While cleaning and re-assembling the car Thursday night I broke off the screw in the end of the crank on the MT-12. I thought I would be out of luck for this weekend but Alec W. saved the day and loaned me an engine from one of his Impulses. It was an older model Nova Mega with side exhaust, so I had to do a bit of work to install it. After bending the header slightly out and down, the pipe began to line up correctly.
The engine was not as powerful as the MT-12, but it did the job well. It started out running rich, and would not pull all the way down the straight. I gradually leaned it out almost half a turn, and it picked up nicely.
I started out the Ellegi tires all the way around, 45's front and 40's on the rear. The car had a little bit of a push, so I switched to some Treads 42's on the front. They helped a little bit, so I ran them for the first two heats. The rears were wearing a bit more then normal, so I rotated them after each heat and practice run. Once the rears wore down slightly, the handling began to get better. I re-installed the Ellegi 45's on the front, and the handling remained neutral.
The first heat was uneventful. I got tangled up on the first lap, but ran without incident the rest of the race, turning 26 laps, just missing a 27 lap heat by one second.
The second heat had much more action. There was some close racing, some rubbing and some coming together.
There were several pile-ups in the A-Main. Danny R. was involved in one and could not continue. I don't think that the other drivers knew exactly who was supposed to corner marshal, so there was not enough coverage to deal with the amount of action that was happening all around the track. A spectator marshaled a car and was unable to move out of the way of my car. I hit her foot, but it was in a relatively slow section of the track, so fortunately she was OK.
The race was nearing the finish and I was in the lead. I was taking it easy behind Randy R, when I saw Thomas C. closing fast. I stepped it up for the last two laps, beating Thomas to the line by .6 seconds.
Started this week again with the Ellegi tires, 45’s front and read. It was a little cold today, so I tried some 40’s on the rear. Well that threw the balance off, so I wound up with the Treadz again, 42 fronts, 40 rears. Those hard tires will have to wait for warmer weather.
The first heat was a disaster. I tangled with Alec during the warm-up, knocking his pipe loose. The race started before he could fix it. In the race, my car ran two laps and quit responding to the radio. When I got back to the pits, it started working again. I tried turning the car on and off several times between races, and it seemed fine.
The second heat, it did it again, only this time, the car was at full throttle. Luckily, there was no damage. I turned the switch on and off a few times and the radio started working again. I managed to finish the race with 23 laps. After the race I removed the switch and wired the battery directly to the receiver.
I made the A-Main, but not sure how. I know that at least one other driver ran more laps in his heat than I did, but he was in the B-Main. There were also some issues with the lap counter. The scoring loop was in a different position on the track this time and was counting some 4-second laps for some of the cars. It would count a lap when the car crossed the loop on the front stretch, and then count again if the car was close to the outside wall on the back chute (which is also the inside wall of the front stretch). Looks like we will have to put the scoring loop back where it was at the end of the front straight.
The A-Main went fairly well. Thomas C. got off to a good start never looked back. Randy L. videotaped the race today. I watched it when I got home and saw that Thomas found the boards once, but I found them twice. Once I was stuck on the board and Scott D. came along and unintentionally hit my car knocking me back onto the track. Thanks Scott!! Scott gave me the detailed lap-by-lap results of the A-Main. Most of the drivers are turning laps in the 8 or 9 second range. Those drivers that can consistently turn in sub 9 sec. Laps will win races. The fasted lap today was an 8.33 turned in by Thomas, who put it all together today and set a new race record of 27 laps in 4:01.13. SMOKIN!!
It’s been almost a month since my last entry. Fact is, that the last race (March 24th) went so poorly for me, I was too depressed to write anything. Let’s just say that I broke the car and leave it at that.
This weekend was fairly eventful. I got to the track late and had just put up the tent when it started raining. It was a fairly hard rain, but the sun came out and with the help of a blower and a broom, they soon had the track ready to race. It was nice to see Kevin T. at the track today. He had just completed his Mugen MTX-2 Pro-Spec and was anxious to get it on the track. It was all-gas today as no one showed up to run electric. We had thirteen drivers in three heats.
Setup – It looked like slick tires would be the way to go for the first heat since the track was still a little damp in places. I put on the only set I had and they seemed to work O.K., but by the time the first heat was ready, the track was completely dry. I started out with Treadz 45 fronts and 42 rears. These were the same set of tires that gave me fits three weeks ago, but they seemed to be working a little better today.
Heat Races – Nothing much to report. The front straight was still a little damp in the shaded areas, and there was a puddle near the outside edge of the track. I took it easy and turned a 24-lap heat. The second heat was pretty much the same as the first, another 24 laps.
Mains – We decided to run bump-up mains today where the winner of the C-Main could bump-up to the B-Main and the B-Main winner could bump-up to the A-Main. This seemed to work well for everyone. There were three drivers in C, and six in the B and A mains. I qualified fourth or fifth in the A-Main.
The C-Main was over early as two of the drivers fell out. Randy won and bumped up to the B-Main. The B-Main had by far the most action of any of the mains. There were six capable drivers all trying hard to make the A-Main. I corner marshaled the center of the track and the drivers kept me busy retrieving cars and putting the track back together. Danny R. won and bumped up to the A-Main.
For the main I switched to 37s on the rear, as the car was starting to get a little loose. I think Kevin and Steve T. wound up running 42s front and 37s rear, where I was running a well-worn set of 45s on the front. The A-Main was a very close battle between Thomas C., Scott D., and Kevin T. Thomas took the win, with Kevin second and Scott third. Kevin said that I gave him too much advice today because he wound up out running me. That may be so, but I want everyone to run well and have fun. It’s certainly not as much fun when your car is not running well. I’ve been there plenty of times before…like three weeks ago.
(I am adding this entry on May 26, 2002) I can’t believe that I forgot to write about the April 28th race. This was the first race of the point series. I put the car on the track in practice and loved the way it ran. I won both heats and the main and never touched the car except to rotate the tires from left to right to keep the wear even. I ran another 27 lap race, but missed the track record by several seconds.
Well, today did not go as well as the last race. I wore down a great set of tires yesterday while running some exhibition races at a local car show. I put on a set that I thought would work, but they were way loose. I tried some unmarked tires on the front, but they had a bad off-power push. Switched fronts again, but the push was still there. By then, the first heat was up. I think I managed to hit everyone on the track in that race. For the second heat, I tried several more pairs on both the front and the rear. This time, the car was way loose, but at least it turned in.
For the main I found a set of tires that worked OK, but they were still loose. I finished third behind what was most likely the best race of the day. Danny and Scott battled closely the entire race and at the end Scott took the win by the smallest of margins.
Hopefully this week there will be time to “re-kit” the car. It’s been some time since the last rebuild. There is also a Terra Crusher waiting on a .21 conversion kit and a Maximum ST in need of a rebuild.
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