Hardy, I admire your restraint and know you are frustrated. What is it, 27
consecutive runoffs?
It's a shame the SCCA has decided to transform itself by reshuffling the
decks of the cars and drivers that have supported it for decades. Seems
their current class interests are dictated by Mazda Motorsports....
I made a point last OCT. of going to the voluntary cage
inspection/discussion/meeting. (my cage was on it's third mandatory
reconfiguration at that time). The powers indicated they could find nothing
wrong. All was in conformance. Wish I could have gotten an affidavit at
that time...We'll see.
Best of luck, hope you'll find a way to get to the 98 runoffs and kick
butt.
Chip
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From: Catpusher@aol.com[SMTP:Catpusher@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 1998 11:03 PM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: My last race report? (long)
Four Nationals in four weeks
We have been a tad busy as of late.
The first race was at Buttonwillow, CA A new track for us with
many possible configurations. We ran #26 counterclockwise,
close to 3 miles of a little of everything: high speed esses, a blind
crest,
a long straight, a banked corner, and a spike; not to mention
many other corners and many, many bumps.
The Morgan split brake master cyl caused many problems,
(1/98 rule change "risk management where there was no simple
risk before!") but we finished second to an RX7 after leading briefly.
We broke a valve spring. The weather was nice!!!
A bit of a tow to get home Sunday night after being one of the last races.
Much brake work and an axle change later (not to mention a
complete gearbox rebuild as the routine drain plug check
showed bearing flakes) it was off to the
much revised, longer Thunderhill, CA. Most of the track
was new to us and other than the bumps, a more interesting
track. The brakes were better, but that was not saying much.
The first session was damp, and we broke a valve spring. The
first qual. was wet, so we watched. Sunday we had to qual.
little more than an hour before our race and found an end
valve spring had broken. It was a short hour! We finished
3rd behind the miata that was 1st last Oct. and a very fast
914 that had driven the track before. The Porsche club was one
of the only groups to run the extended track before this weekend:
More broken valve springs.
Much brake work later, not to mention an axle change, a new
set of valve springs, and a service for the Aerostar; it was
time for the 880 mile trip to Seattle Int. Raceway. Ellie
managed to get enough time off so that we could split up the
drive.
We managed to qualify between the two team mazdas (same
miata & the RX7 that punted us off last Oct.The brakes were
worse! The track was dry, unlike the second qual session, which
we watched. The valve springs fail very quickly at less than
full revs; not a good thing for wet sessions. We were the last
race Sunday, and the off and on rain was stuck in on mode.
It was hard to see through the heavy rain but we ended up
ahead of both mazdas, 2nd, with the fastest EP race lap.
We had improved the brakes, and no valve springs were
broken (nice as it was late!)
Monday our race was similar, with the same place finish.
The difference was that the track dried during the middle of the
race and I had to deal with very unhappy rain tires. The TR3
was on the very edge of traction for both the steering and throttle.
I was actually quite pleased to have the rain restart with 2 1/2 laps
to go, and I turned my personal fastest lap of the race on the last lap.
So the TR3 is leading the Divisional Points Race, and
SCCA made the roll cage no good as of 6/1/98.
So much invested, so little future?
BTW Chip, Denver sent #2 tech man to Buttonwillow the same
weekend and 30 cars had their rollcages written in their
logbooks with must fix before the car races again.
Regards, Hardy
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