Keith,
Good luck. I'm hoping that Bri and I can fly back for a day on the salt
as spectators and go to the Two-Club Banquet. We bought a 1956 180 Cessna last
year and both of us checked out in it. It lives in a hanger at Napa, CA near
Brian and Camille's place. I flew the Cub 175 tach hours since its last
annual,
including a trip to Oshkosh last July and a trip to Idaho in June. After 8
hours actual returning from Idaho in a single day Mary Lou said "enough is
enough". "We need a better cross-country plane". The 180 was delivered while I
was
at Oshkosh and I've put about 50 clock hours on it since August, including a
trip to Idaho in September and a trip to Southern Arizona earlier this month.
The King$ Ran$om XXF/FMR roadster was on the trailer and ready to go to
the November EM meet when the rains came. We plan on running the June EM meet
and possibly in November. Monte Osborn worked on my EM 202MPH record all last
year, finally getting to 201. He'll prolly break my mark this year unless we
bump it in June.
The NA engine in the roadster is the one I ran 199 with at the 1999 World
Finals, finally splitting a cylinder that had hydraulicked (sp) at an earlier
EM meet when the "tip" valve on the fuel tank wouldn't let the pressure
equalize as we crossed the Southern California mountains, filling a cylinder
with
raw fuel. When I hit the starter it bent the rod and "bulged" a cylinder wall
which finally let-go in the kilo lights at the Salt in October of 1999.
Bri and Cami have a brand new baby boy named Samuel Augustus to go with
their 2 year old daughter Grace Olivia, so he's really hopping.
I have most of the stuff for a new NA Ardun with a radical
radiused-mushroom lifter cam but haven't the enthusiasm to work on it when the
Cub and 180
are sitting in their hangers begging to be exercised.
I'll be 67 next month and don't have nearly the incentive I used to to go
out in the barn and thrash. I was the trailer loader/unloader, engine
builder/installer/uninstaller, tuner, tow vehicle driver, sponsor, driver,
gofer,
etc. Mary Lou helped me load and unload the trailer, install and remove the
engines, provision the RV, and a million more tough chores more times than I
care
to remember since we started racing in 1987. We had plenty of help once we got
to the events but the preparation and transportation was up to us.
The racing program is basically Brian's now. He's very interested in
building "D" and K" class DeSoto hemi's for our modified roadster and has
been
consulting with Charley Markley and Harry Hoffman Sr. for ideas and sources of
speed equipment.
The blown Ardun is in the Dragmaster Dart rail. We took it to the
Palmdale, CA Antique Nationals last June and ruptured the burst plate under
the 4:71
on the first pass. Unfortunately we had no spare and couldn't find one to
borrow.
Ardun Doug King
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