Thanks for the wonderful report! It's great to follow the exploits of
one so dedicated to the success of the Triumph Standard.
What's the fundamental cause of all the broken valve springs?
mike
Catpusher@aol.com wrote:
>
> 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
|