[F500] The saga continues. (a little long again, but no SM2 content :-)

[Madurski, Ronald M.]

Over the last few weeks I have been working over the car in preparation for
the Peru National Tour.  If you recall from the last tour, I still had some
issues to work out.  I changed the drive belt, fixed the alignment for the
front end, and put on the tires that Steven Rosenberg gave me.   In
addition, I found a few pop rivets that had become loose (popped out, you
might say) and fixed them.  I haven't changed out the very slightly bent
rear axle since it isn't really noticeable while driving.  

As I did for the Rome tour, I left around 21:00 hours on Thursday.  The trip
out was uneventful and I arrived around 03:00 local time and sacked out in
the truck until the sun came up.  The gates opened around 07:00, I found a
spot and started to unload/BS_with_everyone.  The Murphy/Eckles and
Trier/Smith teams showed up shortly after my arrival and we pitted in the
same area.  

I spent way too much time on the BS task and not enough on the unload task
:-)  I got the car teched in preparation for the practice course but didn't
make it over in time to walk the course before runs started.  I watched a
few cars run and looked around for a car without a passenger to take a ride.
I found Tom Burk from CO.  Nice guy, nice car.  A shiny red Z06 corvette.
It worked out well, we both benefited (turns out he was having trouble
finding his way around the course, so I navigated) and we both met someone
new.    

I ran a few times and the car was all over the place.  I kept increasing the
pressure in the tires since that is what I usually have to do on concrete to
make the car work.  Not this time.  I ended up dropping to 8# in the rear
and 7# in the front on the last ticket to see what would happen.  (I usually
run around 10/9).    The car drove like I was on rails.  I couldn't't
believe it.  

Back to the pits for a quick once-over for the car, a cold drink, and try to
find my roommate's (Pat Washburn) pit spot.  Spent the rest of the afternoon
wandering and BS'ng some more until registration and course opened up.
Registration went extremely smoothly.  The course was really wide open and
looked fast.  3 maybe 4 critical turns, the rest was just flat out driving.
Headed back to the room with a quick stop for a sandwich and crashed. 

Saturdays weather was beautiful, a little warm but not unbearable.  We ran
second heat, so after the drivers meeting  (If the drivers meeting is
mandatory why doesn't everyone attend?) I fired up the car and headed to
grid.  My first run, quite frankly, sucked.  I pushed through almost every
critical turn on course.  Since I didn't believe the results from the
previous day, I had increased my pressures back to normal and the car was a
pig to drive.  I ended up with a DNF by missing a slalom cone :-(  Back down
to 8/7 and I turned a decent time but hit a cone in the last slalom on my
second attempt.  I had to be clean on the final run so I took it down a
notch and ended up 0.311 seconds from the leader (John Whitling, last years
National Champion).  Chuck Buysse was nipping at my heels only 0.030 back.
Steven Rosenberg had the winning raw time for the day but he picked off the
same cone that I did on my second run.

Took the car back after getting weighed and released, worked course, watched
some runs, and waited for the course to open for walking again.  Up to this
point I had not turned a wrench or even had a screwdriver in my hand (other
than to open up a bottle of Heineken).    After walking the course it was
evident that this was not going to last.  I normally run a 5.5:1 final drive
ratio.  This gives me the low end grunt to get the car moving quickly out of
the corners.  There were only 3 real corners on the course for Sunday.  The
rest (for my car) was flat out, foot to the floor.  After much debate (with
myself, I had set a goal for myself not to wrench on the car this weekend) I
decided to put on the older sprockets to go back to 5:1 final drive ratio.
I'm glad I did.  Even with the higher ratio I topped out down the front
straight.  I don't think I did on the back straight.  I didn't finish the
change by the time the gates closed but I was almost done.  I went to
Damon's and ate with some of the Steel-Cities and Wisconsin region members.
Per Schroeder was there as well, from Florida I think.  We drank a few beers
and I headed back across the highway to the hotel to crash.

The sun came up way too early on Sunday.  Back out to the site to finish
changing sprockets and walk the course once more.  I noticed that the drive
belt was pulling itself up into the secondary clutch  a bit and had Art and
Clair look at it.  They indicated that maybe the secondary is "getting
soft".  Art ran his fingers up inside the primary clutch and showed me how
badly worn out it is.  It's supposed to be a nice smooth flat surface but
mine is all grooved and "humpy".  Oh well, didn't have a replacement and it
was still working.  I gridded up and while sitting around contemplating the
course, I realized I had not tightened the 2 bolts holding the jackshaft
assembly in adjustment.  Chuck Buysse had the right sized wrench and I got
that fixed.  My first run wasn't too bad, fastest for the class but not by
much and John had spun.  Second run felt better for me but it was slower.
OK, being in control on this course was not the fast way around.  I let it
all hangout on the last run and got into the 33's (just barely 33.983).
With that I was about 7/10's up on John, but he had one more run.  He got a
rerun on his third run, I think due to a timer problem.  On his rerun he ran
a 34.018 :-( or :-) depending on who you talk to...

Jeff Blumenthal never made it to the line on Sunday.  He has been fighting
engine gremlins for a while and couldn't get it figured out in time.  He
declined offers for co-drives.  Jim Murphy seized his AMW after his first
run on Sunday.   I let Chris Eckles take his final 2 runs in my car and he
was able to improve his time on his final run.  Jim didn't fit in my car.  I
don't know if he tried any others.  Had Steven not hit the cone on Saturday,
on his fast run, he would have had the second spot.

I ended up in 2nd place 0.276 seconds back from John Whitling.
Congratulations are in order for him and all of the trophy winners, FM and
otherwise.  The courses were a little disappointing in that they were so
short.  AM only ran a 63 second total finish time for the weekend.  Sundays
course was WAY fast.  I think I dented my floorpan a little I was on the
throttle so long and so hard.  The event was run very well and the KY region
members deserve a big pat on the back.  Everything went smoothly.  The only
problem I can recall was the dead battery in the timer 4th heat on Sunday.
It was a fast, fun weekend and I'm looking forward to the next competition.


Oh, and a big thanks to John Whitling for showing me his car.  I haven't
seen any of the newer Red Devils before and he took the time to peel off his
bodywork so I could poke around under the hood, so to speak.

Until next time,

Ron Madurski
FM 124