This is what Jill and I did over the Labor Day weekend. When we can vintage
race, the street Sunbeam Alpine get parked.
Roger Davis
Well, with the truck and trailer loaded, we headed east from SLC about 0830 on
Wednesday. The new transmission seemed to be up to the job of pulling us up &
over Parley's Summit (7000') so we kept heading east with Sidney, Neb, as our
destination for the day. For all you outdoors types, Sidney is the World
Headquarters for Cabella's. Of course if you don't know what Cabella's is
then this means nothing. We arrived in Sidney at 1715 and after checking in
to the hotel, and getting some grub, we hit the rack, for tomorrow would be a
full day.
Thursday morning we were up, the truck fueled, and on our way further east, by
0830. The truck and new trans never missed a beat. We rolled into
Motorsports Park Hasting at 1200. Since we were one of the first people to
arrive, we decided to put our pit space in the middle of the inside of the
back row where we would be close to everything and, it turns out, sheltered
from strong winds on Sunday. More about that later.
Thursday evening we took the race car into the town of Hasting for an
impromptu car show for the locals. A local pub owner and car lover, supplied
the hors doureves and the drinks.Having a police escort was super because
then we didn't have to stop for lights etc. It is fun to drive the race car
on the streets and have people wave as you zoom by. We met some Sunbeam
people who lived in Hasting! Small world! Who would have thought, that in
this small town, in the middle of Nebraska, that there would be fellow Sunbeam
owners. Don & Erika became our personal cheering section. They attended the
races Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and stayed at the track every day until we
were putting the Alpine away at the end of the day. At the end of the car
show, I spoke to one of the policemen who had provided our escort. I asked if
we could have the lead police car go faster, because many of us were starting
to overheat on the trip into town. His face lit up as he said, 'Faster? Sure
thing, no problem.' He had just told me how happy he was to have the track
available to them to use for EVOC training.
Friday was our first track day and so it was spent learning the new track.
Motorsports Park Hastings (MPH) is a three year old track designed by World
renowned designer, Alan Wilson. He designed a fast and smooth track in the
middle of alfalfa and corn fields. It is 2.3 miles in length and my only
critcism is that it is a flat track with no elevation changes. Of course,
having said that,
that's what the middle of Nebraska looks like! :) In my Alpine, I only used
my third gear two times for 6 of the 13 turns; and it was the top of third
gear except for one corner. The rest of the time I was in fourth gear and
using my left foot to 'set' the front end for many of the rest of the corners.
There is plenty of smooth run off area all the way around the track and it is
green and non-distructive when one 'falls off the island.'
My times for the first day had me in the upper middle of my group of 29 cars.
That night, Jill and I went in search of a restaurant in an even smaller town
west of Hastings. We found the town and the eatery and inside we found our
Park City friend Steiny. We sat down with several other 'real' race car
drivers, Formula Ford, and feasted on some of the best prime rib that I've
ever tasted. I'm certain that the company that we were in helped the taste of
the meat, but even Jill said that the rib was some of the best she had had.
The owner and carver of the slab made certain that we were well taken care of
and did not leave feeling hungry.
Saturday, in the second session, (the first race) with two laps remaining, my
clutch pedal went to the floor as I was making a shift to come onto the
start/finish straight. I managed to get into third gear and motored around
for another full lap as I had just passed the pit entrance when this happened.
Fortunately, Jill and I have radio communication, so I could tell her what had
happened. By the time I made it around and into the pits, Jill had already
started making preparations for an examination of the clutch system and had
informed our new friends Don and Erika of our situation. Once at our pit, a
quick visual check showed what I expected. This happened in Vegas about five
years ago when my clutch slave cylinder tube cracked. Well, the tube was
leaking again right at the slave cylinder inlet. Long story short, Don
offered to go home and get a tube if we needed it, Jill found a dual flange
tool, I found another friend proficient in flaring, and by our third session
of the day (the second race) we were back in business. Since I had not
finished the first session, I started last and had the enjoyment of passing
several cars before the checkered flag waved. I finished 20th with a big
smile on my face, thinking about how fortunate I am to have a crew chief like
Jill and racing friends who want to see me on the track, not in the pits.
Saturday night we enjoyed a steak dinner given by Rocky Mountain Vintage
Racing (RMVR). We had dinner with our friends from Colorado Springs whom we
hadn't seen in over a year. He drives a bright yellow '65 427 cubic inch
Corvette. What a great way to end an awesome day. But wait, there's more.
On the way back to our hotel, Jill informs me that she had not had any desert
and that she needed a chocolate dipped waffle cone with chocolate ice creme
from the Dairy Queen. As we were placing our order, in came six of our racing
friends from Denver and Boulder, CO and Casper, WY. When we all were served,
we sat around outside and continued the days 'bench racing.' As you can
imagine, the stories got taller and we became better drivers as the minutes
passed. By the time we finished our ice cremes, we were all laughing so much
that our sides hurt and our cheeks were sore from laughing so hard and long.
True vintage racing at it's finest.
Sunday morning, we elected not to participate in the 10 minute warm up session
as the car was running fine and another 10 minutes of track time wasn't going
to make a difference to my abilities. The first race on Sunday was a 15
minute sprint and I started 20th since that's where I finished the day before.
Everything went well and I ended up 13th overall. The afternoon race was a 20
minute affair. I made a really good start from 13th and was 7th by the time
we were at Turn 4. I had passed some people who were obviously faster than I,
so I waved them by rather than be a rolling chicane. All was going well and I
was holding my own up until three laps from the end. At that point, a Bugeye
Sprite was catching me and was significantly faster in some parts of the
track. I checked him in my mirrors once too often going into Turn 9, a
complex of two turns actually, and missed my brake point by about 18'. That
was just enough for me to run out of road and drive off the outside of the
turn. By the time the corner workers motioned me back onto the track, several
cars had passed me. Then, as per the rules, when you have 'four off' you must
report to the 'hot tech' area to have the inspectors check for damage to the
car. When I left the Hot Tech area and got back onto the track, I was in 20th
position overall and 7th in class. That is the way the race finished.
The trip towards home on Monday was a bear. The wind started blowing out of
the South at 15 - 20 mph making driving at a freeway speed very difficult.
Then, around the western part of the Nebraska panhandle, the wind switched 180
degrees and began blowing out of the north. Near Cheyenne, WY the rain
started, the temp dropped about 30 degrees and the rest of the way into
Rawlins was a matter of going through one squall after another.
Today, we got up and the sky was clear, there was no wind to speak of and the
trip home was uneventful. All in all, Jill and I had a super weekend. The
only thing that could have made it better is if our racing friends from
further west, and from the south, could have been there to share it with us.
Wow! It was awesome!!!
According to 'Carol', our trusty GPS, we had a driving average of 65.2 mph and
a total drive time to & from of 24 hrs. 52 minutes. Once we were in Hastings
we didn't have the GPS on, but according to the odometer in the truck, we went
1716.1 miles and used 160 gallons of diesel fuel for 10.7 mpg for the trip.
That's less than we normally would have, but with the strong cross winds
nearly all the way, our mpg average suffered. Still, 160 gallons at $4.10 per
gallon, means our fuel bill was $656; $244 under what I had budgeted for the
trip.
So there you have it, a race report from Team Sunbeam & 'the green machine.'
Roger & Jill Davis
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