Saturday, Sept 16, 2006
Had taken the car back to the builder for him to straighten the frame, which was severly bent.  He did a remarkable job straightening it.

Got everything put back in it, and had to replace the right lower a-frame and brake line (cut during wreck).  Also had to straighten the sheet metal on the right side.  Re-strung the car, and had to move the rearend over about an inch to the right.  Three of the four rims were bent from the landing, replaced the right front rim and decided to go with the other two bent.

Noticed when I checked tire pressures at the track that the right rear was losing air.  So I set it a pound higher than normal for the heat. 

The track was extremely wet, to the point of being unraceable for the heat.  A lot of modifieds didn't help pack, and the track owner got mad and decided to make a point, and so made us race first instead of last (as usual).  I was getting out of the throttle at the flagstand, and the car seemed to be setting up for the corners automatically whenever I did.  Seemed to be handling fine, but it was really too wet to tell.   A couple of cars wrecked, a couple of cars crashed out, and I made the A-main by finishing 4th (they took the top 4 to the A-main).

I checked the right rear tire pressure, and it was down 2 lbs after the heat race.  So I put another extra few lbs. of pressure in it for the feature.  I opted to start last, 20th,  since I hadn't run the car at speed on a decent track (the heat race was virtually useless to help tell what the car would do). 

We ran a few laps, and the car was handling great.  I had worked my way up to 11th or 12th by passing 4 or 5 cars and a few more wrecking in front of me.  Then we had a VERY long caution, in which there apparently was a fight and a car going the wrong way down the front stretch.  It was parked by the time I got back around there, and I probably passed it a dozen times under yellow.

I had to restart on the inside, and got pinched down a little in turns 1 and 2 and lost a few places.  Also, I could feel the car was a lot looser than previous, and the right rear was bouncing roughly.  I figured I had lost a lot of air pressure there and the tire was either flat or almost flat.  So I backed off a little to try to finish the race.

We had another caution, and ran another couple of laps before we got the white flag.  Even with the problem with the right rear, I was staying with the pack, and made about a 75% effort to pass a few of the cars on the last lap....but didn't.   I did finish the race without hitting anything nor being hit.

The first thing I did when I got out of the car was to check the right rear.  It had plenty of pressure in it....about the same amount as when the race started.  It had lost some air, but because the pressures increase as the tires heat up, it had only lost about as much pressure as the heat had built up in it.  About then I noticed the bottom bolt on the right rear shock had come off....so I had been effectively running with no shock on the right rear....the shock was there, just wasn't attached on one end and so wasn't doing anything.

Which explains why it got both loose and bumpy.

After it was all said and done, I wound up 13th.

And in the pits, watched the guy parked in front of me get tackled by two cops and hauled off to jail.  Apparently he was the one in the fight on the track.  Nice guy, but as temper management issues....

A successful week for CMA racing.  Nothing torn up.  Just need to replace the shock bolt and figure out how to secure it better.  Car handled fantastic prior to losing the right rear shock, and even then handled well enough to run competitively.  That was really the best news, as no one was sure how it would handle after being bent so severely.
Posted: 9/18/2006 11:27:00 PM
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