Diary Archive

10/15/06:    The rest of the drive home from Collinsville was uneventful to the point of boring.  We were all so tired that we couldn't even work up a descent conversation.  We still ran at a pretty good clip and arrived home about 5PM....not bad....500 miles and two stops for food and fuel all in 7.5 hours.  We'll unpack later this week when Bear arrives and we have an extra pair of hands to work with.  Now the prep begins for next year....woohoo!

10/14/06:    We had three items to accomplish today.  One, start packing up the joint.  Two, get Fob into impound (the good way) and three, get a good start on the run home.  Hob and I knew we we had the power to cook along at 80+ MPH getting home so if we got a few hours down the road today it would make the portion needed to finish tomorrow that much easier.  When removing the wheels from the car, I noticed that the LF had some green paint on it.  I guess I was hit by Dwight yesterday.  Fob had it all together today.  The car was ready to rock and he was gridded seventh.  After dropping back a spot or two on the first lap, he held station for the rest of the race.  With some attrition in front of him, he managed a sixth and was, indeed, off to impound.  It appeared that things were OK there so Hob, Doris, Jon, Margie and I headed off down the road.  We booked along and got as far as Collinsville, IL by 10:30 local time.  We'll finish the trip tomorrow.  See photos here.

10/13/06:    Today we would watch some races for a couple of reasons.  One, we could relax a bit before it was our turn in the blender.  Two, we watched from the hillside on the outside of T1 and T2.  From there we could see almost all of the south end of the track.  This was critical because I wanted to see what others were doing there during the start and gather some intelligence about the situation.  By 3:15 it was time to leave and get ready.  The last details were finished (needles, tire pressures, etc.) and we were off to the false grid.  No pre race jitters as I was ready to go.  There were several of us in the 2:04 to 2:06 range and, if the start was clean and nobody did anything stupid, we would have a good time amongst ourselves.  Because of my incident on Wednesday, I was cautious on the first lap....too cautious.  I was passed by a bunch of folks and by T10 I was pissed at myself.  I was already been hit (by Dwight Aldred) and I stoked the coals to get going.  With in the next lap or two I passed Drew Aldred, Dwight Aldred, Mark Weber and Gregg Ten Eyk.  Bax got ahead of him and set sail.  Gregg wouldn't let go and he was all over me for several laps.  He then passed me back a few laps later.  I pressed him hard for a lap or two and he spun in T10.  Bax had spun earlier and was working his way back to catch me.  I didn't want to block him but I wouldn't make it easy for him either.  He caught me five or six laps from the end and was all over me until the end.  I held him off as I had a little extra power....I drank a bigger glass of Cool-Aid.  Each lap by I was hoping for the '1' sign to tell us there was one lap left but nooooo.  Jeez he was pressing me but I didn't make any huge mistakes (or at least anything he could capitalize on) and the crossed the line in 11th place.  He was 12th just 0.6 seconds behind.  What a race.  I had somebody in my sights or on my tail the entire race.  THAT WAS FUN!  Good clean racing just as I had predicted.  I was exhausted and sore as I have never had to work that hard in the car before.  After the usual post-race schmoozing we all went out for pizza and beer.  I had downloaded the in-car video to the laptop so we watched that while having dinner.  See the in car video clips here.

10/12/06:    Goodyear said the wheel was OK.  They mounted another 250 on the wheel (the old one didn't even have the sticker off of it yet) and I was good to go. Fob, Jon and I strung up the car (aligned the front end and set the toe in) and the car was now ready.  With the car fixed and the sticky tires on it I was ready to slowly work up to a descent lap time.  I thought I could get down to a 2:04 or maybe even a 2:03 if the conditions were right.  But after the out lap and three laps at speed, we were given the 'black flag all' signal and the session was over.  What a drag.  I was just getting to the point where the tires were getting heat in them and I was getting more aggressive.  But that's the breaks.  I learned a lot about the track and would utilize that tomorrow during the race.  See photos here.

10/11/06:    This was supposed to be the big day.  HP was on track by itself (no GP cars with us) and I had some brand new Goodyear tires that were stickier than the normal ones I run since it was so cold.  I was using 250's and not the 430's that I usually do.  But along the way I forgot to turn on my brain and I did something so stupid, that even I couldn't believe I did it.  I got to aggressive on the out lap and spun in T8.  This allowed Gregg Ten Eyk to smack into me as I lay across the track (see video here).  Geez, what a dope.  The car wouldn't turn right and it was too easy to turn left.  My day was over before I finished half a lap.  When I got back to the pits Fob and Jon peeled off the RF fender and Fob noticed the damage.  The shock arm was bent and the spring pan (lower A arm) was warped.  I was so pissed at myself for doing something that stupid.  It happens to all of us once in a while (thats what I was told by some wily veterans, but that didn't make it any easier.  Jon and I set about to dis-assembled the RF suspension.  I had to find a shock as I didn't have a spare.  Hob (who had backed his car into the T3 wall and was way more damaged than mine) told me John  Salisbury had one.  I went off to his camp to see if that was true.  It was and he was nice enough to let me borrow one for the rest of the week.  Jon and I re-assembled the corner.  By now it was late and we called it a day.  All that was left to do was make sure the wheel was OK.  I'll take it to Goodyear in the morning and they can spin it to see if its true.  See photos here.

10/10/06:    Today it rained all day and with the forecast for race day as clear there was no sense in going out.  As Melinda put it...the upside was minimal and the downside was HUGE.  We got to watch a bunch of wet sessions and see others slide around a lot.  See photos here.

10/09/06:    Our session was early so we got the car ready and off we went.  Learning a new track can be a trick but it was obvious from the track drive last night that this track was really different.  There were a lot of late turn in corners and this was not typical.  I worked my way down to a 2:07.  This was OK for the first day but I knew I could do a lot better.

10/08/06:    Today we finished setting up shop by getting the cars teched and watched a few sessions of practice so we could learn the track a bit.  After the track was cold, we had dinner.  Melinda and I bought a box of GFS rib eye steaks so we could have a big group meal before the fracas started.  We had bought enough for the entire crew and, with support from the rest of the gang, we a all the trimmings.  After the meal we went out on the track walk...only we used our golf cart so we could get more of a feel of what it looked like.

10/07/06:    We finished the drive to HPT on time but Hob was 45 minutes ahead of us.  The assigned paddock spaces were not what we lead to believe.  Hob called me and we decided to have him go find some others.  He did and by the time we arrived, he had it all sorted out.  We looked around and decided how to set things up.  We then moved into action.  In a couple of hours we had our entire setup completed and were waiting for the Brannons so we could finish the full

10/06/06:    Well we got started on our way out to HPT this afternoon.  We left Jon's place at 3:15 or so and got on down the road.  Futcher got an hour head start as he thought he would be going at a slower pace.  We were aiming to get to Springfield, IL.  That would leave us an hour from the I-55/I-70 intersection.  The Bax's would also be that far from that point if they stayed in Effingham.  If all of that held true, then the three of us could caravan into HPT about 3PM on Saturday.  We got to the hotel at 9PM or so and hooked up with Fob for a beer.

09/27/06:    Today I built and installed the work bench in the trailer.  I've waited all summer to do this and just never got around to it....some might call that procrastination....I can see their point.  See photos here.

09/25/06:    Today I installed the rebuilt tire racks.  Phil welded extra pieces on them so they would mount to the trailer and be much sturdier.  See photos here.

09/24/06:    Yesterday I went over to Phil's place so he could weld one of the rear tire racks back together.  It broke apart because I had failed to mount them properly to the trailer and one of them shattered when the tires bounced around within the confines of the rack.  With any luck I can get them mounted to the chassis next week.  See photos here.

09/18/06:    Tonight I went over to Duane's to work on a few things as the clock is ticking towards the big dance.  I re-anchored the canopy pole holders as one of them had broken from the bottom portion wagging perpendicular to the wall.  The others were looking iffy as well so I re-enforced them all with an extra bolt on the lowest space.  I removed and cleaned the oil cooler.  It was covered in greasy crud and was clearly not as efficient as it could be.  Also, I re-aimed the camera.  The footage from the Grattan event showed a black halo around the screen.  The camera was not as far into the holder as it needed to be.  I re-positioned it and checked the alignment by recording some footage and dumping it to the laptop.  As it turns out, the camcorder screen does not show the entire video that is collected.  This means the recorded video is bigger than the camcorder screen.  Who woulda thunk?  Well, now we know......

09/14/06:    Tonight Duane and I started building the fourth motor.  Its a rebuild of the one we built in the spring of 2002.  This will be a significant upgrade as we are installing a 'George' cam and pistons.  This will allow us to have two short blocks that are identical.  Since we've been down this road before, it went pretty smoothly.  We got the block prepped, the crank laid in place, the main bearings installed, the lifters put in place, the cam installed, the oil pump installed and the front and back plated attached.  However, when it came time to install the pistons, we discovered that we had four that were the same (as opposed to two mirror imaged pairs).  A call to George got this straightened out but it will cost us a week or so to recover.  Not what we need at this time of the year.  See photos here.

08/19/06:    I dragged the car and trailer over to Duane's so we could start to diagnose what was going on with the engine.   I chatted with several folks this week and found little consensus as to what the issue could be.  We got the car on the lift, warmed it up and did a leak down check.  Futcher was over there as well and he crowed heartily when we saw EXACTLY what he predicted.  Ah, there's going to be no living with him now.  Anyway, the good news is this:  The overheating from that caused the brass water journal plugs to move allowing water go where it shouldn't and this caused the head gasket to let go.  No real damage to the head, rings, pistons, block, etc.  And we were going to freshen the head before the Runoffs anyway (see photos here).  After that we completed the disassembly of the old motor so it could be taken to the machine shop.  I will be picking up the new cam and pistons from George this week. The old block will be the basis for the motor we take to the Runoffs and the current block will be the backup. 

08/13/06:    Emergency practice went fine.  I tried to force the car to over heat (by running it in lower gears) but it didn't.  I was confident that we had licked the problem and we prepared for the race.  With all the trouble in the qualifying sessions, we were way back in the field (see grid sheet here).  I made a pretty good start and had passed several cars before T1. But the over heating reared it ugly head a few laps in and I was forced to pull into the pits.  The race turned out to be a humdinger as Don Cameron, Matt Brannon and John Stanford all lead for some period.  In the end it was Stanford, Brannon, Jones, Cameron and DeRonne in that order (see results sheet here).  We'll have a few weeks before the Runoffs to get everything back to normal.  I'll be at Duane's soon to work on the motor to find out what's what here.  We were planning on getting the head freshened for the dance anyway.

08/12/06:    Saturday morning at a national means checking over the car and making sure all is rigfht in the universe.  This morning I wanted to check the ignition timing.  I spoke with George earlier in the week and he suggested setting it at 36^o.  I thought it was at 34^o but I could have been mistaken.  It was measured (by two different timing lights) at 26^o.  This seemed peculiar at the time but I didn't worry about. it.  We went out for our first qualifying sessions and the motor overheated a few laps into the session.  I came in and we let the motor cool off a little.  We checked the compression (looked OK) and the spark plugs looked alright too (no burned green crud on them.  We re-torqued the head studs and they were OK as well.  The thermostat that we had just put into the car we removed and examined.  It looked OK but Rob decided we had to check it in a pan of hot water to see if it opened.  This is where Jill Feller comes into the equation.  She let me borrow her motor home's stove, sauce pan and tongs so we could boil three thermostats to see if they were any good.  Two of the 180^oF ones opened just fine.  The new 195^oF one did not.  So it was out with the new and in with the old.  We also backed off the timing to 30^o so the motor would run cooler.  After changing needles for the afternoon heat we were ready for the next session.  Well we may have been ready but the car was not.  Same story different verse.  Now we were scratching our heads.  Kendall Jones inquired as to whether our timing mark was accurate.  As it turns out....No it wasn't.  So we decided to back it off to the original 26^o where it was earlier in the morning.  I would run it that way in the emergency practice and see what happened.

08/05/06:    Today we got to bring home the car for a weeks worth of prep before the Grattan race.  While it was still at Duane's, I ground down the portion of the axle tube that was rubbing against the right rear tire.  It wasn't rubbing much...but any is too much (see photos here).  In addition, I mounted the video camera and changed the thermostat.  George told me that I would make better power at 195^oF as opposed to the 180^oF we had been running.  We'll see how all of this works.

07/23/06:    Today Jon and I went over to Duane's to work on the car.  After the abuse she took at IRP, I wanted to make sure that the chassis was in one piece and that there were no loose, cracked or damaged bolts or fittings on the car.  In addition, I wanted to re-work the clutch setup.  The line had failed in the last two races and I wanted to replace the quick connect fitting on the slave cylinder as well as install a remote bleed line on the system (see photos here).

07/09/06:    We awoke on race day to dark threatening skies and rain in our future.  I looked at the Weather Channel and they showed a thin line of light rain.  This would squash the warm up session as I would NOT go out on the track if it was wet.  The drag strip portion of the track is extremely slippery when it gets wet.  So we watched a couple of races, prepped the car for the race and ate lunch.  Finally it was our turn.  With Salisbury in front of me and Bax behind me, I knew I had my work cut out for me.  Both are better drivers than I am so I had to make the best of my opportunities.  I started well but could see Bax coming on.  I wanted to keep focused on Salisbury.  After a few laps I was right on him.  Bax passed me and it was the three of us all together nose to tail.  Rob got past John and I was still third (in this group, fifth in the class).  A lap later I got around John in T12.  I continued to be right with Rob for several laps.  I had more power than he did and the one place I could get past him would be on the front straight.  I got along side him once but thought better of it.  We then encountered some traffic and both of us got hung up a bit.  He held pace and I slipped back.  At this point I was worried about the car holding together (this is a VERY rough track) and realized I wasn't going to get past him.  A few laps later Melinda saw that John Stanford was not running anymore and I was now in third.  Now I had to make sure I brought the car home in one piece.  With two laps to go, a car spun out in front of me and I almost went straight into the wall to avoid him.  I re-fired the motor and drove off hoping that I had enough cushion in front of Salisbury to not get passed by him.  Fortunately I did and we ended the race Chima, Bax, Frame, Salisbury and Vickerman (see results sheet here).  There were some down moments though.  Bryan broke a trailing link on lap three at top speed in T1.  That video was scary.  Duane Bailey broke some axle bolts was wasn't able to complete a lap.  Getting his car into his trailer with a broken axle took two jacks, six men, two women, four sheets of plywood, one dog and 20 minutes.....what an ordeal.  But it was the very least we could do for a guy who has done so much for us.  We picked up the trophy (see image here), final results and started on our drive home.  The drive was uneventful and we left the trailer at Duane's so we could decompress for a week or so before thinking about working on the car again.  I now have 27 points and am in fourth place in CenDiv and should have no problems qualifying for the Runoffs.

07/08/06:    Today was a day for practice and qualifying.  We had a bit of a scare when the car wouldn't start before our session.  I usually warm up the motor to make sure everything is ready 45 minutes or so before a session.  I tried to start the car and it wouldn't.  ARRRGH!  After some checking around Bryan found an ignition wire that wasn't making contact.  Duane came over and repaired the fitting and she lit just fine.  No more of that thank you.  The car ran great in the morning practice session.  I ran a couple of 1:52's (9 seconds faster than the last time we were here in 2004).  I encountered the clutch issue from RA once but dismissed it (in error) and made no changes except carb needles and tire pressures for the qualifying session.  During the qualifying session, the clutch issue reared its head in full and compromised every lap.  This allowed me to only turn a 1:55.  This would relegate me to 20th (fourth in class) of 27 cars see grid sheet here).  I could live with that.  John Salisbury was two spots ahead of me with Duane in between.  He was reachable but the next fastest HP qualifier was John Stanford at a 1:50.  I wasn't going to go that fast so grid position wasn't critical.  After the worker party we headed back to the camp and fixed the clutch issue.  Rob Bax on the other hand broke his differential in qualifying and spent a couple of hours repairing it before the party.  Without a time he would be last on the grid.  I would run the warm up session on Sunday and make sure it worked and then wait around for 4.5 hours until it was our turn to race.

07/07/06:    And did that open few days fly by.  The good news is that we only had to swap differentials to be ready for the IRP event.  Of course, the usual housekeeping and cosmetic stuff was in order as well.  I finished the diff swap last night and packed the trailer so we could be off by late morning on Friday.  Which we were.  We got to IRP at 5PM or so, got registered and found a spot for the lot of us (Bax, Floyd, Futcher, Bailey).  We set up camp and enjoyed the camaraderie.  This can be the best part of the weekend.  Just like spring training in baseball, all of us have a shot at glory.  The weekend would provide the answers. 

06/25/06:    Again, we got to the track early so we could work on the car.  There were a couple of things to do (re-mount the shift knob, re-connect the right tail light, charge the battery, etc.) and we also started to break camp.  We put everything away so we could get out quickly.  The car was ready and so was I.  I figured that Rich and I would battle for third place and that if he got his car right, I would end up fourth.  On the first race lap a HUGE crash occurred in the kink and I saw several cars were knocked out.  Two of them were Crisenbery and Meller (both in HP).  I was now in second in the HP race.  But wait....there was a full course yellow and 'black flag all' which means we all come off course to the pits while things get sorted out.  While there we find out that we will be gridded in our original order (I'll be ahead of Rich again), we'll have a single file pace lap and a full 13 lap race (good thing I put extra fuel in).  It takes 35 or 40 minutes to clear up the mess and get us re-gridded.  Off we go for another pace lap.  I decide I have to stay glued to the bumper of the car in front of me so I can keep Rich at bay.  It didn't work.  He passed me on the front stretch and I passed him back going into T3.  I never saw him again.  I found out later he had some engine problems and pulled in.  That's too bad because we could have had a great race.  So now the only thing I had to worry about was Crisenbery.  Melinda told me he came back on track after we went by for the start.  Immediately I started to think about if he could catch me if his car was OK.  All I saw was his car up against the wall.  Maybe he was OK.  I drove HARD to make sure he couldn't catch me.  After a couple of laps Melinda told me I had 40s on him.  He would be no threat today.  Dave Kittleson (gridded fifth in his Fiesta) came on track a couple of laps down and, while I never saw him, he wouldn't threaten me either.  Now all I had to do was be smooth and clean and I would collect my first national win.  One more obstacle came on the last racing lap (we were checkered on lap 10 due to a stuck car in the gravel trap at T8), Lawrence Loshak came by me in the kink and was smoking so badly that I couldn't see the track (neither could he for that matter....his cockpit was filled with smoke).  I slowed dramatically and moved over to the edge of the track so I could see my way around to the finish line.  Once I saw the line I relaxed a bit and then it sunk in....I just won the June Sprints (see results sheet here).  While on the cool down lap I savored the whole thing as I waved to the crowds and workers.  Once I got back to the pits I made Melinda hop in for the checkered flag lap.  She resisted....but I insisted.  But while all the time delays, they wouldn't let us out for the checkered flag lap.  Too bad.  She's the one that puts up with all of this and she deserved some recognition.  The winner's circle was unreal.  I practiced in my mind what I would say when it was my turn to be interviewed.  I thanked Dad, Melinda and Goodyear.  Just when I was getting to the part about Phil, Duane, Rob and all the others along the way, the mike went dead as I was being stepped on by the PA announcer.  Kind of a drag.  After all the interviews, photos and pseudo-champagne spritzing, we went to impound so we could get weighed and check our fuel.  Next, we had to wait for the results to be official.  By now it was 1:30 and we were waaaay behind schedule.  We went back to the trailer, broke camp, picked up our trophy, got a program, a winner's hat, etc. and went home.  It was a long weekend (as any trip to RA is) but this one was fun.....really fun.  Now its on to IRP in two weeks.

06/24/06:    We got to the track early (7AM) and set about working on the clutch.  Futcher had called and we discussed several things to check before I started disassembling things.  The first was to check the dry-break quick release fitting on the slave cylinder.  I disconnected that.  With it disconnect there should be no movement of the clutch pedal at all....and there wasn't.  So I cleaned out both fittings with some brake kleen.  In doing so, a large amount of dirt, grit, etc. came out of the female end.  I reconnected the fitting and had Melinda pump on the pedal.  Now, all of a sudden, it freely moves up and down without any change feel of the pedal.  We did this dozens of times and it now seemed like it was working fine.  I was dubious.  I went to the stewards and asked for a hardship lap and was granted permission to do so.  It felt fine and I was back in the hunt.  So we waited for our second qualifying session to come along.  Again the car went well.  I was a little slower than in practice as this was late in the day but I would take a 2:54 (see grid sheet here).  However, during the session my shift know came apart.  The threaded end stayed on the shift lever but the walnut handle popped off and was rolling around in the passenger footwell.  Now it was a matter of prepping the car for the race the next day.  I was third in the HP field with Rich Root right behind me on the grid.  I would have to be very aggressive if I wanted to keep him behind me as his car was much faster than mine but I could corner better.  Of course what's a race weekend with Dayle without rain?  After the sessions were over, some VERY dark clouds came along and it rained like crazy for 20 minutes or so.  Melinda and I stayed under our canopy (I wanted to see how it faired in the wind and rain) and nibbled on some muchies and watched the world go by....it was nice and relaxing after a long day.  One aside:  Our neighbor from Maryland had a very strange thing happen to him while on track.  I had asked Pat how he did during the session.  He replied 'didin't you see it?'.  And I asked quizzically 'see what?'.  Apparently just after I had passed him his windshield fractured into a thousand pieces.  It didn't land in his lap thank God but he would have to replace it before he could go out on track again.  He had followed a car that had just come out of a gravel trap and his windshield had been peppered with gravel.  Evidently, when I went past him, something came off my car (tire turd, etc.) and that minute amount of force sent his windshield into catastrophic failure.  None of us had ever seen that before.

06/23/06:    I had told Melinda on the way over that we had never broken a 3:00 lap time here and I would be happy getting down to a 2:55or so.  When she told me on the radio that I had a 2:54...and then a 2:53....and then a 2:52....I about crapped.  I didn't believe it.  There was one small glitch.  As the session wore on it became more difficult to up shift.  The clutch pedal had become very erratic.  I chalked this up to the system needing a bleeding.  So we did that and went off the the first qualifying session.  Well that didn't fix the situation.  In fact it got worse during the few laps I was out and I came in after just three laps.  All of the progress made earlier in the day was now in question.  By now it was late in the day so we prepared for the next mornings repairs and headed to the motel.  Along the way I chatted with Bax and Futcher about the issue and they offered some sage advice.

06/22/06:    Melinda and I left the house about 8Am as I had built in a couple of stops along the way for work.  We got to the track about 3PM local time and set up shop.  We paddocked in the south paddock near the tunnel at turn two.  It was prod central as a vast majority of the cars up there were prod cars (Jesk, Kennard, Sargis, Gauper, Root, Czimas among others).  It was a nice location away from the maddening hoards.  We were next to some folks (Pat and Pat Simpson) who cam all the way from Maryland for this event.

06/18/06:    Over the course of the last few days, we've been finishing the front air dam, brake ducts, reinforcing the hood, etc. (see images here) to get ready for the June Sprints.  I got the trailer back from the dealer (after the fixed a couple of things) and re-loaded all of the tools, parts, etc.  Melinda and I dropped it off at the decal place so the graphics could be put on the trailer before we head to RA.  Its gonna look real coooool.

06/15/06:    And those things included getting the car clean, swapping differentials (4.22 out, 3.7 in), reinforcing the hood and mounting the air dam.  Margie and I washed the car a few nights ago.  The driveway shows a ring of oily gravel and filth.  Yuk!  I swapped the differentials and adjusted the position of the panhard rod.  And Rob was nice enough to come over and design a mount for the air dam (see images here).

06/04/06:    Everything was going smoothly....and then it started raining during the race....and only our race.  All other sessions were dry.  Are The Racing Gods trying to tell me (us) something?  Anyway, the first few laps were fast and I was driving well.  Then the sprinkles started.  I slowed a bit and was able to pass a couple of folks and then it started raining heavier.  After catching Bryan Floyd (GTL Datsun 1200) I made a mistake and slid into the gravel trap (see video here).  After coming back on track the car felt awful and I decided to park it a couple of laps from the end.  I probably could have kept going but I was afraid of injuring the car (or worse, somebody else's car) as, by now, it was raining pretty hard and it was difficult to keep it pointed in a straight line.  I got credit for seventh and a finish (see results here) and was able to walk away unscathed.  On to RA for the Sprints.  But before that we need to do some things to get ready for that track.

06/03/06:    Man did the car feel great today.  All the changes we (OK...its was all Futcher) did over the winter allowed the car to be more stable.  This, in turn, allowed the driver to be more stable.  I turned a 1:47.1 in the morning session and a 1:47.8 (see grid sheet here) in a much warmer slicker track.  On to race day.....

06/01/06:    Well I finally got the car together and now I can breathe a sigh of relief and head on down to the track

05/26/06:    Take a little camber out of the front end they said....it'll corner better and be more stable they said....geez, if I knew it was going to be this hard to do....OY!  Like layers of an onion, the further I got in, the worse it stunk.  After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, the front end is back together and we're ready for a chassis setup and then off to M-O.

05/21/06:    Well a decision has been made....I am headed to Mid-Ohio for the OVR National.  After making all the changes in the car over the winter, running on a cold, wet track did not allow us to collect any valuable data about how the car was working.  Also, some serious goading came from the Bax/Floyd camp, so I had to defend her honor.  So its off to M-O.  To that end, Melinda and I went to Duane's today and schlepped the trailer home so we could start to get her ready for the race.  A few minor adjustments to the front suspension and some more light housekeeping and she'll be ready to rock.  As Melinda will be in Germany on business, Bear is coming up from North Carolina to be the crew.

05/14/06:    Awful weather again...only not as windy.  We arrived at the track with the car basically ready to go.  All we needed to do was torque the lugs (after we figured out which tires to use) and check the fluids (oil, fuel and coolant). I got a good start and fell into fifth place when the previous occupant spun and I passed him.  I hung with the crowd for several laps but soon it was obvious I wasn't going to catch fourth place and I was not going to be caught by sixth place so I settled into a cautious pace.  On about lap 17 or so I spun at T1....and proceeded to do it again on the next lap.  The second time I got stuck in a gravel trap (just barely) and needed a wrecker to get me out.  The car was OK and I soldiered on but the oomph was lost and I coasted around for the remaining four or five laps.  I finished in fifth place in class and 17th overall and was a couple of laps down (see race results here).  I had all the power I could eat but the track was so greasy that I had a tough time putting it down.  The really good news is that my fast lap was only five seconds off the pace of the race leaders.  This was very encouraging.  We've got some work to do before the next race (June Sprints) but for now we're going to take a few days off as its been pretty hectic around here lately.  Overall, despite the horrible weather, we had a good time hanging with the usual suspects (Rob and Heather Futcher, Duane and Sue Bailey, Chuck, Jill and Tom Feller, Matt, Marnie and Bradon Brannon) and look forward to doing it again. 

05/13/06:    Today the weather was for crap.  Overcast, rainy, cold, windy....you name it we had it.  The track was wet enough to use the full rains I purchased yesterday.  We have a VERY strong field in HP this weekend.  Four of the top five from last years Runoffs are here.  I did much better than I expected but am still in sixth place on our grid (and 13th overall).

05/12/06:    I finish packing and I'm off to Duane's to get my annual and pick up a few things.  I get to the track about 2:30 or so and its raining pretty hard....and cold too.  The usual place we paddock is spoken for and I find a different place.  Once I get acclimated, I decide I have to buy new rain tire.  Goodyear only has two.  Hoosier has four....and only four in my size (do these people not watch the Weather Channel?).  Rob Futcher arrives next and we decide to put both of our cars under on canopy.  We set up shop, get registered, get teched and discuss the weekend over a couple of beers and dinner.  On to home and getting ready for the rest of the weekend.

05/11/06:    Melinda and I set the front end alignment and continue to finish packing the trailer with all of our crap.  Off to Duane's tomorrow so I can get my annual and then on to the track.

05/01/06:    Slowly but surely we've gotten things back together.  The car is now ready for the suspension to be adjusted.  The motor is connected, fluids in it and it runs.  The front end (valence, radiator, oil cooler, etc.) is all back together as well as the cockpit (belts, seat, dash).  The trailer is also coming together and soon we'll have a complete system.

04/12/06:    Over the course of the last couple of weeks we've gotten the fenders done so next it was on to the new trailer.  Phil and I spent most of the day on 4/8 creating some of the box racks I had designed (see photos).  At our regular monthly general membership meeting on 4/8, I received an award from SCCA HQ.  This was for third place in divisional website.  It was pretty cool (see photos).  On 4/10 we mounted the new tool cabinets and one of the box racks into the trailer (see photos).

03/26/06:    Next Rob and I shaped, fitted and hung the fenders (see photos).

03/19/06:    Over the course of the last month we've been slowly, but surely, re-assembling the rear suspension of the car.  The new upper link brackets, the new panhard rob mount and axle housing assembly have been created, adjusted, painted and installed in the car (see photos).

02/12/06:    Today was a blast as Jon Craig, Rob Futcher and I cruised over to Phil's place so we could start creating all the replacement brackets, spacers, etc. for the rear end.  I had purchased a bunch of aluminum tubing and flat stock as well a some steel plate so we could fabricate all of these brackets.  Soon after we arrived the four of us were a well oiled machine with separate tasks being performed by all.  We used many of Phil's instruments (band saws, end mill, drill press, welders, sanders, air tools, etc.) and had a great time doing it.  We got much further along on the project than I had anticipated (see photos).

02/04/06:    David Hesse drove over from Madison, WI to pick up his new (my old) trailer.  We met at Duane's, signed some paperwork, transferred all the crap from the old trailer to the new one and off he went.  Good luck with her, David.

02/03/06:    Today Duane and I installed the gooseneck hitch on the new truck (see photos).  After that ordeal was completed, we drove to the trailer dealer and towed it back to Duane's.  It was a long day but, man is she nice.

02/01/06:    On the way to Chicago for business, I stopped by the trailer dealer and took these pictures of the new rig.

01/21/06:    Rob came over today and we laid out a plan for reconfiguring the rear end of the car (see photos).

10/09/05:    The past few days I've been disassembling the car as I begin the prep for next year.  The focus for next season will be on the suspension.  Step one was to expose it (see photo) and measure it so I could see how we needed to adjust it.  Rob F. has volunteered (sucker!) to lend a hand in development during the off season.

09/25/05:    Today we packed up and drove home.  First we helped Rob F. during his race.  He had some slight contact that tore off part of his LF fender (wing) and Rob B., Brian and I got to be mechanics twice during the race when Rob came into the pits.  His car slowly lost the entire fender and hood but he was running at the finish.  I'm sure its not what he had in mind but he'll be back again.  All in all we had a fine week.  Only Brian had a great race (he finished 11th) but there was lots of good times during the week and I know I look forward to it for next year in Kansas.  Now the prep for the 2006 season begins.....

09/23/05:    Today I had all the power I could handle....only one problem....it was very wet.  It didn't rain during our race but the track was wet at the start and slowly dried out during the event.  I decided to go to intermediate tires and still spun three times (I'll post video clips of the spins when I can).  I started 17th and finished 19th.  Not very good but I'll take it when I spin that many times and don't injure myself, the car or anybody else (see photos).

09/22/05:    Today the motor was almost perfect as I was getting closer on the carb settings.  We ran a 1:46.6 with a lot of room for improvement.

09/21/05:    Today I deliberately set the carbs waaaay rich to see if the EGT probe is lying to me.  It was.  The car ran awful (we ran a 1:47.2) but now we know that the carbs are behaving correctly according to the air density chart.  We'll be ready for tomorrow.  The downer was that Rob B. was having trouble with his car.  We tried all sorts of things (head, carbs, ignition box, coil, etc.) to correct a high rev miss he was having (see photos).  Nothing changed the situation.

09/20/05:    More high EGT readings today but good power again so this is baffling.

09/19/05:    Cool and overcast for our session.  I was slowed by high EGT readings.  Thank God Rob F. and Brian were able to crew for us and help out during the session (see photos).  I thought I was running way too hot and that my carbs were mis-tuned.

09/18/05:    Today was a light day opf schmoozing, car prep, tech inspections and generally getting ready as HP was on track first Monday morning (see photos).

09/17/05:    The drive down to the RunOffs was uneventful (for a change).  When we (Rob Futcher caravanned along so we would get there at the same time) got there Brian and Rob B. had mowed the area and put up five canopies (see photos).

09/07/05:    Tonight I put the last touches on the in-car camera mount (see photo).  The tire damage was limited to the tire alone.  But it was pretty well shredded (see photos).  I rolled the car out of the trailer and \began the prep for the RunOffs.  We'll need to do a lot of cleaning and organizing before we leave.

09/06/05:    Tonight I went to Duane's and got ready for the test night at GingerMan.  I needed to warm up the motor, re-torque the head studs and set the valve lash.  Once I completed that I could load up and drive down to the track.  Phil was nice enough to volunteer to meet me there and would help out.  All I wanted to do was run the car hard for eight or ten laps to see if it could not over heat.  I ran two session of about 10 laps each and both went fine.  No over heating at all.  The only glitch of the day was as I drove home, I had a blow out on one of the trailer tires.   I could break the lugs loose and AAA was no help so I limped it home.  It was a mess.

09/02/05:    Today I installed the repaired radiator and filled the cooling system.  The radiator had a crack in it near the drain petcock.  This was repaired by the folks that put in the hose barb last week (see photos).

08/27/05:    With all the fittings and tubing in hand, I went to Duane's and assembled the new cooling system (see photo).  This will allow the cooling system to be filled from the bottom up (thus forcing all the air out of the system) without any air pockets.  We'll have to test it on track later but the brain trust thinks this will work.  Rob helped me this morning and we discovered a small leak in the radiator (created when the hose barb was installed).  This will get repaired while I'm out of town on business so I can re-install everything later.

08/19/05:    I went over to Duane's to show him the radiator modifications.  By the time I got there UPS had delivered the new surge tank.  I then set about figuring out which fitting I needed to put where in order to create the air bleed line from the thermostat housing to the back of the head and then on to the surge tank.  I went over the Grand Rapids Valve and ordered all the pieces to create the system.  Some were on hand and some will be delivered later.  After all of this is installed we will have to run the car on track to insure we are stressing it hard enough to see if the overheating issue has been conquered.

08/18/05:    To get the diagnosis of the overheating problem started, I drained the cooling system and removed the thermostat and radiator.  Duane and I analyzed the situation.  We know we wanted a new surge tank.  We picked one out and he ordered it for me.  After that I took the radiator to Lansing Radiator to get checked out.  It had a small amount of crud in it but nothing serious.  Also it was leak tight.  He suggested that we put a fitting in the lower corner that would connect to the surge tank (just as Rob Futcher proposed) so the radiator would fill from the bottom and force the air out the top.  He added the fitting and I called it a day. 

08/14/05:    Melinda and got to the track at 7AM so we could install the water pump and new thermostat.  After that we went out for emergency practice.  It behaved the same.  At that point Rob Futcher suggested that it can't bleed an air pocket from the system as it was presently configured.  He offered parts and I built a line from the thermostat housing to the rear of the head and then on to the surge tank..  We (Margie too....see photo) then warmed up the car to operating temperatures (210^oF or so) without any problems.  No leaks, no spikes in temperatures, etc.  We went through this procedure twice.  At this point the die was cast and we had to wait until the race to see if it worked.  Well it did not.  After two laps of hard racing she heated up again.  I pulled her in and called it a day.  We dropped off the trailer at Duane's and drove home.  We'll look at it later.

08/13/05:    We were group five so we had plenty of time to get ready for the day's sessions.  During the first qualifying session the water temperature was high (230^oF) and jumping around (+/-30^oF).  I came in after only three laps and checked out the situation.  We thought there was an air pocket in the system.  There was no heat in the radiator.  We let it cool, added water to the surge tank and tried it again.  During the afternoon session it did the same thing.,  We theorized that the water pump wasn't strong enough to push the water (this one had three blades cut off of it) and that we should put in the one that was on the motor when it got dynoed.  I removed all the necessary parts so we could install the others the next morning.  The good news was that I broke my personal best there by a second while running very conservatively as I was breaking in the new motor.

08/12/05:    Today I replaced the timing chain cover, got the car running (Duane set the timing) and loaded up and headed off to the track.  See photos here.

08/11/05:    The powers that be decided that the bulkhead fitting for breather would not attached properly to the timing chain cover.  In addition, it was in a bad spot.  The belt had enough slack in it that it may hit the fitting and knock it off.  This would allow oil to spew out the breathe vent onto the header and cause all sorts of issues.  The decision was made to remove the timing chain cover and replace it with the old one.  We could do this tomorrow.

08/10/05:    Tonight I installed the clutch spacer.  In order to do this I needed to grind the input shaft down just a little so the spacer could slide all the way back to the correct position.  Once we did that we could put the motor/tranny in the chassis.

08/07/05:    We had wanted to get the motor/tranny assembly in the chassis today.  Step one was to mate the tranny to the motor, slide it in the chassis and check the clutch movement.  It didn't align properly.  Duane and I figured out that we need a spacer to make the clutch bearing mate with the clutch.  So we pulled the motor/tranny out.  I pulled the old clutch plate off the old motor and we inspected it.  The pressure plate had some serious heat cracks in it and the clutch disc itself was fractured on one side and was very close to failing.  All was not lost as we were able to install the new ignition system.  We also repositioned the starter.  It was rubbing against the motor.  We disassembled the starter and rotated the end plate so that the starter was clear of the motor.  We thought we were done for the day when I noticed the right front wheel was cocked at a much larger angle than usual.  Inspection showed that a shock mounting bolt had sheared off flush with the chassis.  We had to back the remaining portion of the bolt out, put in a new bolt and re-install the shock.  I guess its better to find that out now as opposed to race day.  See photos of the days events here.

08/05/05:    Today we continued the new motor prep as we put a timing mark on the new timing chain cover and installed a thermostat and thermostat housing.  In addition, we got the flywheel and clutch put on.  At this point we are ready to install the motor in the chassis.  See photos of the days events here.

08/03/05:    Today I take the trailer over to Duane's and drop it off on the way to a job site in Holland.  Both motors and the chassis are in there as we need to put the last remaining parts on the new motor.  Today we took off the crank pulley, removed the old timing chain cover, prepped and installed the new cover and put on the new water pump (with three fewer impeller blades).  See photos of the days events here.

07/17/05:    Oh Geez....what a day.  For a while I thought the whole motor program was toast for the year.  Then we got things straightened out and it looks like we've got a real winner here.  I'll start at the beginning:  Duane and I drove down on Saturday evening so we could get an early start Sunday.  Right out of the chute there was an issue we had to deal with.  My truck's A/C compressor was failing and making some horrible noises.  Duane volunteered to tow with his van.  One problem....his van has a six pin electrical socket to connect to his trailer and mine has a seven pin connector.  So off to Meijer's to buy and adapter and re-wire my trailer plug in the parking lot (see photo here).  It looked like it was going to shit storm any minute but we got the job done and off to Toledo we went.  We arrived at 8:00 like George wanted us too.  I took quite a while to bolt everything together.  We fired it up to warm up the engine and motor oil started pouring out of it.  After finding a leaking block plug we thought we had it figured out.  But this was not the case.  Each time we found a leak we had to unbolt the motor from the dyno.  On the third try we found that the oil pump gasket was in backwards (who woulda thunk?).  Once we corrected that we had no oil leaks.  By now we had been at it for six hours.  Now the ignition had crapped out.  George connected an old Mallory dual point distributor and we started the system up again.  Now that we got the motor to start and run fine, we could actually make a few pulls to see how the motor ran under a load.  We actually made only four runs and gathered some very valuable data along the way.  We ended up with some very strong power numbers (and a few tips to improve on those as well).  See images from the entire day by clicking here.

07/15/05:    I found out Tuesday that we would be dynoing the motor on Sunday at George's. The good news is that's sooner than I expected.  The bad news is that there is a lot of pre-dyno work that needs to be done and not much time to do it.  I started today by preparing the car for pulling the old engine (draining the fluids, disconnecting the fuel, oil and water lines, uncoupling the driveshaft, etc.).  I'll take several fittings off the old motor, take them to Duane's and we'll put them on the new motor.  Then we'll drag the new motor back here, pack it in the trailer with everything else and head on down to Toledo tonight.  That way we can be ready for the 8AM start time on Sunday.

07/09/05:    Today Duane, Jon and I worked on several facets of the car.  We got a few things done to the new motor (attached the oil pick up and oil pan, put on the head, push rods and valve train assembly and put on the timing chain cover).  We also repaired the 4.22 differential (it had been leaking fluid), took out the 3.90 diff and put in the 4.22 diff.  Last but not least, we tried to solve the brake issues we've been having.  Ever since we installed the rear disc brakes we have had a soft pedal on the first pump of the brakes.  Duane used a dial indicator (see photo here) and discovered that the brake rotor was ever so slightly out of true (0.005").  This kicked out the brake pads and made the pedal soft.  How we get the rotors machined properly will be the next question....stay tuned.

06/25/05:    As it was much cooler today (and the track was cleaned off by the rain), we all went faster.  Some more than others.  I went 1.8 seconds faster but that wasn't enough as I slipped from 46^th on the grid to 48^th.  We had put the new tires back on the car, cleaned her up, made a carb adjustment (George gave me a tip for more power) and were ready to go.  Since I was 8.5 seconds slower than the HP car in front of me and 4.5 seconds faster than the HP car behind me (see grid sheet here), I would probably not have any HP cars to race with.  This meant I would be running with cars in other classes.  But with 60 cars on track there would be somebody to race with.  The race was very exciting (good and bad).  The bad was right at the start as several cars got together before the start finish line.  I tip-toed through the maelstrom and was off.  There was a full course yellow situation for several laps as the cleaned up the debris.  The motor felt really strong and the new tires were really sticky.  I was in a pack of six cars (three EP and two GP....all allegedly faster than I was).  We swapped position several times.  I was much faster in the corners but they had me on the straights.  We battled the entire race and had a very good time.  Unfortunately the video system let us down and there was no video of the race.  Apparently there was a lot of passes under yellow infractions during the race.  They held the entire field in the winners circle for almost an hour after the race.  This meant everybody got to watch the post-race festivities.  I started fifth, moved to fourth after an HP car was taken out by the crash and remained there for the finish (see final race results and trophy).  Not too bad.  We're learning all the time about the new fancy carbs and I can't wait to get the finished motor into the car for the next event at Grattan in August.  Colette (Andy's girlfriend) was team photographer for the weekend and took some very nice photos.  See them by clicking here.  It was nice meeting her....too bad she had to meet us.

06/24/05:    We mounted the new tires on the car for the practice session.  We would remove them after the session so they could cure for the race tomorrow.  I set a personal best during the session (3:00.998, see sheet here) and thought things would get better because the same rich fuel issue cropped up again.  We could make adjustments for the later sessions.  Afternoon qualifying was miserable for a few reasons. It was VERY hot (98^oF) which made the engine run poorly and the driver uncomfortable.  In addition, the track was slippery and the attrition rate was very high.  It rained like crazy later in the evening which helped cool things off.

06/23/05:    We got to the track at 11AM or so and quickly got set up in our paddock spot.  We set up shop in the south paddock close to the back stretch between T3 and T5.  We would have everything ready so we could get the car teched and be ready for the early morning session on Friday.  We had plenty of time for schmoozing and hanging out with those paddocked around us (Davidson, Salisbury, Futcher).

06/18/05:    Today I mounted the new camera on the car using Duane's mount that Phil made for him.  Very cool.

06/11/05:    Well it was back to working on the new motor today.  Duane and I got the last piston in and set the cam timing.  The cam timing took quite a while and is a tricky task.  But Duane certainly knows what he is doing and it turned out just right (see photos here).

06/05/05:    We had put 3 needles in the carbs and went out for emergency practice.  The car felt great and I was really looking forward to the race.  Sadly the race would be let down....but a fun time nonetheless.  I was gridded ahead of a couple of HP cars and was thinking that I'd be able to catch a couple of HP cars in front of me.  I got a good start and after the field strung out I was running with Greg Feller (Spridget) and Greg Plush (Datsun 510).  The three of us ran nose to tail for three laps. I had passed Feller and was working on Plush (in the esses) when the motor went flat.  It happened so suddenly and felt so awful that I assumed that I broke something in the valve train.  I shut it down immediately.  I got to watch the rest of the race from T9.  And an exciting race it was (see comments here).  After we got back to the paddock, we (Bear, Rob Futcher and I) examined the situation.  We took the valve cover off and looked at the valve train.  All appeared to be OK.  Nothing was loose, bent or out of place.  Rob observed that the part of the throttle shaft was not engaged with the carb's butterfly shaft....Tab A was not in Slot B (see photo here).  This made the front carb not run at all.  I made the repair to the linkage so I could drive the car into the trailer.  Bear and I packed up and drove home.  So in the end, it was depressing as I was really running strong and felt I could have chased down another few cars and (with attrition) ended up fifth.  But the upside is we've learned a little about how to handle these carbs.  And those three laps were the most fun I've ever had on track (except for seeing the checker at the RunOffs last year).

06/04/05:    The morning practice session was a bummer as we were still chasing carb issues like we were at Grattan.  On some sage advice from George, we went from a 5 needle to a 2.  In the afternoon session we went much faster but were still held back by using the wrong differential.  I had the 3.90 in and I should have had the 4.22.  Bear and I swap the diffs and leave for the evening.

05/30/05:    Today I swapped the axle housings.  The good news is that the new axle for the right side slid in perfectly just like its supposed to (see photos here).

05/21/05:    After some examination on Friday at Duane's and this morning here, its apparent that the issue with the rear end is that the axle housing is bent near the right hub (see photos here).  I'll have to take all the parts (hubs, calipers, springs, panhard rod, etc.) off the housing, remove the axle housing and install another one and then re-attach those parts before the next race.  This will be a lot of work.  While I was there I replaced the front brake rotors (see photo here).

05/15/05:    Melinda and I arrive at the track and prepare to attach the fender.  While doing that we noticed that the RR axle did not mate with the hub.  After a lot of conversation with folks who should know (Salisbury, Morton, Savage, Futcher) we decided to put it together and see what happens.  I was already gridded sixth of seven so falling back a position wouldn't hurt too much.  I also changed needles to account for the lean condition the carbs exhibited during the qualifying session the previous day.  I ran strong for the first 15 laps (of a 23 lap race).  After a few laps it was apparent that I wouldn't be able to pass Aaron Feller but with Tom Feller, John Salisbury and Greg Feller dropping out, I had advanced from seventh to fourth.  Thats where I would finish.  All things considered it wasn't a bad result.  The carbs need to be tuned and once they get 'right' then this car will really run.  As it was I set a personal best (1:37.297) and am really looking forward to getting the carbs set up properly.  (see race results here)

05/14/05:    I went out for the practice session on rain tires as it rained steadily all morning until just before we went out.  The qualifying session was in the dry and a first for the team.  I had contact with another car.  A car spun and collected me.  I told Melinda about over the radio, got back to the pits and had her and Phil look at it.  Phil said it looked OK except for a missing right rear fender.  I went back out and turned some low 1:38's (a personal best) and called it a day.  We retrieved the fender and took it home so we could repair it.  Melinda and I pop riveted some aluminum sheet to the back of the fender so it would have better support.

05/12/05:    I finished prepping for the Grattan race by swapping differentials, mounting the throttle return springs and cleaning the car thoroughly.

05/08/05:    The new rods ends were installed into the control arms and those were re-attached to the chassis (see photo here).  At least I can roll the car around on all four wheels.

05/07/05:    Yesterday and today I spent some time taking care of some little details before the next race.  I mounted the new carbs on the motor (see photo here), cut the new brake bias cable to the correct length, cleaned the car thoroughly, re-attached the sway bar (it was disconnected while at GingerMan), re-installed the radio system (one of the cables was faulty and was replaced so I had to re-install all the cables), adjust the mechanical stop for the clutch and greased the front end.  Tonight I'll pick up the new rod ends and assemble the control arms.  After that its a matter of installing the arms, swapping differentials (4.55 out, 4.22 in) and we're ready to go to Grattan.

04/25/05:    Upon further inspection, the bumping from the rear end was caused by a broken control arm.  This allowed the axle housing to pivot backwards and caused the driveshaft to bump against the chassis.  Ouch!  Although it could have been much worse if it had occurred a few minutes earlier while I was on track.  See photo here.

04/24/05:    Race day started out with a bang.  I looked out the window and saw a lot of snow....and it was still coming down.  And sideways at that since there were 30 to 40 MPH winds.  I got to the track and saw that our car cover had blown off so the car was covered with a layer of snow.  The canopy was intact but was weighed down with a lot of snow.  I could see that the track was mostly covered with drifted snow.  I roamed around and took some pictures (see photos here).  We had heard over the PA that the schedule was on a two hour hold.  There was a drivers meeting at 9AM.  The brass told us they had come up with a plan so that qualifiers would get credit for their efforts (showing up) and that we could have a 'race' to get points for the finishers.  They said they would 'reschedule' the races to 30 minutes (instead of 24 laps) because of the weather.  Once that was done, they could shorten the rescheduled races to 15 minutes, combine race groups to cut the number of races from eight to four and run them under full course yellow behind a pace car in single file qualifying order.  This plan made the best of a bad situation.  The workers wouldn't be exposed to the elements for too long, the drivers would get starts, finishes and points for their efforts and the race would go on and not have to be cancelled or postponed.  As I qualified fourth in my class, I finished fourth in class.  Although I did set the fastest lap during the race.  Probably the last time that will happen.  On the way back to our paddock spot, something came loose in the rear end (driveshaft, differential) and I needed a flat tow the last 100 yards.  I'll start working on that when I get the car out of the trailer tomorrow.

04/23/05:    Cold, wet and very windy.  The temperatures dropped during the day so the snow that was falling began to stick later in the day.  The track was very wet and so went out for practice on rain tires.  They never got any heat in them so the best we could do is a 2:10 or so.  Jon Craig showed up and was a big help.  The brakes felt OK but a little soft so we had to bleed them.  That was not fun in the cold and wind.  When qualifying came around it was snowing pretty hard.  The track was drying out but was still very cold.  I decided top stay on rain tires as I didn't think that slicks would warm up enough to be sticky.  Bad choice.  The rains weren't any good and I clocked a 1:54.  At least we got a time.  The radios weren't working so Melinda gave me a hand signal when I had recorded five laps.  I came in immediately.  It had been a very long day so we packed things up and left for the hotel.  We went out to dinner with the Baxs again and headed straight for bed.  The weather took it out of us and we were both exhausted.

04/22/05:    Melinda and I took a leisurely pace as we knew I wasn't getting on track today.  The weather (rain and high winds) precluded gathering any valuable data.  We arrived at 1:30 or so, setup our paddock space, schmoozed a bit and then went to the hotel to check in and get lunch.  After a lunch and nap break, I came back to the track to schmooze some more.  We met up with the usual folks.  As it was Melinda's birthday (and coincidentally Matt Brannon's as well), we made dinner plans with the Rob and Doris Bax and Matt and Marnie Brannon.  A good time was had by all and we went back to the hotel at 10:30.

04/21/05:    Today we tied up the loose ends before race weekend.  I swapped differentials (took out the 4.22 and put in a 4.55), installed a new brake bias cable as well as the new rear wheel spacers.

04/18/05:    We fabricated the rear brake lines today and then filled and bled the system.

04/16/05:    Today we got the car's annual technical inspection.  WMR sponsored a tech day so local drivers could get their cars inspected before they went to the track for the first race.

04/10/25:    At last something positive.  I install the new rear disc brakes.  After that was finished we rolled the car into the trailer and lugged it over to Duane's.  Once it was there we prepped and installed the head and carbs and got the motor running.  I trailered her home so I could work on some minutia during the week.  See photos here.

03/25/05:    We restarted the motor build after getting the block honed.  We had another setback as we broken a piston ring while trying to install it into the cylinder.  Oh well....we continued with other portions of the assembly (cam, oil pump, front plate, rear plate).  We'll order some more rings and get to it later.  See photos here.

02/27/05:    So we got the crank issue solved and so now we needed to install the pistons and complete the assembly.  We got two of the pistons in the block and discovered that the block was too tall.  Arrrgh!  Duane will take it to the machine shop and get it honed down to the proper height and then we'll go from there. See photos here. 

02/21/05:    Today Duane and I started to build the new motor.  Over the course of the last week or so we have collected all the parts we need and start assembling the pieces this morning.  We ran into a minor issue right out of the shoot.  The crank main bearing caps are just a touch out of round (0.001 inches or so) and we need to have them homed ever so slightly.  This requires a trip to the machine shop to correct and sets us back a few hours while we figured out what was going on.  Eventually we got the problem solved and were able to set the crank in place.  See photos here.

02/04/05:    I head to George's to pick up the carbs (see photos here front / side).  And boy do they look nice!

01/30/05:    Phil drags my trailer over to his place so we can do some chassis work on it.  We need Phil's truck since mine does not have 4WD.  Now we could work on the car at the same time as the motor gets assembled.

01/21/05:    At last!  The motor parts are coming together.  George has finished prepping the head.  Rick Haynes has delivered the crank to George's.  And the cam shows up (see photo here).  Just a week ago George had been told by the cam manufacturer that there was no billet stock available to use to grind our cam.  Now magically one appears.  And on my birthday no less!  I drop off the carbs for him to prep, grab up all the parts (so I can take them to Duane's) and head to the airport in Detroit to pick up Margie.  Pretty soon Duane and I ought to be building a motor.

12/11/04:    I picked up the spare heads and pistons from George.  I'll return the heads to their rightful owners.  I'll give the pistons to the machine shop so they can bore the block to accept them.  Meanwhile Duane and I are working on the carbs while we wait for the crank and cam to show up and for the rods to be prepped.

11/23/04:    I went to the machine shop and picked up the cylinder heads and crankshaft.  The heads had been prepped for George.  The crank was a core that I would give to Rick Haynes in exchange for a prepped crank for the new motor.  I also went to University Motors and picked out an intake manifold per George's specs.

11/11/04:    I took the four 'good' heads to Duane's so he could take them to the machine shop for cleaning.  Once they are cleaned they'll be taken to George's so he can flow test them and find the best one.

10/27/02:    While on a business trip to Cincinnati, I went over to Rob Bax's home.  Before we went to dinner, we inspected his cylinder heads and found two that were good.  I took those so George could flow them as well as the two I brought him.  We now had four heads to work with to find a suitable candidate (see photo here).

10/24/04:    Tonight I dropped off the cylinder heads that I got from Peter at George Bauchman's.  He inspected them and found two of the five to be worthy of consideration.  The other three weren't and I took them with me.

10/22/04:    Tonight I drove over to Peter's.  He was nice enough to let me raid his stash of cylinder heads so we could find a one good one to start the engine prep with.

10/21/04:    I went over to Duane's this evening and tore apart the motor.  If nothing else, it was filthy.  I disassembled it so we could take certain parts (cylinder head, crankshaft, connecting rods, block) to the machine shop.  They will thoroughly clean the parts and prepare them for being used as the new race motor (and all the stresses that includes).

10/08/04:    Well, the off season program has begun. I picked up a bone stock motor today. If it checks out to be in good shape, it will be the core for the new race motor for next season. And so the spending begins....

09/26/04:    Duane's race was today and I stayed until his event was over.  He ran a fine race and had a good battle with an MGB for several laps.  After the race was over I headed out.  I had packed up everything before the race and all I needed to do was hop in and drive off.  I took it easy on the way home (under 65MPH) so I would stress the trailer too much.  I'll unpack tomorrow.  What a week.  I NEED to do this every year.

09/25/04:    Today was a day to relax and take it easy.  Jeff and I fixed the right side bearings in the morning and we all watched a few races during the day.  Melinda left for home at about 10:30 or so.  She was leaving on a business trip on 9/26 and needed to be home for a while.

09/24/04:    I went out for the warm up session to check the clutch adjustment we had made.  After a lap of checking that out and warming things up, I caught up to a group of cars (Canfield, Cummings, Krauss and Bax) that I wanted to test myself against.  I was hanging with them until I spun in some oil at T7.  I skated across the gravel trap known as China Beach (since its so huge), came to a stop, got it pointed in the right direction with a doughnut in the wet grass and got back on track.  I left behind a fender stuck in the sand like a shark fin.  Bear and I went back to the corner to collect it later.  Melinda, Bear and I put the fender back on, check the car out for loose connections, fittings, etc. and declared her ready for the race.  Now we waited....and waited....and waited.  It seemed like forever.  When it was time I went down to the grid and schmoozed with my fellow competitors.  I was a little nervous but things calmed down once I was in the car and on track.  I allowed myself to get snookered on the start.  I did not want to be on the outside of T7 (like I was earlier in the morning) so a few cars got past me before I could slide over to the right.  I made it through the first few corners just fine and was on my way.  I was pissed at myself for getting a bad start and allowing those cars by.  I ran as hard as I could for all 19 laps (I was lapped by once) and got past several of those cars.  Phil was on the radio in the esses and told me about a couple of caution flags.  I used one of them to my advantage as a Datsun 510 was reeling me in after I had just passed him in the keyhole.  We got to the yellow flag area and he had to back off.  I kept going and by the time we were past the caution zone he was way to far behind to catch up.  I passed another 510 a few laps later, again, in the keyhole.  I also got past a couple of ailing cars that were still running.  Attrition had claimed a few more cars and I ended up 11th.  Not too bad for our first RunOffs.  After the race was over it was neat to chat with the other drivers and schmooze some more.  But now the business at hand was to fix the trailer bearings.  Between Jeff, Jill (bearing engineer in a former job) and their friend Roger, we were able to check out the situation.  The spindle was OK and all we needed to do was knock off the remains of the old bearing and install a new one.  I had four sets just in case.  We disassembled one good wheel to see how it all went together.  Armed with that blue print, we fixed the left side wheels and would get to the right side ones tomorrow.  See the results from the race by clicking here.

09/23/04:    We had a good session but it was lack flagged early and I came off track without a good time.  Again, I was learning the track and becoming more comfortable.  The clutch was acting a little sluggish so I adjusted the mechanical stop under the pedal.  See the results from this session by clicking here.

09/22/04:    A new low lap time and I'm feeling pretty good about the whole situation.  Lots of fellow drivers are complimenting me on my line and things feel pretty good.  The car is better without the the rear sway bar.  I may have to make an off season adjustment to the front one.  See the results from this session by clicking here.

09/21/04:    The car was more stable and I could accelerate faster coming off the corners without fear of spinning.  Mt best time was a 1:48.  Of course, he new tires helped also.  I decided to disconnect the rear sway bar entirely to see if that would help.  I was feeling more comfortable with each lap.  This track doesn't give up time too easily and I am slowly learning the subtleties of this course.  On the trailer repair side of things, I ordered some replacement bearings and will be able to pick them up tomorrow.  See the results from this session by clicking here.

09/20/04:    Practice went well as we lowered our times to a 1:50 or so.  We were the first group out and the rising sun was no fun to look into as we approached T9 and T11.  T11 is hard enough without driving from bright sunlight into very dark shade.  My eyes couldn't adjust too quickly and I was very tentative through that corner.  The car was very loose so we decided to soften the rear sway bar to the softest setting possible.  We would see the change (if any) tomorrow.  I also took my second set of rims to Goodyear and had them mount a set of new tires for me.  See the results from this session by clicking here.

09/19/04:    The drive down was interrupted by a wheel bearing failure on the trailer about 20 miles from the track.  Fortunately Melinda was driving her own car (as she was leaving early) and she spotted some smoke coming from the effected wheel.  She got my attention and I pulled over just in time.  We removed the wheel from the trailer and drove the rest of the way on three tires.  When we got there we unloaded the car, set up our paddock space and analyzed the situation.  We had a week to solve the issue and I would find the proper bearings tomorrow.

09/09/04:    In preparation for the big dance, I rolled the car out of the trailer so I could change the oil, replace the front brake pads, lower the rear end a little and a few other routine maintenance items.  Over the course of the next few days, I'll get these things done so the car will be ready for action.  I also purchased a golf cart today (see photo here).  No more schlepping around race tracks on foot for this team!

09/05/04:    The car ran great during the warm up session and no oil smoke.  So we waited for the race to begin....and waited....and waited.  We were the first group out after lunch.  We arrived at 1:25 for a 1:40 start but things ran late and were had to wait until 2:00.  This meant that the drivers huddled in the shade under the grid personnel tent.  We had a great time joking around and keeping things loose.  Finally it was time to go.  I was gridded just in front of Kendall.  He was late to the grid and the field left without him.  He wasn't able to catch up on the pace lap so my race with him was scuttled.  I was gridded behind Greg Feller and I was able to hang with him for a couple of laps but he eventually drove away from me.  I was able to race with a couple of cars and had a good time.  Chris Crisenbery and Feller ran off and hid while I soldiered around in third place.  My best time dropped to a 1:38.3 so more improvement was made.  After the race I was exhausted.  The heat and humidity had taken their toll. Packing up was no fun even with a third place finish as it was really hot and nasty.  The car is basically ready for the RunOffs with a couple of minor changes.  See results of the event by clicking here.  See photos of the event by clicking here.

09/04/04:    I went out for qualifying and the car handled great.  I could apply power earlier on the exit and could carry more speed.  Unfortunately the motor was off song above 5000 rpm or so.  It just didn't have the punch.  I was still able to run a 1:43 so it meant we could go a lot faster.  After the session we discovered that the timing was off due to a loose distributor.  Duane adjusted that and we were ready for the afternoon session.  The motor now ran great.  I had power across the entire rev range and was much faster.  Unfortunately a valve cover gasket had expired so I was losing oil at a prodigious pace and had to go in early as I was fogging up the joint pretty good.  I replaced the gasket and we would be ready for the warm up session on Sunday morning.  I was at a 1:40.5 and Kendall was at a 1:41.5 so we might have a fun race.

08/30/04:    Tonight I finished the sway bar install (see photo) and put back all the front end crap that I had to take out in order to get the sway bar swapped (radiator, valence, oil cooler).  What a chore.  I also finished installing a PCV valve on my fuel cell overflow line so I won't spill fuel anymore.

08/29/04:    The three of us meet at Duane's again to work on our cars.  Duane has a new camshaft to put in.  I need to mount the new front sway bar.  I got it mostly finished, loaded the car in the trailer and came home.  The remaining work before the Grattan race can be done at home in the evening.  

08/27/04:    We me at Duane's again to re-install the head and install the new rear springs.

08/23/04:    I ordered some suspension parts from Winner's Circle to try to cure the roll in the corners.  Several Spridget experts all suggested that this would go a long way towards eliminating the problem.  With any luck we can get them installed before Grattan and use that race as a test of the new package.

08/22/04:    Well I met Phil at Duane's and the three of us diagnosed the motor a little.  Duane wanted to check a few things before we went to Grattan.  It had horrible compression, failed the leak down test and was generally juuuuust about to lose a head gasket.  Perfect timing on his part to check this thing out.  Further inspection of the head, head gasket and block showed minor damage to a couple of valves (one wouldn't seat at all) and that the block and head were planar.  Duane would take the head to the machine shop on 8/23 so it could get cleaned up and ready for installation next weekend.

08/15/04:    YeeHaa....what a blast.  On the pace lap Melinda told me when the green was waved and I stood on it.  I was in the correct gear and accelerating when she yelled and the timing was perfect.  I passed several cars before turn one.  I checked my mirror before turn 2 and they were battling amongst themselves.  Because of this, none of them got a clean line through turn one and I could get some distance on the pack.  Melinda told me that I was catching Greg Feller. He is a lot faster than I am and I did see him ahead of me for a while.  I guess his crew told him that I was catching him and he picked up the pace.  During the race I lowered my best lap time to 1:54.5 (another 1.5 seconds).  I got to play with several cars and eventually finished third of five cars.  I even got a nice looking trophy.  Lots of fun and now we are qualified for the RunOffs.  There is some work to be done before then and I am looking forward to returning to Mid-O.  Click here for links to the qualifying and race results.  See the photos Bear took of the event here.

08/14/04:    The morning session was marred by three events.  One; my fuel cell was too full and I was black flagged for dumping fuel on track.  Two; as I was sitting in the pits getting looked at by a steward, the session was checkered a few minutes early as Dean Patterson's GP Chevetee blew its motor in a HUGE way.  Parts were everywhere and this caused a major cleanup.  Three; with 62 cars on track the congestion was extreme.  Waaaaay too many cars and it was dangerous.  My time was 1:57:6.  This time wasn't great but my previous best was 2:06ish.  Still a lot of room for improvement.  The afternoon session was calmer.  No blow-ups and 16 fewer cars.  I lowered my time to a 1:56.1.  I was feeling more confident in my line with each lap.  I am still under powered but there isn't anything I can do about that right now.  We'll make a carb adjustment in the morning and go from there.

08/13/04:    Melinda and I had an uneventful drive down.  We met Bear at the hotel, unpacked the shelves that he was to take home and drove over to the track.  Once there we registered and waited for the gates to open.  We found a nice spot and roped off an area for ourselves and the Bailey's.  Bear and I set up our paddock spot and called it an evening.

08/11/04:    Tonight Phil met me and I drove roughly 65 laps at a test night at GingerMan Raceway.  I was so sore driving home.  My upper body and arms were wrung out from all the turning.  Phil was a slave driver as he had me stay in the car while he performed temperature and pressure checks on the tires.  I am much more comfortable with the whole understeer / oversteer concept as a result of his efforts.  its also obvious that we need a much stiffer sway bar on the rear and perhaps on the front as well.

08/01/04:    Today I wired the second fuel pump.

07/29/04:    After fussing with a different rear spring setup (to no avail), I returned the original competition spring to the chassis.  This car leans too much and we will have to make sway bar adjustments (or replacements) to cure the issue.

07/23/04:    Tonight I got with it and assembled the Aeroquip lines for the reconfigured fuel supply system (see photo).

07/04/04:    Chasing this miss would prove elusive.  I torqued the head and checked the valve lash.  Most were fine.  Melinda and I had to correct a couple of them.  Duane suggested I check the resistance of the plug and coil wires.  They were all OK.  The plugs themselves looked like the carbs were rich.  I backed off the jets and put everything back together.  It would have to do.  The race went fine.  The miss seemed to be gone.  The front carb read 1250F or so on the straights (still a little rich).  I was gridded fourth of six but Chris Crisenbery was behind me with not time so I knew he would get past me.  And he did several laps in.  Bob Bax and I dueled for a few laps but he was under powered and did a good job with what he had to work with.  He never got past me.  Mike Everage broke on lap 13 and that promoted me to back fourth again.  And that is the way it finished (see results here).  No trophy for fourth place (cheap bastards).  The drive home was fine as we stopped in Fort Wayne (about half way) and had a nice meal at Outback.  Dick Powell was nice enough to take some shots of us during the weekend.  See those images here.

07/03/04:    As this was my first trip to this track, the learning curve would be steep.  I was warned about a few things (slippery surface on the drag strip if it gets wet, the track isn't very smooth, etc.) but I would have to experience this place for myself.  The practice session was fun because it was neat to learn a new track.  The EGT values were off so I pulled in early.  We made some changes in the carbs and went out for the afternoon qualifying session.  Again the motor seemed to be missing a little and the EGT's weren't any better.  I ran a little faster but would have to settle for fourth on the grid of six HP cars (see qualifying results here).  Then the rain came!  We could see it coming for a while so we put the car in the trailer and put everything away.  It came down for 25 or 30 minutes and washed out the qualifying of group6 and 7.  They would get to qualify on Sunday morning.  This would eliminate our emergency practice session.  It cleared up just fine and we went to the track party and had a good time.

07/02/04:    As I got home late last night from a business trip, we had to finish packing the trailer, load the car in there and a few other minor details before we could leave.  The drive down was uneventful.  We registered, found a spot close to some other prod folks (Bob Bax, Matt Brannon, Greg Feller and Mike Everage) and set up camp.  I bicycled the circuit so I could see the layout.  It would be fast but the track surface was uneven.  We are in group 5 so we have plenty of time tomorrow to get the car ready.  Just before we left Steve Nagel called and there on their way down.  I had saved a spot for them and told him where we were.

06/22/04:    This morning I had to take the trailer to the shop for repairs from the drive home.

06/21/04:    We waited until today to drive home because yesterday had been a long day and we didn't want to hassle with the Chicago traffic on the way home.  Dad, Melinda and I left Fond du Lac at 7:45CST and made our way home.  We thought it had been uneventful until I noticed that right rear wheel on the trailer was coated in grease.  This meant we lost a bearing.  It was only when I backed the trailer into the driveway from the left (loading the right side) that I heard some crunching noises.  Knowing that we needed to remove the wheel from the trailer to tow it to be repaired, I jacked up the corner of the trailer.  As I took the weight off the right side, the wheel fell off.  I thought 'Oh, my God....what if that happened a few miles ago when we were traveling at 70 MPH'.  I suddenly realized we were very lucky.  Click here to see the remainder of the hub assembly.

06/20/04:    With older tires on for the second qualifying session, we were a little slower.  We collected tire data and made a pressure adjustment for the race.  Everything seemed to be pointing to a good run during the race.  The race was pretty fun for the first couple of laps.  I was dueling with an GT-4 Toyota Corolla.  It was very slow in the corners and a rocket on the straights.  This made for a frustrating first couple of laps as I could leave him in the dust through the back stretch of the course and he would catch me on the front straight.  After 2 laps I didn't see him again so I guess he pulled off.  Cruising down the front straight, the car wheezed and died.  I was on lap five.  One more and I get a finish but I knew she wouldn't make it around this track so I parked it at T3.  Back in the paddock she started and ran for a few seconds but the died again.  I'll figure out what happened later but its either a fuel pump or my fuel cell foam disintegrating.  Kind of a bummer but we a lot of fun with Phil and Kendra, all the family as well as the other drivers and workers.  We'll be back next year.  Click here to view the photos by Andy and Dad from the weekend.

06/19/04:    The new tires were great and with some coaching from Phil (I could hear him now) I shaved off 4s from my time and I was down in the 3:03's.  I was really looking forward to the race tomorrow.

06/18/04:    My first practice session went OK.  We had many new things on the plate, not the least of which was learning a track I hadn't spent much time on (in a race car anyway).  We had radios and a Hot Lap timer to get used to as well.  The radios worked fine until I got on track.  I had forgotten to turn up the volume so I could hear.  Melinda and Phil could hear me just fine though.  The Hot Lap worked great too.  I whittled my lap time down to a 3:07 but I knew I could do better.  I had purchased new tires and we would try those tomorrow.

06/17/04:    Today the clan took off for the track.  Bear and Andy drove over via Milwaukee's airport to pick up Dad.  Melinda dna I drove straight to the trtack.  We met Phil and Kendra along the way so we could arrive at the same time.  By the time we arrived at the track, it was cloudy and cool.  We set up our compound pretty quickly.  We left the track at about 6:30 or so and went out for dinner.  Tomorrow was going to be a long day, especially for Phil who had two sessions.

06/06/04:    I picked up Jon Craig and we went over to Duane's so we could gather up the trailer and take it to Phil's for some more work on the car.  Today we put in the radio (see photo) and the Hot Lap systems, put on some more stickers (to replace the ones I 'lost' when I went off track at GingerMan and Phil had to repaint the fender) and scraped the GingerMan goo off the tires (see photo).  All in all it was a successful day.  Only some minor house keeping in the trailer and car and we're off to RA.

06/04/04:    I picked up a Hot Lap Timing system from Jeff Brueckheimer.  Its used but it'll work just fine for us.

05/27/04:    Tonight I did a few errands in order to get ready for the June Sprints.  I attached the throttle cable, removed some stickers, attached a wire that was dangling from behind the dash (from the low oil pressure light....oops), cleaned up the trailer, etc.

05/09/04:    I installed the newly refurbished carbs with their new bells on them, connected the fuel lines.

05/04/04:    I purchased new carb bells and had to machine a little of them off to make them fit onto the carbs (see photo).

04/25/04:    Race day was loooooong.  First, it rained like crazy the night before so the  races were taking longer.  Second, we were the last race group so the day dragged on as we waited for our turn.  Third, I'd never been gridded in the middle of the pack before and the start may be something new to me.  Fourth, I had reviewed the grid sheet and found several cars were very close in lap times.  I may actually get to race somebody.  What would that be like?  And last but not least, we got three different five minute warnings on the grid (due to T&S problems) which made things even more anxious.  Finally the race begins and the first couple of corners were really tight.  I was right in the thick of things and that was really fun.  It shook out that a few of us would be in a pack.  The first half of the race was really fun as we battled back and forth.  I made a mistake and slid out too far at turn three and an HP guy (Bob Bax) got past me.  I tried to catch him but a slower car (coming out of the pits) got between us and Bob got away.  I ran the remaining laps and found out I finished third (out of six) in my class.  Lots of fun.  I can't wait for the June Sprints at Road America.  It makes me doubly disappointed that we will not be able to race at Grattan on 5/16 because of a stupid work meeting.  See results and photos.

04/24/04:    We were in last group so our practice was just before lunch.  With the extra power it was much faster.  I shaved a couple seconds off my best time and things looked pretty good.  Phil adjusted tire pressure after taking some temperature readings so that we could get faster for the afternoon qualifying session.  And faster we were.  Another 0.6 seconds.  I would be gridded 26th out of 38 cars.  It was nice to be racing with somebody instead of being forced to watch the mirrors and pointing guys by all the time.

04/22/04:    Duane and I took our cars to a new chassis dyno shop in Holland, MI (Aya Racing) and get some tuning done.  Duane and Kaz find 6 more horsepower at the rear wheel by making some timing adjustments.  See photos from the day here.

04/18/04:    Today I went over to Phil's to work on the car.  We get one fender put back on and the other one gets its last few coats of paint (see photo).

04/03/04:    Off to GingerMan for the test day.  It was a mixed bag.  I had an off track excursion early in the morning and lost a rear fender.  Its going to need some work but it'll be OK.  The weather was fine (clear and 50 or so) in the morning but by lunch it had gotten VERY windy.  By 2PM it was lightly raining.  The track wasn't slick yet but getting there.  By 4PM it was too nasty and I packed it in.  My fastest laps were in the 1:44 range.  That was OK considering how cold and wet it was.  I was getting more comfortable with the track and car as my fastest laps were later in the day when the conditions poor.  See images from the day by clicking here.

04/02/04:    My brother Andy came to town for a week of vacation.  This means he gets 'volunteered' into help out the team effort.  He and I go to Duane's to finish all the pre-test items.  We pack the trailer and make it ready for the trip to GingerMan.  Phil has re-painted the hood and fenders.  We mounted those on the car.  Phil attached the new tie rod ends so now we had to do an alignment.  Last but not least, we waxed the car as Duane and Phil wouldn't let it on track looking as dirty as it was.  She does look nice.

03/28/04:    Today we (Phil, Duane and I) finished working on some of the items we started yesterday.  We had to cut slots in the seat to properly mount the new seat belts (see photo).  Phil finished the final touch-ups on the control arms.  Duane made some carb adjustments.

03/27/04:    Today Phil, Duane and I spent the day finishing some prep work on the car.  The car needed some serious work as well as some finishing touches before the race season starts.  As I wanted to get out on 4/3 for the opening day of testing at GingerMan, we started on the serious stuff first.  One, the new transmission mount made the tranny to high at the rear.  Removing the new mount and adjusting its height made it work fine.  This involved cutting it off and re-welding it back onto its bracket.  Two, the rear seals had leaked diff fluid onto the brakes.  This has been a chronic problem on this car and today we found out why.  As it turns out, the double bearing hubs weren't deep enough to fit the outer bearing properly.  This allowed the bearing to ride too far out and not allow for a appropriate seal with the axle.  We took the entire system apart and had the hubs machined to the necessary size.  Once that was done we reassembled the hubs and put them back onto the chassis.  At the same time I wanted to swap differentials.  I wanted to take out the 4.22 and put in the 4.55.  This gear is better suited to a tight track like GingerMan.  Once all of this was done I had to fill it with fluid.  Three, Phil and Duane had long complained about my front suspension geometry.  They collaborated  on a suitable fix and Phil executed it.  By doing this he eliminated the bump steer problem.  Four, Duane was concerned that my brake and clutch master cylinders were in bad shape.  We removed them and he rebuilt all three (see photo).  After reinstalling them we had to bleed the brake and clutch lines.  All in all, today was highly successful.  I may actually have rear brakes that work and I may actually have a car that steers correctly.  This cannot hurt the situation.  Some more work needs to be done but the big things are done.

03/14/04:    I have spent the last few weeks working on some minor things on the car.  An hour here and there feels good in the dead of winter.  By now I have used a bunch of riv-nuts to anchor a lot of thing to the chassis.  Boy is that tool a blast.  Anyway, the shocks are back on, the dash is re-assembled (with flexible tubing to the fuel and oil pressure gauges) and the new fire bottle is in.  The new seat belts and mounting hardware is here and ready to go.  I still have a long list of things to do before we hit the track.  The next few steps require Duane's expertise (or his lift) and so I will take the car over to his place soon.  I'm planning on attending the GingerMan test day on 4/3 so I better get moving.  I'm hoping to get some tuning of the carbs done that day and to start some chassis set up.  Duane and Phil both volunteered to drive the car and see what it feels like.  Since I have not driven any other race car (at speed anyway) I have no idea if this car is the most ill handling beast around or the best driving car this side of Joe Huffaker's.  I guess we'll find out.

01/04/04:    I removed the rear shocks and took them over to Duane's so he could check them out for me.

01/03/04:    After getting a Rivet Nut Insertion tool yesterday, I played around with it today.  I fabricated new grille mounts and used the rivet nuts to fasten it to the valence.  New tools are always fun.

01/01/04:    Today I started doing some minor touch-ups on the car now that she is at home.  Installed the new EGT probes into their mounting bungs on the new header.  I removed the oil and fuel pressure lines from their gauges so I could use flexible braided stainless steel hose to connect to them.  This will allow the dash to come out without disconnecting the two gauges.

12/31/03:    I brought the car home from Duane's on 12/30 and returned the trailer today.

12/20/03:    Phil and I met at Duane's shop this morning and set about completing work on the exhaust system modifications.  In addition the transmission mount that replaced the stock one could now be installed.  First on the hit parade was the tranny mount.  A captive nut would need to be welded to the tranny's portion of the bracket. (see photo).  Next the entire bracket assembly would need to be painted so it wouldn't rust.  While the paint was drying, Phil tack welded a nut to the chassis (see photo) so it would be captive.  This would be the chassis end of the ground strap.  The center section of the exhaust pipe would been to be cut off (see photo) so we could attach a tail pipe with a slight bend to it so as to direct the exhaust away from the differential.  We removed the old safety harnesses as they are now too old to be legal.  Some mounting hardware will be needed to attached the new ones.  Next, the tailpipe could be bolted to the chassis so it wouldn't move.  Since we had made such good progress so quickly, we continued on by connecting the various pieces to make the motor run (started, distributor, radiator, etc.) and making all the fluid connections (oil, fuel, water).  As usual, Phil was doing what ever it takes to get the job done (see photo).  The car started after some gentle coaxing.  It sounded a whole lot different with the new exhaust system but that was to be expected.  we called it quits for the day.  There is still a lot of things to be done but we're on the way.

12/08/03:    At Duane's this evening we reattached the transmission side cover (I had to take it off after cutting the hole in the case in order to rinse out the shavings).  After that we dropped the motor put into chassis so we could see how the header and exhaust pipe mated up.  Try as we might the exhaust system wouldn't mate up correctly.  The problem was that the center section of the system (it connects to the header and runs down the drive shaft tunnel and connects to the tailpipe) would not align properly.  Phil suggested that we make a small cut in the exhaust pipe, bend it to close the gap and weld it closed.  This would allow the center section of the exhaust system to run parallel to the drive shaft and be in the correct orientation.  Now that this was in its proper place, I could mount the transmission bracket to the chassis and then figure out how to anchor the rear end of the exhaust pipe.  Next, the tailpipe would need to be fabricated.  Once again the expertise of Phil and Duane save the day.

11/23/03:    Today I brought the car to WMI so we could utilize Duane's shop hoist while working on the exhaust system.

09/29/03:    I mate the header to the motor to see what it looks like (see photo).

09/17/03:    Today the exhaust system came back and boy does it look nice.  I can't wait to mount it onto the engine.

09/11/03:    While in Cincinnati on business, I shipped new system to HP Coatings (the Chandler, AZ facility) for heat treating

09/05/03:    Phil welds EGT bungs onto header and closes gash in tranny case.  Thanks for the help, Phil.

09/04/03:    While cutting away some of the transmission boss (so the new header would fit properly) I cut through the case.  I was warned about this.  I took small passes but still ended up cutting a small hole in the side of the case (see  photo).

08/23/03:    Today I picked up a new exhaust system so I can replace the broken one.  I got it from Rod Hahnemann.  He owns a company called Spridgetech and is nice guy with fine products at a good price.

08/11/03:    I unloaded the trailer today and lugged it back to Duane's.  The car is in good shape and I am ready to take out the motor and tranny so I can replace the exhaust system.

08/10/03:    Race day started early as I went out for emergency practice.  The EGT's still read low so after the session I adjusted the jets up another three flats.  And then we waited.....and waited....and waited.  As we were in group 6, our race wasn't until 2:30 or so.  So I biked around the paddock and schmoozed with folks for a while.  After lunch we got serious and started the usual pre-race prep (tire pressure, torqued the lugs, checked the oil, water and fuel levels).  The race itself was a blast.  The car gridded in front of me was a GT-4 Honda CRX.  The kid driving was nice and we agreed that we were both out for a finish and weren't racing for position.  We swapped position several times and had a good time racing each other.  After I passed him (on lap 10 or so) I could keep him behind me when I needed to.  Lots of fun.  I ran my fastest ever time at Grattan while still under powered.  All in all a fine weekend.  See the results here.

08/09/03:    Peter and Dave had repaired the header for me (see photo).  I installed it and reinstalled the carbs and reconnected the fuel lines and EGT probes.  We were ready for the first qualifying session.  It was still way too rich.  But we did turn a 1:44 which was only a few seconds slower than last summer.  I leaned it out a bunch and prepared for the second session in the afternoon.  It was still too rich but was getting better.  All we needed to do was get ready for tomorrow.

08/08/03:    Again the EGT's were reading high and nothing we did could change that.  Finally, Chuck (while he was adjusting the carb jets) noticed that the exhaust manifold had a hole in it.  As this was a 'one off' custom piece, there was no way to borrow a header from somebody at the track.  If I was to run this weekend, I would have to get this one fixed.  Peter Morton and Dave Savage volunteered to weld it together for me.  They took it back to Dave's home and wopuld bring it back to the track tomorrow.

08/06/03:    I swapped the EGT probes to check whether the carbs were out of adjustment or the probes were reading incorrectly.  Now the front carb was high.  This told me that perhaps the probe was giving erroneous data.  I will by another probe after the race was over and I had time to install tit.

08/03/0