I was reasonably good at the Black and White Ball--meaning that I had a
hangover on Sunday morning and I also had a new Bass Guitar in the shape of
an axe signed by the members of Kiss. But I didn't paint my face this
time--which is how I can characterize that as reasonably good behavior.
Well, that and the fact that my wife is still talking to me. She says my Tux
smells as bad as my driving suits usually do. I was dancing
"enthusiastically" and looked like I won a wet tuxedo shirt contest when I
took off the monkey suit.
Ah, well.
Having a hangover at a racetrack is not a new experience for me, but it
didn't do anything for my lap times. I did the SCCA vintage grid in Peyote,
not DSR in the Radical--I decided to shake out Peyote since I'm going to tow
it to Sears Point for the Wine Country Classic. The clutch is still slipping
but I found the source of the miss when it heated up. All the exhaust valve
guides were too tight. The valves were sticking open. The piston would come
up and give them a tap and they'd close. Nice. Both 3 and 4 pistons had
little circles on the top, but no real damage. The valves were still
straight. One benefit (probably the only benefit) of a 90 degree valve
angle. I suspect this was the true culprit for the seized rocker two weeks
ago. Big load. The over-oiling too--the rockers were getting weird loads,
increasing the clearance on top. Found all this on Friday, so I ripped off
the head at the track to try to get it fixed.
Fortunately Arnie Loyning was at the track, and went back to his shop with
me and reamed the guides. Wound up a little looser than I'd like since he
didn't have a ream or hone the right size. But it worked. We left the
intakes alone. Spent Saturday morning putting it back together, ran pretty
good in practice. Good thing all that got done before the B&W Ball. If it
had been Sunday I would have said F&%$ it and stood in bed (as yogi would
say).
Peyote ran well on Sunday, though the clutch still slips (might be the
Salisbury--we're checking), and it overheated. With all that I still
finished 2nd in class, but wasn't a close to the Ginetta in first as I would
have liked. And towards the end of the race I almost got chased down by a
really fast spriget 'cause I was trying to keep the engine cool. Something
wrong there. Peyote runs too cold, not too hot.
Had a lot of fun though. But now I got to learn how to play a bass.
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