Nice report, as usual! Congrats on toughing it out at RdAtl, you deserve it.
You're my hero and I wish you could have brought your car to the Mid-Ohio event.
I just love seeing you arrive, tire trailer in tow and always look forward to
your
report of the adventure.
Sorry to hear my good friend Alan Pinel had a below the belt failure, he
deserves
better than that.
You need to drive your car to an event at VIR, a perfect car to complement an
equally interesting track.
Hope the kids in college are doing well.
mike jackson
ps, I think 5500 is a perfectly logical rpm number. I've got them tall gears as
well.
Richard Taylor wrote:
> FOTers,
>
> It started raining Friday evening and didn't blow through until a couple of
> hours after the last race Sunday....figures. As the rains worsened, the field
> sparsened (not in spell-check - but it oughta be).
>
> Alan Pinel, with his 5 second-a-lap-faster-than-mine TR-4, broke something
> down where the crankshaft hooks on to the flywheel and didn't make the
> starting grid.
>
> With the fast guys broke and the smart guys dry at home, we guts out our first
> first place trophy in seven years. "It is not always to the swiftest....."
>
> Naturally we looked forward to the Enduro race in the afternoon. Still
> raining, we took a second place (to a Lotus 7).
>
> To you fast guys this might look like some pretty serious bottom feeding. But
> to us bottom feeders it was pure heaven!
>
> Whilst on the subject of BFers, permit me to make another observation, or
> maybe justification. As I read over the FOT correspondence, I am frequently
> impressed by the degree of technology you guys bandy about. Quite frankly
> much of it is way over my head, or perhaps beyond my degree of willing
> involvement in the sport.
>
> In contrast to max-performance, I have chosen to pump-up my motor only 25 hp
> and stiffen up the suspension a little bit, drive the car to the track, race
> as fast as I can and wait for the rain. In the last 7 years I have entered 16
> races and 15 enduros. I had one DNF two years ago; the left front wheel
> bearing failed. We have garnered 7 trophies. What is that, one a year? No,
> it ain't much, but I have a lot of seat time and I'm still feeding two kids in
> college.
>
> I think you guys would be amazed with the incredible durability of the Triumph
> motor when you shift at 5500. And yes, I use my over-drive with the tall
> rearend.
>
> But most importantly, when I drive home (in my econo-race car) on Sunday
> evening, both the narcotic pleasure from the adrenalin drain-down and my sense
> of accomplishment is just as gratifying as it is to those guys going through
> security check to fly back to California.
>
> I have been emotionally purged by glimpses of life's reality and am ready to
> go back to the quiet, secure life of everyday tedium. And isn't that why we
> do this stuff anyway?
>
> Richard Taylor
> TR-4
> Atlanta
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