I need a new camshaft now and will need to rebuild the
engine again too so it will break the bank for this year. I will paste in the
details below so you can see what we had to do to finish the race! I wouldn't
have bet on us on Friday night...
Mike
An eventful and fun weekend at VIR. We had super weather. The Z car
developed a miss Friday afternoon and I discovered no compression on number
three cylinder. On closer examination the rocker arm had come apart (pad broke
off the arm) and then fell out all together. We found the rocker, pad and lash
pad in the galley. It unfortunately, destroyed the cam lobe on the way out. It
was worn down in the center about 0.050-.100" and full of gouges etc. Things
weren't looking good. I had a spare rocker and things were trashed so I
figured what the heck. I filed the cam lobe with a big flat file into a
reasonable shape and stuck a rocker in. We cleaned the oil filter and set the
lash best we could and tried practice Sat morn. It ran OK at high rpm and I
qualified 4th. Kept cleaning the oil filter and adjust the lash after each
session. It finally looked like it stabilized by Sat evening and we might make
the race. I was 4th overall and 2nd in CP to a very fast Lotus from Atlanta.
Well, my car held together for the race. With one cam lobe lower than the
rest it "fell off" more in the corners but at high rpms worked fine. I had a
great race. I put the newest (less oldest?) set of tires on for Sunday and
they were a bit better but the track was VERY slimy by 3:30. Had a good start
and I was 4th overall into turn 1. I was able to stay with the top three cars
and we were able to pull away from the rest of the group some. I made a run on
the Lotus at the back straight and was able to get him in the braking zone
into the roller coaster. He passed me back going into turn 1! Imagine that, a
Lotus 7 faster than me down the straight....I hung with him and passed him
back on the back straight by braking late into the hill. I gave him room
inside at 1 and he tried again but he started to over rotate and I turned into
the apex and he spun! Spent the rest of the race staying up to Ross in the
carbon fiber Escort and decided to just hang since my tires were gone, gone,
gone. Won CP and finished on the podium behind the BP V8 MG and the BP Escort.
Feels good to come back from a potentially devastating failure on Friday and
win.Too much fun! I was hoping to go to Atlanta but a new cam and another
engine rebuild will break the bank. Better to end on a high note and look
towards spring.
Dick drove a great race and won group 3 besting a very fast Alfa Spyder.
They had a great race too trading places several times. A good weekend for the
Datsuns!
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