The Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) held its Ghoulish Foolishness
October 21-22 at Thunder Hill, Willows, Ca. The fun actually started
Friday, as the SCCA had an open test day available at $75 for a half
day, and $150 for a full day. The festivities included a Friday nite
cocktail hour with a hosted buffet, and a Saturday nite costume party
and dinner at $20/head. A splendid time was had by all. The grand
finale of the event was the Bob Green Memorial Enduro featuring a full
LeMans style start and a 2-hour race, as previously advertised.
I pulled in before noon on Friday to get in some track time. I wanted
to get used to the track again, and hopefully qualify a little better
than folks who would be arriving Saturday. I also wanted to sort out
the car, as it had not really run well since April. I made good use of
the track time, and actually did qualify well, even though I am in one
of the slower cars out there. I run the Bourgeault Formula Junior,
which has a FIAT 1100 engine, and skinny tires. Thanks to Steve Earle,
I was also mandated to run on hard compound Dunlops, but I'm getting
used to them. I managed to fit 5.00-15 tires all round, which helps
make the handling more neutral.
I pitted between an Allard and a Lotus 7. The Allard had overheating
problems, and the Lotus kept dumping oil. Sigh. ;=( I was doing well,
turning in some 1:32 laps on the 1.9 mile course, but the car was not
idling well. I told one of the guys in my run group, "It seems to run
OK if I keep my foot in it." His reply was, "Well, isn't that what the
directions say?" ;=) It turned out I had the timing a little too far
advanced. It ran fine at the top end, but stumbled a bit in the mid
range. In the last heat on Saturday, it quit running. I quickly
determined that the car had shredded another distributor drive gear. I
had brought a replacement! I had it running again in about 1/2 hour,
and after setting the timing again, it actually ran better. Apparently,
this motor is supposed to lube the disty drive by splash. With a deep
sump on it, the oil is down too far to make enough splash. It also has
a double-volume oil pump driven by the same gear. This winter I will be
adding an aux oil line to keep the drive gear wet. Fortunately, the
disty drive gears are made of a softer metal than the gear on the cam.
The last thing I need right now it to trash another cam! I changed the
oil and filter Sunday Morning, and ran fine in the last heat on
Sunday. I was probably turning 1:30's but nobody got a time on me.
The long straight at Thunder Hill gave me some opportunity to pass. I
have pumped up the FIAT motor quite nicely, and it pulled quite well
against FV's and the slower Juniors. There was no way I could catch a
killer Ford-engined Junior. The faster Vees would just drive around me
in the sweeper, but some of them I could pass and make it stick. I
reeled in and passed a beautiful Stanguellini running basically the
same motor, but I found out they were running stock FIAT parts.
The only sour note on the whole weekend was the wind and dust. The wind
was howling all weekend, probably gusting over 40 mph. The dust was
really unbearable. I ended up wearing a hat, dust mask and goggles in
the pits. I will probably be cleaning dirt out of the car for months.
;=( I will probably be writing to the management at Thunder Hill to ask
them to PLEASE finish paving the paddock before doing other planned
improvements. The new surface is great, the new berms are a big help,
and the track basically works well all around. Changing the oil in the
middle of a dust storm is no fun. I shudder to think of what all that
sand blasting did to the finish on David Love's 250 Testa Rossa. Due to
the rising costs at Sears Point, it is likely that CSRG will be doing
more events at TH. It's a fun track, and very safe, but too dusty in
the paddock.
I did get some pictures of the LeMans start of the enduro, and will be
putting them up on the team.net ftp server later. True to form, the
first car off the line was an Austin Healey, and the last was a Formula
Ford. The FF rapidly advanced to 2nd place, but had no chance of
catching the leader in a F2 car. Marnix Dillenius in the Alfa TZ was
mid-pack most of the race. Again, a splendid time was had by all.
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