> Tom and I are both home and back to our daily routines. The anticipation
> and excitement of preparing for the SCCA Runoffs and wanting to prove to
> the competition that the TIGERS are still contenders is long gone. This
> years run for a championship had its ups and downs between the new 390cfm
> carburetor rule and both Tom and I having early season contact with hard
> objects on or next to the track. We went to the Runoffs with the cars at
> their seasons peak. Our testing found that the Braswell carb was superior
> so Tom switched over in July and immediately picked up considerable time.
> At the August National at Mid Ohio he sat on the pole at a time under the
> Runoffs track record for GT2. The upgrades to my car over the winter and
> season had resulted in my running one to two seconds faster all season. We
> went into our paid practice days on Friday and Sat. with great
> anticipation. Friday in practice Tom ran .3 under the track record and
> consistently. On Sat. during my paid practice I was also under my previous
> best qualifying time. We backed those times up on Monday during official
> practice. On Tuesday the first day of qualifying Tom ran a 1:32.199 for
> the pole. That was 1.5 seconds faster than any other car in the class.
> Just before he went out for that qualifying session the stewards advised
> him that he had been protested and to report to impound after the session.
> After the session I was also directed to impound and told that I could be
> used as a comparison. When we arrived in impound the officials there had
> not received a copy of the protest. As we understood it the Stewards Of
> The Meet had asked that the protest be written more specific as to the
> alleged violation of the rules. We asked if we could leave to change back
> into our street cloths and then return. Upon our return the details of the
> protest had not been received in impound and they did not have any idea
> when it would arrive. We asked if we could return to our garage and have
> them contact us when it arrived. Two hours later we had not been
> contacted. At that point I requested to leave impound because I had not
> been protested. About an hour later Tom was called to Impound and
> presented with the details of the protest submitted by the Toyota team of
> Reid. They claimed that the Tiger needed to run cylinder heads with FORD
> casting numbers for 1965,66,or 67. Toms response was that the GT rules are
> not specific to years like the Production rules and that was not required.
> He also confirmed that the heads on the car did not meet that criteria.
> (note that at no time during this entire process would the valve covers be
> removed from the heads to see what was being run) The SOM then took the
> information back for consideration. Tom requested that the car be released
> from Impound so that he could return to the garage and start prepping it
> for the next days qualifying. This was granted but required that a Tech
> person remain with the car. We now had the car back with the hood sealed
> and a Tech baby sitter. Late that afternoon we heard that the protest had
> been upheld, resulting in the tech stickers being removed and the Tuesday
> qualifying times withdrawn. At this point in the process Tom's next step
> was to appeal the decision. In the appeals process it appeared that the
> SOM and the Court of Appeals were stepping back from their belief that we
> had to run heads numbered with years corresponding to the years the car
> was manufactured. They were now saying that we had to show a lineage
> progression of FORD part numbers that would show the heads we were using
> were a stock replacement head for the originals. Toms appeal was based on
> the fact that the spec. page for the Tiger states (cast iron,two valve,
> crossflow heads) The rules also state (the valves must remain in their
> stock location) Our position was and always has been that the DART Windsor
> Jr. head is a stock configured,crossflow,cast iron head, with two valves
> in the stock location. For the past eight years we have believed that
> these heads lived up to the spirit, principle and letter of the rule. This
> is the very head that was taken off the car and inspected in Impound after
> last years win. Because the Windsor Jr. head does not have a FORD part
> number and because it is the direct competitor with FORD's GT 40 head we
> could not produce a lineage as requested. That was after we had talked to
> key people at FORD Motorsports, and Roush. As a result the appeal was
> denied by the COA. Tom was told that he could run a FORD numbered head
> between 1965 and 1984. If he could switch to those heads, he could run on
> Sunday after clearing tech. a second time. Understand that Tom was not
> accused of cheating, which would have removed him from the event and
> potentially suspended his competition license. He was found to have
> "misinterpreted the rules". Tom is about as competitive a person as I have
> ever met. He was not about to give up on his effort to defend his national
> championship. In preparation for the worst, Doug Jennings had rounded up a
> set of bare FORD castings.Tom loaded the car up and headed for Cinn.. The
> plan was to spend Wed. night removing the engine from the car at home.
> Arriving at Ellison engines Thursday morning and building a new set of
> competition heads from scratch. Tom Ellison and his son basically closed
> the shop down and the three of them went to work. Tom, did the porting
> while they did the decking , ?, and fitting of the valves and springs. By
> Friday afternoon the new heads were back on the short block and Tom was
> headed for home to reinstall the engine. The engine was fired up Sat.
> morning and he was at the track by 2:00pm and through Tech. by 3:30pm.
> Because he had no qualifying times, Tom would start 19th on the grid.
> Keep in mind that during this entire process I am waiting for the
> axe to fall on me. Even though I had not been protested I was up front on
> the fact that Tom and I had identical heads, produced by the very same
> person. After Toms appeal was denied Wed. morning I was quit certain that
> I would be asked to go to impound after Wed. qualifying and my week would
> end there also. It didn't happen. On Wed. I set my fastest lap ever at
> 134.4, 1.6 seconds faster than my qualifying time last year. I was 6th
> fastest but only i.5 seconds off the pole.However, if I finished in the
> top six on Sunday I would have to go to Impound and the reality was they
> would have to check me. Sunday was forecast to be cold and wet. Perfect
> weather for Tom, who is very comfortable and fast in the wet,to make a run
> at the leaders. The forecast was correct. It rained, sleeted, hailed and
> snowed on Sunday. At the 2:30pm race time it had just rained and snowed on
> the previous race and it looked like the same for us. There was rumors of
> black ice forming on certain section of the track. The majority of the GT
> 2 field was on rains or intermediates. Because of the cold temperatures
> most of the grills were taped up to some point. For those of you who
> caught the Speedvision broadcast of the race and saw them focus in on my
> right front wheel just before commercial, you may be wondering why I was
> running one of Toms wheels on my car. Well on Wed. during qualifying I
> broke a right front hub. Not having a spare I called the manufacture of
> the aluminum hub to get a replacement shipped. To my surprise they no
> longer manufacture that hub in a five bolt pattern. Called Tom Wed. night
> to find out he did not have a spare. We laid the plan of ordering the hub
> in a four bolt configuration and borrowing one of toms wheels for the
> race. We received the hub Friday and it went on with very minimal work.
> When Tom arrived back at the track Sat. we got a wheel from him and had my
> tire mounted.( I still run bias tires to Toms radials) When we went to put
> the wheel on we found that Toms wheel did not have a recessed lug not area
> and the lug bolts were to short. This is about 4:30pm Sat.. Called around
> looking for longer bolts to know avail. Went looking for 1/2" by 4" grade
> 8 bolts or cap screws to no avail. We could not find a 1/2 fine thread
> bolt anywhere! Jerry Dinser was in town from Colorado helping both Tom and
> myself. he suggested that we take a run down to Columbus OH to a factory
> his employer ran and check their replacement bolt bin. 8:00pm Sat night we
> are on the road to Columbus. 1:00am we are back in Mansfield with five
> grade 5 fine thread bolts with the heads machined to fit the hub. I put a
> grove in the threaded end for a screw driver incase they started to spin
> when we put the nuts on. The wheel fit the nuts torque up , and that is
> why we looked like the Beverly Hillbillies when they did a close up of the
> right front wheel. You do what you have to do.
>
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>
> The track was wet when we left the grid. At the last minute my crack crew
> of Jerry, Sr. and Jr. Jennings and John Engle. switched from slicks to
> rains.The Goodyear tech. folks strongly suggested that we put significant
> effort into warming up the rain tires on the warm up lap prior to the
> start. At least one car went off the track on the warm up lap. You did not
> see it on the Speedvision broadcast but Tom spun almost immediately after
> entering the track from grid and stopped just inches from the wall. He
> backed up the continued. Considering the wet and cold conditions the start
> went well with Tom moving up to ninth by turn 6 and my maintaining sixth
> after getting boxed in. That's when it all started to go away. The leader
> Reid spun at turn 7 and ended up in the tirewall. The fourth place car
> Blakewell spun on the turn 9 and moved back a number of places. I had now
> moved up to fourth and Tom was seventh. On turn 11 I spun off. I was able
> to get it slowed down before my left front fender just bumped the tire
> wall. I got the car restarted and off I went. A check of the car found
> that it appeared to be running alright but I did have a little front wheel
> shake under braking. The pack had all passed me by and now it was a matter
> of catch up. I passed one car on the short straight and started to close
> on another on the back straight when in turn 9 I spun again . (I was
> now the third car to spin there in just one and a half laps) I did not hit
> anything and I got the car started and headed off again after the field
> from 19th place.. By lap 15 I was up to 10th and that is were I stayed.
> Tom had moved up to second by lap 3 and appeared to have that position
> nailed when it started to dry. His wet set up with the roll bars
> disconnected just didn't allow for a good handling car in the dry. He said
> that at times he had to go full lock on the steering wheel to correct in
> the kink of the back straight. Now that is a scary thought at 100mph plus.
> Blakewell was on slicks and as it dried he became faster by almost 8
> seconds a lap over Finch the leader and Tom. He caught Tom and moved into
> second.Finch had built up a lead with good consistent driving that put him
> out of reach. It is ironic that Blakewell ended up with slicks on the car
> because he had tried to switch to rains on the grid and just ran out of
> time. Toms drive from 19th to 2nd was spectacular. Considering the events
> of the week and the changing conditions a third place finish and
> appearance on the podium was honorable.
>
>
> Our challenge now in the off season is to again respond to the opinion of
> key GT 2 competitors and the Competition Board that the TIGER is to
> competitive for the class in its current configuration. The 390cfm
> carburetor had a 40 hp impact, but combined with improved handling Tom
> was able to remain competitive. We understand that the earlier discussion
> of requiring a restrictor plate has surfaced again. We will be submitting
> a request to make the DART heads legal as an alternate head. We will keep
> you posted as we work through this next set of challenges. We both want to
> keep racing but the yearly challenges to Toms success is getting old.
>
>
> BARRY KENT SCHONBERGER
Team Tiger
> Evansville, IN 47712
> (812)464-1862
> (812)465-7021 fax
> bkschonb@usi.edu
>
>
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