This past weekend I raced at Lime Rock in the SCCA's Volvo Historic
series. Turnout was about half of what it was compared to the
previous week with only 18 cars making the grid compares to 30 before.
This weekend was unusual since we were competing during the Shelby
Club Of America's National Convention. There were Cobras, GT40's and
Mustangs everywhere. The Fords had the track each morning for lapping
sessions, with real racing activities in the afternoon. We were one
of two SCCA race groups, with the other 3 race groups being the Fords.
There was some talk about combining the TR/MG challenge with the VTR
national convention last week amongst the FOT listers. This Shelby
convention was a good example on combining a car show with racing
activities. Since there is no racing on Sundays at Lime Rock, the car
show was held on the track on Sunday, with about 3/4 mile of cars
lined up side to side on both sides of the track. There was a large
spectator turnout for both the car show and race day.
Practice went well for me on Sat., but I still could not get over
6500 rpm without the carbs going lean. A few laps into qualifying the
exhaust temps on the rear carb went low (900 deg), while the front
stayed up at 1350. and I was way down on power. I checked float
levels, fuel filters, pressures, etc, but could not find any thing
wrong. On race day for the warm up session the temps were a little
closer with the rear going down to 1000 deg, but still I was off on
power. It mostly happened on fast right hand turns, and especially
the downhill, at higher rpms. I ran the race by shifting at 5500, as
was able to stay within a second of my qualifying time. I started 4th
on the grid and 2nd in class. Fortunately for me, the 240z that was
ahead of me at the start, spun on the 6th lap, and could not restart
the car for a while. I went on to finish this 20 lap race first in
class and 5th overall. As per the related email, Webers will be
ordered ASAP, so that I can have them ready for the next race, which
is at Watkins Glen July 29/30. Thanks to Henry Frye for coming out on
race day and helping out. Joe (B)
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