blueosprey90

Excited and scared!

Another race season starts - tomorrow - Lime Rock with VSCCA.

How green was I when I started? Now I'm confident that I've acquired the one skill necessary for a successful vintage race season - scrounging for parts, help and advice around the paddock.

Made some good friends. Several on these boards. Thanks to all.

My Nemesis in the #311 MGA coupe. Historically, I can only beat him in October. Once I break in my new Acme Speed Shop valve cover, I plan to beat him in June. -D

But I hope I pass tech. Fuel leaking out of the overflow when I loaded the car on the trailer. Too dark to worry about tonight.

pgss2k

And it begins!
Best of luck tomorrow.
Burn up that fuel

A 2

Good luck Jeff. I'll be looking forward to your update tomorrow.

If you are running on Saturday, I'll try to see if I can get permission to come watch you race.

Conedodger

Permission? We don't need no stinkin' permission!

Oh wait...um yeah...my wife won't let me buy that RZ350.

Jeff - Looking forward to the race report!

A 2

Mrs. A 2 has the weekend planned. I will attempt to convince her that our plan should include a long drive to Lime Rock. Not sure how that will fly. If I go, I'll take pics and post them here.

OTOH I may just get A2'd and I don't mean Ann Arbor
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=a2

A 2

Hope the day went well and the weather was cooperating.

Sent you an email. Check and reply if you get a chance.

blueosprey90

All is well, but my driving leaves a lot to be desired. I'm too tentative! I'm wondering if I'm too old for this kind of work!

Missed first run. Carb problem that would have caused me to fail tech. It was raining anyway.

Second run - short 11 miles. Wet track. Just checking the gauges hoping the new motor didn't blow up.

Third run. Dryish track. I worked my way to the back of the pack. Gave the motor more rpms. Louder than I expected. Had fun. Several Devon bodied cars running and apparently a Formula Ford that looked like a Stangolini.

Fourth run. Looked promising until the start. Then it started to rain. So not only worried about the motor, the grip from my old and worn out tires, but also about the new GoPro that was in a skeleton housing. Once again, I worked my way to the back of the pack. Then called it a day and came in a lap early.

Running tomorrow at 9:15, 11:30, 1:40 and 5:00. Hoping for a drier day.

A 2

Just think about using a coach. Lee or Eric Ives, could possibly work with you on the data from your AIM Solo as you don't have a passenger seat in the A.

and you are an inspiration. No more of that "I'm too old" stuff. Bet you'd be miserable on a golf course.

Here's hoping tomorrow turns out to be a good day

A 2

I hope the day went well Jeff. Post up an update when you get a chance. Hoping you had good weather.

blueosprey90

Well, if Hap Waldrop was expecting me to drive at 6,000 rpm all around the track, he was sorely disappointed. I just about had trouble getting it up to 5,000. The track was wet and slippery until the last showers passed at about 1:00 yesterday. I went out to a drying track at 1:20, and had a good run with one of the MGAs for several laps, but we were running in the low 1:20s. I hung around until a final race at 5:00 that ended up to be an all comer's race that only had 6 cars. But the track was dry, and I ended up in a competitive race with my Nemesis, the #311 coupe. I guess his toast was still burned from last October, when I won the season ending grudge match at the Fall Finale. He was driving quite aggressively for him, passing me at West Bend. I stayed pretty close, and had some chances to out brake him at Big Bend. But eventually lapping cars making corner passes slowed me down a tad and he pulled away. I was able to claw my way back, but never able to get by him. We ran faster and faster by degrees and eventually ran some laps in the 1:15s.

The motor felt good. No issues as far as I can determine. A little oozing oil at the external oil cooler line. The engine sounds louder than the old one, and it seems to have more torque. I almost think that I could go around from Big Bend to the Downhill in third gear. However, the engine isn't as "fast" as my old one. Going down the main straight the speedometer registers about 80 mph. I was wondering about that, blaming myself for not taking the Downhill at a fast enough death defying speed. But when I checked the data logger, I was actually getting up into the low to mid 90s. So I don't know what drive gear we have in there to run the speedometer. All in all, the engine was fine. No issues.