all that matters is that you got home safely! "if" we would have loaded up
the mig welder we could have done a stellar job(with some borrowed metal
from some fellow competitors). the temporary fix held! sorry about the
relidgious carpets lol! a bit hole-y! oh well any thing but on the end
of a tow truck! btw, the tubing was a morgan front cross head lower brace
from the #59 morgan's slide for life at the glen! evrything gets recycled!
chuck.
just glad you got home with no further complications.
we got home around 10:00pm thanks to the construction back up on rte I-78
giving us an almost 2 hour delay! ......c. :)
----- Original Message -----
From Frank Clarici <spritenut at Exit109.com>
To: Spridget List <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Cc: Ron Soave <soavero@yahoo.com>; chuck Christ <cfchrist@earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 2:23 AM
Subject: Sprite Adventures at Summit Point
> Beautiful days, beautiful roads, beautiful track, and beautiful vintage
> sports cars. And charity run laps for us Wannabe racers!
>
> This is where the adventure starts.
> For a few bucks I was allowed to drive my Bugeye at speed around the
> road course at Summit Point. I jumped at the chance.
> I started out from the pits and soon found out the Datsun 5 speed does
> not like to be shifted at high Rs, gear clash every time I shifted over
> 6,000 rpms.
> But There was NO WAY that Honduh was going to pass me so I had to keep
> the Rs up. I even got into fifth gear and was going over 90 when curve
> 10 was fast approaching. Down to 3rd and hit the brakes but I took the
> curve too fast and spun out. Quickly get the car off the track, I know I
> heard metal crunching but I was determined to get back on the track. I
> can fix the rocker panel later (so I thought) Back at speed and more
> aware of the curves and my speed I hit the "carousel" at a safe speed
> only to have the Sprite start drifting.
> A few more laps and the drifting was still there but now I use it to my
> advantage.
> Then the brakes fade, I call it quits because coming up on some of the
> "tourers" out for a Sunday drive on a race track with bum brakes was
> unsafe so I headed back in.
> I looked at the body and saw no caved in rocker, no dent in the rear 1/4
> panel but left side of the car was about 8 inches higher then the right.
> I could not see what I bent or broke under the car. Then after some
> digging around I see I ripped out the left rear spring box from the body
> of the car.
> OOPS! Big question now is how to drive home 5 hours on interstate
> hiways?
> Fortunately Chuck and his crew were at the race. I headed over to see if
> Chuck had any ideas, some metal and a welder would have been ideal too.
> Chuck looks under the Sprite and says "Oh Fu8#!" I didn't want to hear
> that.
> But with a bit of chain, a hunk of pipe, some track side engineering and
> a few bolts, all was "patched up almost as good as new" Now my bugeye
> has a torsion bar suspension (well sort of) and a chained up spring
> hanger. Hey it worked, I made it home at 70 mph most of the way and the
> car handles fine on twisty West Virginia roads and hiway speeds.
>
> A very Special thank you to Chuck and his gang for helping me patch up
> the car.
>
> Hey Chuck, how come you were not at the Lobster Feast Saturday night?
> All the beer, wine, ribs, chicken, and lobster you could eat! I only ate
> 3 whole lobsters and a rack of ribs because I had too many hors d ovres
> during the happy hour (included) the apple crisp was out of this world
> too.
>
> All's well thanks to a fellow lister.
> Would I do it again? In a heart beat! But not with street tires and
> brakes.
> Hey if you're gonna race, give it 110%.
> --
> Frank Clarici
> Toms River, NJ
> The bug in the rice bowl
> http://www.exit109.com/~spritenut
>
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