Listers:
My son, along with Betsy and I, and two of his school
friends went racing this past weekend at Roebling Road Raceway at
Savannah, Georgia. This was our first time out for this season and
Will's second year of Road Racing. We encountered rain once inside the
Georgia state line. We hoped that it was just a local shower. The
weather channel predicted local thunder showers for Saturday with the
front moving out Sunday afternoon.
We woke to the thunder Saturday morning and I had visions of
a terrible two days of racing in the rain. Savannah is humid on a good
day and like working in water when it is raining.
The sun peaked out a little just before their session was to
run. It had stopped raining and the track drains pretty quickly. Their
qualifying was determined by who could dodge the areas where the water
was still running down the track and avoid the puddles at the apexes at
some of the turns. All of this was done on Slick racing tires. The
session ended and Will had managed to avoid spinning off the track and
turn in a fourth best time for his class.
The Sun stayed out for the rest of the day. We had bright
sunshine and mid-70's temperature wise. For the race, we went back to
last year's setup notes. Will had some problems getting full throttle
coming off the turns but was able to get a 3rd place Trophy. He said
that he thought he was developing a problem in either the clutch or the
transmission late in the race. We put the car on jack stands and were
able to diagnose it as 'a problem with the Differential. The boys were
able to get the axles out and they were ok. They pulled the aluminum
ring and pinion carrier and found that the differential had popped out
of the ball bearing races and that moved the ring gear away from contact
with the pinion enough to let it miss a tooth every once and a while.
Still, it was enough to ruin both the ring /and the pinion. We tore up
our 3.90 to 1 ring and pinion but we had our 4.22 to 1 differential
along as a spare. The boys got everything cleaned out and buttoned up in
time for the end of racing for the day and in time for some Southern
hospitality and the Worker's and Drivers party and we all enjoyed some
cold beer on tap and local barbeque. Even Will-I couldn't tell him that
he can risk life and limb driving competitively but he could not sit
back with a hundred or so fellow drivers and drink cold beer after a
long day. There are some times when the laws just have to be bent. About
9:00pm, Betsy gathered us all up and took us back to the hotel.
Any Lister out there that has a spare open 3.90 to 1
differential for a reasonable amount of cash or a huge amount of
goodwill?
Regards,
Tom Speed
www.MGRacer.com
'76 Midget (Son's Restored Driver)
'66 Midget SCCA Racer (SpeedRacer)
'84 Chevy S-10 (Tows SpeedRacer)
'98 Eclipse Spyder (Wife's Driver)
'98 Chrysler Town & Country Lowered Floor Conversion Van (Tows Me)
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