Hi Everybody,
We have just arrived home in the UK after what can only be described as one
of the most wonderful racing experiences that I have had in the last 20
years.
Some of you may know that I purchased my TR4 from Larry Rossi in November
2005 and ran it for the first time at Road America in May 2006 with mixed
success (actually more failure than success as we broke 2 heads, the
transmission and, ultimately, put a rod through the block!!!). We went away
from RA last year vowing to return and do a bit better next time :-)
Over the last year Jon Wood of Classic Racecraft in the UK built a new
engine and transmission for the TR4 whilst Jack Drews just about rebuilt
everything else from rear axle through to new cooling and exhaust systems.
As usual, despite ordering my new crank 2 days after returning to the UK
last May, it eventually arrived late February (so what happened to the
promise of a 6-10 week lead time; maybe Farndon meant months!!!!). Jon
worked his usual magic and turned everything round so that the engine and
transmission were ready for shipping by the end of March; unfortunately this
meant that I had to air freight them both which at 330kgs was a bit of a
shock to the wallet - for those with an interest in these things it cost USD
$1300.
Joe Alexander and Jack had a trip to Chicago to pick up the crate and
despite the usual song and dance routine with Customs eventually got
everything back to Geneseo for Jack to install everything and have the TR4
running after 2 days; what an amazing guy is our Jack.
Btw the crate is a work of art and was a one-off build by a UK company
designed to protect all the components and to meet the very strict US
regulations, Joe has this stashed away in one of his storage units and I am
sure it will come in use again some time in the future.
Jon, Denise and I arrived in Chicago on 13th May and drove straight over to
visit Joe and Jan (the very soon to be married Alexander and Huff) in Jesup,
Iowa. We abandoned Denise in Jesup in the tender care of Jan and Joe whilst
Jon and I travelled onto Geneseo to see the TR4; what a treat it was to see
it all finished and with nothing to do other than to stick it on the dyno!!!
Again, for those with an interest in these things we made 174 bhp at the
rear wheels but I might have got the numbers confused :-)
We had so much time on our hands that Jack took us to see a friend of his,
Dave Morgan, who restores vintage Packards, what an afternoon that was. We
got to see a vintage Cadillac V16 (yep, one of only 4 cars made in that
model year), a Pebble Beach winning Packard and got a ride in a 1937 V12
Packard AND Dave even made us a cup of Earl Grey, as I said, what a day.
The evening before we were due to leave Geneseo for RA we were joined by Joe
and Jan (and re-united with my lovely, but nutty, wife Denise) who had just
left Kas and Peg in their house in Jesup as well as Bill Babcock who was,
sort of, just passing by. We had a great supper that evening.
Thursday and onto RA which took a while as Joe has a blow out on his
trailer, Joe was providing transportation for my car over the weekend whilst
his son Sean towed his car to RA for him. RA came into site and now I was
getting really excited as there was a free test session schedule for 16:30
and I couldn't wait to get out there. Got through registration, long queues,
deadly dull and you would think that we Brits would be used to that. Car was
unloaded and I set of to re-acquaint myself with RA but not until after
Larry Rossi had stopped by for a chat, followed by John Sprinzel, Dick
Stockton and Kas himself; talk about being in good company, I was fit to
burst.
OK, the lappery itself, pretty steady stuff and nothing better than a 3:10
but that was ok as we were still running the engine in sorting out the
suspension settings and tyre pressures. Car then went through the very
rigorous tech spec without to much trouble (thanks to Dave Kettle(?) for
allowing us time to address the brake light issue).
Friday morning came and so did the problems, the transmission was throwing
oil out everywhere in the first session and then the clutch started to foul
so that was the end of that session (3:12 being the high spot; not good). Mr
Wood to the rescue, breather pipe on the transmission was changed, clutch
travel was altered and we were ready to roll again. 2nd session, 2 laps in
and the engine went sick, turned out the front rocker post had snapped in
the head, the rocker shaft snapped and 32 little roller bearings disappeared
into the engine somewhere. Time for some deep thinking from Mr Wood aided
and abetted by Kas. Jon stripped everything out whilst I went on the forage
for parts; now this is where you really see the true spirit of the FOT so
thank you to Henry Frye for the loan of a new rocker shaft (more later) and
2 new posts (another one was bent)and to Dick Stockton for the loan of sump
gasket. Jon worked through to 8pm recovering the engine (he found 31 of the
32 roller bearings and, as Kas said, the odds are with you so put it all
back together and it will be fine so we did and it was, thanks Kas).
We were scheduled to run the Enduro with Mike Hughes, the UK Race Series
Chairman, but all he got was to do the lunchtime tour in his son's road car,
sorry Mike.
Saturday, a better day, the first session saw me down to 3:00 dead with a
car that was doing what it was supposed to do; now it was down to the driver
to get it set-up and get it right. As the car was running so well we decided
to let Mike do the Group 3 Qualifying race to make up for missing out on the
Enduro, he was very careful with my toy and ran a conservative 3:12 before
going missing (can you imagine what was going through my mind?). The car was
returned on the end of a tow rope but with no visible signs of damage, what
could it be this time? Believe it or not the throttle cable had snapped!!
Jon again came to the rescue; he really should wear his underpants outside
of his trousers :-)
The final session of the day was the MOTRAH Qualifying race and, guess what,
the only time over the whole weekend that it rained. Now, we Brits like the
wet (no option really as it rains a lot over here) and despite being at the
tail-end of the grid I decided to enjoy myself; the highlight was ignoring
the advice of Duck Waddle who said in the wet you should always take the
outside line in the carousel as there is more grip there and taking the
inside line and slithering past 4 cars in one go - they probably just got
out of the way of the crazy Brit more than anything to do with my wet
weather driving skills. Upshot was 6th place and a 3:20 lap time.
Sunday, all ready for my 2 races after yet another late night out with the
team and Mr Snook in the Brown Bear - I was stunned that they served
Gordon's Gin in pint glasses and had the best ever pinball machine, way to
go. The MOTRAH race was great, started near the back but the car was on song
and ran a 2:53 which was truly amazing given my previous best times now I
was really ready for the Group 3 race.
I started the Group 3 race 2nd to last and had a real blast up to turn 1,
took 9 cars before the turn, this car has so much torque, by the time I got
to turn 5 I had overtaken another 3 cars and I was chasing the next group of
cars that included Randy Williams. At the start of the 2nd lap I got a tow
of a Sprite on the start finish straight and managed to overtake him whilst
he was overtaking Randy and then I got passed the Toyota Celica going into
turn 1; 15 cars in just over 1 lap (I have a video clip of all of this that
I will upload when I get some time); now the chase was on for the next group
which included Jeff Snook himself. I was getting ever closer to this group
at every turn and was confident that I would soon be joining in the TR3,
Morgan +4 and Healey 3000 battle that I could see ahead of me but, alas, the
engine went sick again. Guess what with this time, yep, bust another rocker
shaft post, the rear one this time and messed the rockers, sorry Henry. Btw,
managed to run a 2:51 before it all went to pot; now that really put a smile
on my face.
We will be back again next year, had hoped to be back this year but pressure
of work will prevent that; boring I know but it pays for the toys :-)
I consider myself really lucky to have so many friends in the US and I would
like to take this opportunity to especially thank Joe Alexander for making a
dream come true, Jack Drews for building the car, Jon Wood for being Jon,
Henry Frye for his endless parts supply and enthusiasm, the wonderful Kas
and Peg for their endless encouragement and, most of all to my lovely, but
nutty, wife Denise (btw Peg, she has taken a real shine to Kas so keep a
close eye on her :-)).
There are many more of you who have supported me in my US ventures and I
would also like to say a big thank you to all of you as well.
Cheers, Keith & Denise.
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