Had a great time this weekend. I never worked so hard for a seventh place in
my life.
Joe Alexander showed up dragging a roll-around flight bag. Never did figure
out what he was doing. Some kind of a geezer thing I guess. A delight to see
him and his intended. Chuck Arnold showed up sans car, Charly Mitchell, Jeff
Quick and John James were all there waving the Triumph flag, as was Bill
Hart (quietly--a triumph powered Devin). And of course, Peyote.
My daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons were there--the oldest just turned
five. He's the most likely racer of the four so far--complete car nut. Spent
most of his time setting up grids with his matchbox cars and racing them
down the trailer ramp.
I had fast company. The two Poopers that I usually duke it out with and I
were moved to Historic Big Bore. Basically anyone that's gone a bit too fast
lately got tossed in with a bunch of Listers, Devin SS's, corvettes, Matt
Malone's Lotus 15, and big motor stuff. And the fastest damned 356 I've ever
seen driven by Leonard Thornburg (I think--at least I know his first name
was Leonard...watch out for this guy).
Peyote was running great, though my tires were a little rough. I
flat-spotted the bejessus out of them in that "no steering" incident at
Sears Point and was too cheap to change them. By the time I realized what a
mistake that was there was no tires to be had. Sounds like a recurring theme
here. I might learn something if I didn't keep forgetting everything. I
moved the worst flat spots to the back, by the end of the weekend they went
from the size of my fist to the size of my face. Still I was turning 1:40's
and thereabouts. My fastest time at Pacific Raceway is 1:39 something.
Anyway, I got beat by Tony Garmey driving the Costin Lister (Tony would be
fast driving a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel) and Matt in his Lotus 15,
and a knobbly Lister that kept getting faster all weekend (kicked his butt
the first race, but that didn't stick) and both Pooopers and the Victress (a
pretty corvette-powered special) and the &^%(*& 356!!! I pretty much had
the 356 covered until the second to last lap and was filling the mirrors of
a Costin Lister driven by Randy Riggs, but a corvette-powered Devin special
that we were lapping decided to make a race of it, and I got scraped off. I
can't believe it--the king of sleazy traffic moves got scraped off by a 356.
I did finally get by the Lister, and I showed the 356 everything but my
thighs in every corner, but I couldn't rattle him. Oh well.
Seventh.
Oh, the humanity.
Jeff Quick was going great until the red mist prevented him from seeing his
temperature climb. Snapped belt. I think we need Ahhoohhhgahh horns, not
just gauges and idiot lights. Didn't look like he did much damage, but time
will tell. Wasn't much water left. He went out in Sunday's race, but I left
early. Charly Mitchell was having valve cover leakage problems and got black
flagged for fogging the bugs. ATTENTION TURNWORKERS: IT'S A TRIUMPH!!! Needs
one of Justin's gaskets--as soon as they get done for TR6. In the meantime
the old recipe of Gorilla Snot (3M weatherstrip cement) seems to be working.
John's car sure is pretty, Uncle Jack. But the alternator died. He got the
battery charged and all seemed well when I left.
Next week, Portland Historics. I love summer. The holy season.
Maybe I'll buy some tires.
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