[Fot] Our weekend at the Glen

[Larry Young]

We spent Monday in NYC, so just got back to Tulsa last night. 

We had a wonderful weekend.  I had originally planned to fly in and hang 
out, but at the last minute Tom was available to drive, so we brought 
our car (#16 yellow TR3).  We arrived about 6:00 pm Thursday only to 
find out we couldn't get into the track due to closed registration.  Bob 
Lang was in a similar predicament.  Luckily Jack Woerhle came down to 
the gate and got us in.  Thanks Jack. We missed the Thursday practice, 
so Tom was already behind the learning curve.  On Friday's session, he 
was not far behind the other SW/FoT, Bob Kramer and Greg Hilyer.  The 
Friday afternoon reenactment was amazing.  We could not believe the 
number of spectators and the support by the local community.  We also 
had ground clearance issues and the tailpipe got knocked loose behind 
the header.

Saturday morning was wet, but we ran anyway.  The car came in with a bad 
miss.  For those who don't want to wade through the details, I'll put 
the problems and diagnosis down at the bottom.  We missed the Saturday 
afternoon session, so the Triumph feature was only Tom's second time on 
a dry track.  He was doing well at the beginning, and the SW/FoT were 
running together (Hilyer, Kramer and Young). Tom says we were faster on 
the straights, but they did better in the turns. Unfortunately, the 
overdrive went out in the middle of the race.  I've now got a 4:55 rear, 
so the overdrive is essential.  Due to the loss of speed on the 
straights, Tom fell back at that point and was eventually passed by 
Richard Brown's Spitfire. I think we may have fried the overdrive during 
the reenactment due to the loose tailpipe.  Bill, do you still have 
those overdrive parts?  I may need them.  I was watching the race at the 
toe of the boot.  Saw the wonderful three car dice between Frye, 
Williams and Wright. We saw the spin by Randy Williams and his TR3 
sideways in the middle of the track. Then two yellow TR4s went around on 
each side.  It was also great to watch the TR250K - so beautiful and so 
fast!

I was completely overwhelmed during the FoT awards ceremony, when they 
announced my name for the "Bill Ames, Racing for Life" award.  I suppose 
this has something to do with my being a cancer survivor. I was 
diagnosed a couple months after our 2006 gathering at Hallett. 
Fortunately, for multiple myeloma the best treatment center in the world 
is in Little Rock.  After six month long chemo sessions over a one year 
period the cancer is in complete remission and should remain that way 
for several years.  I would not have made it through this process, if 
not for the wonderful care by my wife, Sue. Unfortunately, the cancer 
did a number on my back, so I had to give up driving.  Tom has been 
doing a great job since he took driving duties. He has now gotten 
married and moved to Albuquerque, making the logistics too difficult, so 
we are selling our car. I may not be actively racing, but I do plan to 
stay active with the group, as long as you'll have me.  I have never met 
a better bunch to hang out with. Thank you so much for the award.
Larry Young

_Saturday Engine Problems:_ First, we discovered a broken rocker 
pedestal stud.  A second one was bent, but the rest of the valve train 
looked ok.  We got that all fixed with the help of spares from Henry 
Frye and Bob Kramer.  Thanks guys.  We thought we were home free, but 
no, the engine was still missing.  Discovered no compression on #1.  
Then, discovered no valve clearance on #1 exhaust (didn't measure the 
lash, just felt that the rocker was not loose).  Reset the lash.  Still 
had a miss.  Rocker was still tight, so thought we had no lash.  We had 
about 8 guys hanging around trying to figure out what could be causing 
this behavior. Is the valve seat going away, causing the valve to recede 
in the head?  Someone noticed that there was very little clearance 
between the valve retainer and the rocker arm, but we didn't follow up 
on that.  Henry has this really cool bore scope, which seemed to be 
indicating a problem with the exhaust valve.  Tom and I looked at each 
other, and I was thinking "Oh no. not another Mid-Ohio". We decided to 
pull the head to check the valve.  Couldn't find anything wrong with the 
valve or valve seat.  We were getting a lot of good help and advice from 
Ed Diehl - how cool is that?  Finally, noticed a spot where the rocker 
had been hitting the spring retainer.  Decided that was the smoking gun. 
A little grinding with the Dremel tool was all that was required.  
Unfortunately, we went through a lot of work to discover this small 
problem.  We have been chasing a high speed miss (6,000 RPM) for more 
than a year.  We had thought it was fuel, but I believe this clearance 
issue has been the problem.  With all the valve train dynamic 
calculations I've been doing lately, I should have known there could be 
enough vibration to cause a problem like this. So, add this to the list 
of clearances to check.


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