Jack, Frances, Tony,
I am sooooo sorry to hear this message...... That car was (and will be
again I'm sure) the absolutely most beautiful TR4 race car I have ever
seen. It was always such a joy to see the blue baby racin' round the
track. Matter of fact I was in the turn 5 grandstand on Saturday when you
were clicking off those 2:55s and lookin' good!
Tony, welcome to the Royal Order of Roll Overs (RORO)! Not something any of
us ever aspired to, but once we've been there we're bonded! I can think of
a few of us FOTers (Harkness, Moore, Dentinger, myself) who have suffered
the indignity of being upside down in a TR. Thank goodness for the safety
gear that protects us from some of the dangers in this sport we all love so
much!
Friday during practice I also lost a wheel. Exiting turn 8, just before the
carousel the right rear hub on my Lotus XI sheered off. After the wheel
ripped its way through the aluminum fender it proceeded to pass me on it's
way to the bridge abutment. Fortunately I was able to keep the car attached
to the ground and MISSED THE WALL before stopping on the other side of the
abutment. The tire however bounced off the wall, flew over the track
narrowly missing one of the cars behind me!
There were a couple other wheel separation incidents. One of the FFords in
our paddock lost a wheel when the center of the steel wheel steel ripped
away from the rest of the wheel at the lug nuts putting his car into the
gravel at the carousel. Also a Lotus Elan coupe was dragged back into the
paddock missing a left rear wheel. Scary!!!!
Concerning TR hubs/axles. I am not running either the "Snook" billet hub,
nor the "Bond" upgraded axle, in the Devin or TR3. Not because I didn't
want to, but they all got distributed elsewhere. So, Glen has me set up on
a complete tear down of the axle/hub assembly and magna flux inspection
after every other race weekend. We are also looking into the Ford set-up
that John Harkness is using. SVRAs tech and originality guru Jack Woehlre
has endorsed this fix since it doesn't change the track of the car and is
invisible form the outside of the car. AND it is a major safety
improvement!
OK, who's going to race me to the junk yard for those old ford rear ends!!!
Vroom, vroom,
Jeff
"Jack W. Drews" wrote:
> The Road America weekend went wonderfully until the Enduro.
>
> Uncle Jack set new personal best with several laps around 2:55.
>
> Tony started the Enduro, and about halfway through, the left rear axle
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