[Fot] Finally no longer a novice -- and near disaster

[Triosan at gmail.com]

I finally completed three novice level races with the northwest  
International Conference of Sports Car Clubs [ICSSC] this last weekend in  
Spokane. IT was a four day affair. First day was tenst and tune. I went out  
in first session, re-learned the track and decided to call it a day. The  
TR6 is "contentious" as the license director called it. I call  
it "Fragile". I call my ram "Wacamole Racing" given an issue always seems  
to pop up.

Sure enough, next day go out for practice of race one, and the clutch penal  
stays at the floor in turn 6. Limp back to pits, leaking clutch fluid out  
the bottom of the tranny. Have to pull the tranny to see the problem as I  
have one of those linear throw out bearings with an input hose going into  
the hole where the old clutch fork goes on the drivers side, and out to a  
bled line from the other hole. Looked at the throwout bearing and it  
appeared to be leaking from the seal. Took the bearing apart and indeed the  
seal looked very rough. It was a wide square cut o-ring. Had doubts about  
finding a replacement in Spokane at noon on Friday, but someone recommended  
a source [Brown Bearing], and when the guy measured it is response was "how  
many"? Had to love that. Got back, reassembled everything, installed tranny  
with a couple of bolts in, and then tested it only to find the leak as bad  
as before. So much for assumptions of a problem without a thorough test.  
Took it out tranny and bearing out again, hooked up the clutch lines, added  
fluid, and watched it flow out of the cut in the bleed line. Seems this  
[new to me tranny as of last week] has a very sharp edge on the inside of  
exit hole. Now I had to find a replacement hose. Again the good folks of  
ICSSC recommended a place in Spokane called "House of Hose". Got there  
about 3 and they made up a hose quite quickly. By the time I go the car  
running again it was too late to take that day's novice race. If only I had  
one one more TnT session this would have been avoided.

The next day went well, decent practice and qualifying, and a verf fun and  
satisfying race. I ended up 4th out of 12, as some attrition took out three  
cars ahead of me. That was my third novice race, so I took a [good, well  
written and useful] upgrade test. Passed, and so could race Sunday with my  
Group2 peers]. This group has a class for Porsche 944s, spec miata, club  
spec miata, and cf production. My prepped to 1969 C-prod specs runs as  
E-Prod. I am the only one in that class. I qualified next to last, though  
knew I was faster than the two Miata's ahead of me. Then came the race.

For 10 laps I followed a Miata I could have passed on either of the  
straights at any time, but chose to follow as he was faster in the corners.  
I learned a lot about how he did it bu following close as we corned. On the  
10th lap I passed on the front straight. Took the sweeper at the end better  
than I had all weekend, and headed uphill towards turn three. Upon arriving  
there, and shifting from 3rd to 4th at 6000 rpm, near disaster struck.

The steering wheel came out in my hands, being no longer attached to the  
u-joint in the Borgson steering assemble. Panic, off track right, up a  
sandy hill, parallel to the track and aimed straight at an elevated turn  
station. The eyes of the flagger grew wide. Fortunately the terrain was  
such I dug a trench and the wheels turned to the right and acted like snow  
plows, so I stopped in time.

I installed the steering system 3 years ago, and never gave it another  
thought. What happened is the grub screw and nut that holds the splines in  
the u-joint backed out and disappeared. So now, in the vein of "don't be  
beaten by equipment" I will Locktite the grub screws, safety wire them, and  
add a spacer on the shaft between the ujoint and the firewall that will  
stop the shaft from moving even if there are no screws in the shaft.