Had a blast. Great weather. Peyote was running great in qualifying on
Friday, but in the first race, first lap the oil light came on and the
pressure gauge dropped to zero. Stuffed the clutch in and coasted in, but it
was a bit too late. The pump shaft broke and took out one side of the drive
slot. The engine never stopped or even sounded stuck, but the #2 rod bearing
was toast. The crank looked perfect, and the mains were fine, but it needed
new rod bearings and the only ones I knew of for sure were in my workbench
in Portland (what would it have taken to stick them in the trailer!!!).
So I decided to drive to Portland and back. My wife actually did all the
driving--from 7:00 pm to 2:00 PM. With me sleeping in the passenger seat.
What a girl!
Next morning while we're just about finished putting in the rod bearings,
Tony Garmey drives by, holds a bag out the window and yells "anyone need
some bearings". Yes, it turned out he found he had some standards. Yikes,
now the challenge was deciding how to break the news to my wife. Later on,
Tony was sticking a new clutch in the Devin and asked if I had a pilot. I
scrounged around and couldn't find it. Later that day I found it, so I
brought it over to the Hart pits, with the fully reassembled Devin and
yelled "anyone need a clutch pilot".
Bob Yarwood did all the prep work while I was gone, replaced the pump and
shaft with ones borrowed from Tony Garmey. Bob stuck it all together in the
morning with I dithered around (I don't think he trusts my wrenching) new
oil, new filter, and it cranked right up and sounded good. I went out for
the morning warm-up and it seemed fine. Started from the back of a very
large grid in Large Bore Vintage, and made my way up to third. I would have
gotten second, but I didn't realize that the Porsche I was seeing up ahead
with four laps remaining was in second. I thought only Cameron Healey in the
Pooper was ahead of me, and I couldn't see him down the straight, so I
figured he was either at least ten seconds ahead or had pulled off, so I
backed off a couple of seconds for the last four laps.
Denny Acker's Pooper ate an intake valve. He wasn't going to fix it, but I
talked him into at least pulling the head and looking at it. Not a huge
amount of damage--he just needed to take it to his shop, replace the valve,
and clean up the bigger gouges. He wasn't going to do it since he had to
start from the back with no time on Saturday's race and he knew Cameron and
I would be out of range by the time he made it through the traffic and he
wouldn't have anyone to play with, so Cameron and I volunteered to start in
the back with him. Made for a heck of a race I'll tell you. The three of us
were inches apart cutting through traffic. Great fun when you know the other
guys aren't going to screw up. Cameron got well out ahead, Denny and I were
swapping the lead so much I lost count. We finally made it through all the
traffic except that really fast Porsche, which I could see way up ahead as
Cameron passed him, but Denny was no where to be seen--he got held up by a
big Healy. So I decided to run down the Porsche. Right about then Mr. Peyote
went a little sour. Still pulled well--but something's not quite right. So I
tired to baby it to about a 1:41 figuring the Porsche was doing 1:42.
Cameron decided to wait for me so we could play some more, and the Porsche
passed him. I would have got him with two more laps--or the engine might
have quit all together. So Cameron repassed the Porsche at the flag, giving
him the official win since the wire is well up the track from the flag.
I'm back in Portland now, and I'm still grinning. Great racing, wonderful
people, good parties, and I get to do it all over again next weekend at the
Portland Historics.
Bill Hart was looking great in his Devin, but was mysteriously about three
seconds a lap off from his best times last year. Not an easy car to drive,
and he's really smooth in it. Saw Charlie and his TR6, as well as the TR4 of
Jeff Quick. Tony Garmey drove the Flying Shingle, but it made some funny
noises so he parked it and drove a standby emergency Porsche.
|