Hello all,
Considering work and racing, my traffic through these internet lists
has been pretty low lately, but I thought a few of you would be
interested in how things have turned out with our racing MG's.
I took second in place in the San Diego "Street Mod" autocrossing
championship with my roadster. It was a close one, with the points being
806 for myself and 832 for the class winner, who drives a Datsun 510. A
couple of weeks after the last event, driving home from work, the head
gasket blew, massively. First time I've ever had a car "bang!" and then
quit. There was water all over the engine bay, it must've been a
catastrophic failure. Oh well.
The Team ended up third in the California Rally Series "Stock" class.
It was a tough fight, and we had a lot of help from a number of great
MG enthusiasts. We ended up with a couple of DNF's due to bad parts,
something I'm still a little ticked about. The clutch master cylinder
we got from Apple Hydraulics died with less than 300 miles on it.
Sorry guys, but you've royally screwed up. We have nearly a dozen
old Brit cars between the Team members, and have a lot of projects
that will need rebuilt hydraulics. Costing me races cost you business.
That complaint is not something I'd say lightly. How do I know it's the
master cylinder? Well, if the bleed back doesn't work properly, pressure
will build up in the system so that the clutch starts to slip and eventually
acts like you've got the pedal down when you don't. Guess what happened.
I was under the car, in the snow and mud, on stage, opening the bleed
screw to find there was still pressure in the system. I've been informed
that the Girling/whoever folks are re-tooling to make new original ones,
but I'm probably going to go with a Tilton race master.
We did manage to take second in class at the Ramada Express Hotel and
Casino International Rally (http://rallyusa.com/). The last day we
had to bleed the clutch between runs, and still it didn't work right.
I've probably trashed the brand new throw-out bearing and clutch
disc I installed, and who knows what happened in the gearbox. But,
when the MG was running right, we were fast! Friday's stages were
tight, twisty, and covered in snow and mud. On the one clean run I
got (that is with no mechanical problems) I was faster than a lot of
better, newer cars with more experienced drivers.
We plan on running the MG again next season, but are looking for something
newer (which means we can probably get sponsorship, no one is interested
in the old MG) and faster (which means we stand a chance of really getting
up there!). It will be hard finding a newer car as rugged and fun as
the old GT however.
I hope you guys all have a great holiday season.
And, on a racing note I wish I was involved with, go to:
http://www.supersportscarworld.com/world/welcome.htm
and click on the Le Mans link. Find the posting about MG.
Safety Fast!
-Keith Wheeler
Team Sanctuary
ClubRally MGB-GT #395
San Diego region autocross MGB #159
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