Friends, what started out as looking like a great weekend, ended much
too early for me. The weather was perfect, we were race group 1, so
we would be getting home at a decent time, and it was to be our
longest race of the season, 25 laps or 40 minutes. 5 laps into the
first practice session, I hit 2nd gear instead of 4th, buzzing the
engine. I limped back in, and found the #1 and #8 push rods out of
place, and upon further inspection, I could see the camshaft while
looking down the lifter valleys - the lifters were gone. Since I had
enough points for the class championship already, and did not have a
set of lifters with me, and my spare engine was home 200 miles away, I
decided to pack it in for the weekend, and got home real early.
I went back to using a stock TR tranny for this weekend, since I did
not need O.D. at this track. I figured saving 30 lbs wouldn't hurt.
I used a TR4 shifter, that when I went to 1st or 3rd I would hit my
hand on the dash. That, combined with the different feel of the gates
compared to my T5 must have lead to my demise. It was only practice,
so I can't attribute it to the heat of battle. Just oops - damn! I
have not pulled the engine yet, and will get to it later this week. I
plan on magnifluxing everything, since I could of easily hit 10,000
rpms. I was accelerating and shifted out of 3rd at 7000 rpms. It was
only for an instant, and did not even have my foot off of the clutch
all of the way, but it was enough. Oh well, it gives me plenty of
time to get ready for next year. Joe(B)
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