So we had the IVR season opener this past weekend at Wendover, Utah. A
fairly decent turnout, I've not yet run the numbers to see if we made
enough to cover costs. Saturday was cold, cloudy with some rain showers
here and there, but nothing that made me wish I had the wipers on Killer
hooked up and working. We had a dozen or so Touring entries, and 7 race
entries.
As usual, I planned to be on site early afternoon, finally got there
at 11 pm or so. Same as it ever was. We had two race sessions on
saturday and during the first one Killer was cutting out at about 5500
RPM, rather than the 6500 where the rev limiter is set. This is an
internally stock 1500 Spit motor built to SCCA Solo II Street Prepared
specs, so a somewhat low redline should be expected, but not THAT
low. I didn't have the chance to investigate the problem before the next
round. Second race saw Killer and I limp into the pits about 5 laps from the
finish. Someone needs to slap that lazy dimwit on the Fat Chance crew
who failed to top up the tank before the second session.
There is, however, a local legend in the making. One of the things I did
to Killer before this event was bolt on the four panel Wink mirrow. Rear
vision was decent, which saved my ass on one lap going into Conair Corner.
As I headed into Conair, I saw the two Corvettes of Dennis and Jeff closing
in on me, fast. Boy, I wish we had enough entrants to have seperate small
bore and big bore race groups. Maybe someday.
At any rate, I maintained a smooth central line around the corner and had
the two Corvettes pass me simultaneously, one inches off my left, the other
inches off my right. Maybe I should bleach those briefs I was wearing.
The saturday night Happy Hour and barbeque dinner was marred a bit by the
frigid north winds, making me work extra hard to keep the old Weber Kettle
stoked up and cooking the ribs, brined pork chops and various bratwurst
for the "Bavarian Mixed Grill." Cooking the sauerkraut inside the motor
home was a treat, no wind to mess it up. The dinner turned out well,
the guys were happy.
Sunday morning dawned quite clear, but still cool. I gotta take a bigger
coffee maker out there next time. We finally got around to getting ourselves
ready for the first race of the day. And once again about 5 laps from the
finish Killer and I had to bail out. This time, it wasn't simply a near
empty gas tank. Heading into the back kink, I downshift to 3rd and power
out of the corner. That was the plan, anyway. The downshift worked fine,
but when I hit the gas I heard not the sweet sound of accelerating out of a
tight corner, but expensive sounding thrashing from somewhere in the drive
train. It seems to be the diff, hope I didn't trash my Quaife. Guess I'll
find out in the next day or ao, assuming I get the diff out and opened up.
What fun.
mjb.
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