Finally home, over 1800 miles on the rig round trip. I always tell my
wife the most dangerous part of racing is the tow. Had way too much
drama coming home, broke a trailer spring which took out a couple
thousand mile new trailer tire. Got lucky, limped to the next exit where
I found a heavy truck repair shop that got me back on the road in 3+
hours. They couldn't get a tire that matched my set, so on went my only
spare and I crossed my fingers. Pulled over after 30 minutes to make
sure things were happy back there and found the other tire on the busted
spring side of the trailer developing a huge bubble. It's 6:30 PM and I
am in the middle of frickin nowhere at an exit that has a gas station
and a McDonalds. Saw an old sign for a 24 hour towing service a couple
miles down the road, so I pull in to find the front door open. The guy
actually had a new trailer tire in the right size. My wallet is a bit
lighter but I got home at 11 PM. That was a chore.
Anyway, had a great time with the mid-west guys, but this was the second
race weekend is a row I missed the feature. Leaking radiator this time.
Am crossing my fingers I didn't overheat things too badly. Will do a
leakdown test to see where I am. The Henry/Tony enduro team was born,
and I was pretty impressed with the outcome. I am still questioning the
official results, but of course it really doesn't matter!
Grattan is a really neat little track that keeps you busier than I have
ever been in a race car. But everywhere you are supposed to be on the
track the surface is shot. My car took a beating as I was trying to
figure out where to go. Or, more importantly, where NOT to go! I decided
on the way home that until I hear the track owners spent some money
fixing the racing surface I am not going back.
Kudos to GT6 pilot John Reed on showing the field at least some Triumph
driver can run fast and keep their car going! John was the Triumph to
beat, and the rest of us didn't have a chance. Tony probably could have
mustered something up for him if the Red Rocket's rear axle didn't
ignite!
I saw the little fleck that Jack pulled out of his fuel bowl cover vent,
and it does appear that was causing all his misery the past couple times
out. The outlook looks promising, he ran really strong in the feature
turning a lap matching his best at the track.
The Beady Eye team welcomed back Don Brick, nudging him out of
retirement to look really sharp in Bob Wismer's TR4. As I said earlier,
Don really did a super job driving in the enduro. Bill had his TR3
running strong all weekend, or at least in the sessions he was not too
tired to run!
Dennis DeLap ran well in his TR3 all weekend, and I think he might won
the bragging rights for the best finishing Triumph in the feature. Got
to check that, though...
And Greg Petrolati was there with his camera, taking shots both on and
off track during the day, and showing off his great work with slideshows
on his computer at night. Great stuff Greg!
Cheers
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