Good News/Bad News was the story of ELVF
For the most part, it really was a great weekend, just got a little
expensive... I'll explain.
I arrived Thursday late afternoon. The track had reserved 2 half islands of
desirable space, near the electric for us. (Remind me not to ever do that
again, as Thickos were spread all over despite having beeen made aware of
the reserved space. It made me look like an asshole, and being an asshole is
something I'll manage to do on my own, thank you.)
The weather looked pretty good, and I thought, what the hell, I'll get a
start on the day by rolling the car our, and taking the 28' roll down canopy
on the side of the trailer down to cover the car. Usually, one can expect
that the canopy is fine in the down position, even if the weather acts up.
So, of course, the weather acts up. I'm staying at my place in Green Lake,
WI, one hour away. Phone calls to Dr. D., PPP, and Grasshopper go unanswered
(cell coverage in the land of Cheese sucks). I arrive at the track at 10 AM,
and find that the canopy had ripped off the trailer about a 1/2 hour
earlier. I'm guessing that's about $2000+ worth (28') of canopy. Of course,
the car does not go unscathed... the trick Targa bonnet on Redrum had a big
fracture all the way thru the gelcoat on the left front fender. Oh, and a
call to the insurance guy says its not covered, but for a measley $54 for 6
months, it would have been. The policy I have now only covers liability.
Arrggghh. So, between the damage to the car, and the trailer, figure $4000.
Oh, and my super expensive glasses (hey, I buy glasses once every 20 years,
and splurged)broke, and my Ray Ban navigators also broke. Seeing a pattern
here?
Friday was cold, and the day was an extra $100 for practise, so I took a
pass. PPP helped swap out the clutch master that we'd cobbled together at
Grattan a month earlier. Friday was really cold and windy, but attendance
was very good. The Fall Festival has all the feel of a national event like
the BRIC, without the pretense.
Sat, we had a morning warm up session... about a 1/2 hour. I was re-learning
Road America in Redrum. In the old Red Rat.. Road America was very familar
to me. Redrum was different animal... much softer sprung, and an engine with
the power band higher up. In the first session, the car felt great... I was
seeing 8000 rpm coming into Canada Corner, and 7200 rpm at the end of the
main straigh (long and uphill). I felt "in rythmn". The car felt smooth...
only Turn 5 was giving me fits. Red Rat had 70 series Hoosiers, with a 4.22
dif. Redrum is running the 185/60... a signifcantly shorter tire, with the
same rear gear. before, 2nd gear was the ticket for Turn 5... but, now, it
was necessary to really nail the braking and turn in in 3rd gear to get the
speed out of the corner I wanted. I think I got the corner right only once
all weekend.
Afternoon qualifying session, the field was very very crowded... not
condusive to really getting a good lap in. The best I'd ever done was
3:02... and that was on 4 different race weekends. I'd hoped to better that,
and felt it was possible. I managed a 3:00 in qualifying, and was ecstatic.
In the enduro, things were going well, but about 3/4ths of the way through,
going into 1, I felt my car get really slippery, and saw my oil pressure
dropping. I got it off the track in a hurry, and behind the wall. Back in
the pits, we discovered the problem... the oil filter gasket had pushed out,
allowing copious amounts of oil to escape. Tom Kovacs at Fourintune said
he'd seen that issue with 3 cars recently he'd restored (big Healeys), and
since there are only 2 manufacturers of filters, branding them for the
various companies, that someone had changed the spec on the rubber gaskets.
They're shrinking up a little after heat cycles, and need to be periodically
retightened. So the big dollar question was... did I shut her down fast
enough to save the motor? A new filter, and fresh oil... start it up, and
yeeh hah!!!. Oil pressure!.
So, back to the track for the feature race. Again, very crowded in Group
2... dicing with Dan Powell in his 3000 and Kris Larsen in his (cheatin'
dog) '67. They would hold me up from 5 to the back straight. Once or twice I
passed Dan on the outside of the Carousel, and once we even went thru the
Kink side by side (not for the faint of heart).
I dove into Canada corner on them, and upon exiting, got massive amounts of
vibration. I slowed up, and continued around the track at reduced speed,
hoping to finish, but the vibration got so bad I could hardly grip the
wheel. Since I've been upside down in a Sprite that chucked a wheel, I
thought it wise to get off the track, before anything ugly happened.
So, despite the canopy, 2 broken pair of glasses, and 2 DNFs... it was a
great weekend. The weather Sat & Sun was perfect. The event was well
attended, and some seriously cool cars were present.
Rich, (ex Homo Club Posse... crew for Gary "Grenade" Kropf) was picked up on
waivers, as a free agent, now that Gary's moved to OH. He helped Elmo and I
keep things together. Peter the Parts Pimp was great help, running back and
forth between my car and Grasshopper's. Mike Gigante surprised everyone by
making an appearance. Mal Fay pitted with me. He had a nice new big buck
motor that despite shedding some oil, seemed to be doing well until it lost
oil pressure Sunday. Jeff Porasik "Park" smacked the wall to avoid an errant
Grasshopper, and later had a piston decide to become "multi part". TuTone
Terry Heffron chased some electrical deomons, and discovered some spares he
should carry to every race in his cheatin' dog Formula V. The Drews, and Joe
ALexander were racing up a storm in their TR 4s. Paul "Otis Cambell"
Fitzsimmons found the good karma from ditching the cheater motor, and
running a 948... and I do believe he was running at the end. Chris "no Show"
Ducklow showed, as did John "Big Rig" Bauer. Tony Donato, and Craig "Fast
Eddie Haskel" Bielat, along with a few others teamed up to man the grill
which turned out mass quantities of animal sacrifice.
One more race at Mid Ohio in Oct, then we can settle into our winter long no
race depression.
WST
Flounder
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