Phoenix International Raceway:
This was a three day event. Friday was practice day with early morning
temps near
upper 40's. Small bore production parctice session that morning was not
what anyone would call pretty. A very cute but, poorly prepared Porsche 356
oiled the trackl and at least four cars met with substantial contact. Joe
Siam's Turner was totaled. Two other cars were significantly damanged (if
not totaled) (husband and wife duo from Colorado) . The lady suffered
deceleration injury and was taken to local hospital but, was cleared to
return to the track. Vince dePalmas' car had significant front end AND rear
end damage as he bounced around the infield off the "k" rails. I am told
that the gal who owns the 356 will arrange a fund raising event with VARA to
help defray the cost of repair for all the cars....
The race steward indicated that since it was not anyones intentional
fault -if the cars could be repaired and re-teched as safe to drive.....they
could return to the track. SO.....The E-ticket TR team went to work
scrounged parts...trunion, spindle, rotor and assorted shims and parts and
helped Vinny repair his car. It took shackles, "come-a-long", two trucks,
about 12 men with (big) hammers, drills bolts and lots of tape..and were
able to resurect the car and re-set his suspension to spec. Technical
inspectors went over the car in great detail looking for anything that was
"off" to prevent him from going out.... But, the team beat the odds and
Vinny got another chance to play.
Steve (the Rocket) Smith had lots of mechanical problems...he broke another
gear box and toasted the front damper when the RPM's went out of control....
Thanks, to the local TR club in Phoenix (once againg they came trough...)
another GT6 tranny and harmonic dampner was located and installed. In the
process of putting every thing back together Steve found that his head
gasket blew as well. While replacing the gasket he accidentally damaged the
head to where you could look into the block at the drivers side front just
behind the water pump. Well, one of the "give-aways" at this event was a
first aid kit. So, we took some gauze-mesh and impregnated it with
silicone RTV and made a Patch. Then with Aluminum tape and saftey wire held
the patch down....It worked because he WON the EProd race that afternoon. I
came in right behind him with about .3 seconds in 2nd. Bill Manning came in
fourth - I believe that Chuck Gee came in fifth (he had an all time lap best
of 1:15+ better than most D Prod cars...) - If Chuck continues his assault
on car development he'll be moved up to D prod with his killer suspensed and
tuned Spitfire. Paul (Smokin') Smock got his suspension tuned but, had a
coil dysfunction. You may recall it was just a few months ago at PIR that
Paul turned repetitive laps at 1:15 until his engine blew and bent the
car...when he hit the "k" rail at speed. The car is back in order and
almost de-bugged. John Frymark TR4, Frank Daley TR4, Joe Dickerson TR3,
Alan Bryan (1147+) Spitfire and his dad Warwick (GT6) all had great outings
finishing in the top.
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