Grattan - Memorial Day Weekend

I also had a great weekend and learned a lot more about the car.
My clutch literally disintegrated on the first lap of practice. :bash_1_:

I have to say thanks to the track first of all for letting me have my $100 check for the practice session back, which funded my stock replacement clutch. Also a big thanks to George R. for helping me pull and reinstall the transmission Friday night! Marty and Lance were also a huge help as always. I had a ton of fun on the starts with the ITS guys and it was fun trying to keep up with the veterans! :happy204:

I may have to try a set of the Hoosiers after these Toyos are done. I hear they are faster. :023:

Kevin, tell your dad thanks for giving me some room in the hairpin....and Ruck racing had a great weekend, good luck at mid-ohio!
 
What happened to Ian - did I miss a thread somewhere?
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No. I'm just lazy and didn't post about it. The NASCAR/Busch car/whatever thing running in SU I think (with no competitors) got in between Steve and I racing for 3rd. In turn 3 he stuck his nose down under Steve and I went behind him to follow him through the hole if he stuck Steve to the outside. But Steve came down to his apex and him and the NASCAR hit, spun Steve to the inside and I ran into the back of the NASCAR when he checked up. It wasn't that hard but the NASCAR thing just has a hoop to protect the fuel cell, no bumper, so my car took the whole hit. I didn't think it was that bad (it looks like I hit a pole), I could tell the hood was bent and watched the gauges real close for about 6 laps. But I have stock gauges and it looked fine so I forgot when me and Steve got back together racing for 3rd. Then coming onto the straight to take the checker (4th at the time) it started cutting out and wouldn't rev past 5K. Then I looked over and noticed the temp pegged. Put the clutch in and it immediately shut off and started billowing smoke. I rolled across the line for 4th and had to be towed back. Hopefully it's just a headgasket, but I'll take my time between the MO nat/reg and the IT fest to make sure it's fixed correctly.
 
I may have to try a set of the Hoosiers after these Toyos are done. I hear they are faster. :023:

Kevin, tell your dad thanks for giving me some room in the hairpin....and Ruck racing had a great weekend, good luck at mid-ohio!
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Seriously, in Sunday's race you were moving really well and even pulled along side the third place ITS car at one point down the front straight. Right about then though I could tell that your Toyo's started cooking and you began falling back. Once they get cooked, they don't come back. Didn't I tell you that? :P Those things are evil - if you don't have a sanctioning body telling you that you have to run them, don't.

I'll tell my Dad, and thanks for the compliment. The '85 Civic was running really well at the start of Sunday's race with the different carb (matched its fastest lap of the weekend on lap 2), but it started running into some sort of a fuel delivery problem (I think) around lap three. Kind of wierd. It sounded and acted like it was running on three cylinders, but then would occasionally come back. Gauges read fine so my Dad finished the race anyways. We haven't started digging into it yet to see what the problem was.
 
No. I'm just lazy and didn't post about it. The NASCAR/Busch car/whatever thing running in SU I think (with no competitors) got in between Steve and I racing for 3rd. In turn 3 he stuck his nose down under Steve and I went behind him to follow him through the hole if he stuck Steve to the outside. But Steve came down to his apex and him and the NASCAR hit, spun Steve to the inside and I ran into the back of the NASCAR when he checked up. It wasn't that hard but the NASCAR thing just has a hoop to protect the fuel cell, no bumper, so my car took the whole hit. I didn't think it was that bad (it looks like I hit a pole), I could tell the hood was bent and watched the gauges real close for about 6 laps. But I have stock gauges and it looked fine so I forgot when me and Steve got back together racing for 3rd. Then coming onto the straight to take the checker (4th at the time) it started cutting out and wouldn't rev past 5K. Then I looked over and noticed the temp pegged. Put the clutch in and it immediately shut off and started billowing smoke. I rolled across the line for 4th and had to be towed back. Hopefully it's just a headgasket, but I'll take my time between the MO nat/reg and the IT fest to make sure it's fixed correctly.
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That just plain sucks. I noticed that car in the back of the field in the pic The Orange Whip posted up of the start.
Puts the 2 batteries and 1 alternator I had go bad at Putnam into perspective.
Quit being lazy and get to work!
 
What can I say? My car's making great torque this year! :P
(Gregg - the Isaacs were awesome. By the end of the weekend I was getting into them pretty quickly. I also couldn't even tell I was wearing them once the cars started rolling. :023: )
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Let's hear it for torque!

Glad the product worked out. It takes a while getting used to, but that's true regardless of brand. Given your avatar, we expect future updates. :D
 
Fixed that for you Gregg. :lol:
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We love repeat business. I can just hear the track buzz now...

Vette driver #1: "Geez, you'd think we'd have gotten rid of Kevin "The Crashmaster Pole Sitter" Ruck by now.
Vette driver #2: "Not a chance. Word is he has top notch safety gear."

Note to Marketing: Do NOT sell Ruck the extended warranty. :D
 
Was the Track slick in the Race? Looks like times were a bit off?
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Yea, I'm not sure what the deal was. Very few IT cars were matching their best times from last year without having done some good work to their car since then. I struggled to match mine despite the car feeling 10x better. It was by far the best it had ever fealt at Grattan - seemed a lot quicker. FWIW, the weather wasn't great and at least Alex and I were on pretty old tires (left overs from '06) while we both were on brand new ones last year.
 
Yea, I'm not sure what the deal was. Very few IT cars were matching their best times from last year without having done some good work to their car since then. I struggled to match mine despite the car feeling 10x better. It was by far the best it had ever fealt at Grattan - seemed a lot quicker. FWIW, the weather wasn't great and at least Alex and I were on pretty old tires (left overs from '06) while we both were on brand new ones last year. [/b]
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I set a personal best time on Saturday (1:31.8), but I usually do (better my time), since I'm still on the learning curve.

{Edit: Corrected day and time}
 
Me:
last year - 1:31.5
this year - 1:31.7

Alex:
last year - 1:30.9
this year - 1:32.5

Steve:
last year - 1:33.5
this year - 1:33.1



Hell, I don't know. :lol:
 
My times seemed a bit off - my personal best was low 32's last Labor Day chasing Marty around :D

I was running S04's with plenty of heat cycles left but they are 2 years old now...

I don't know - it FELT like I was going faster...I was really hoping to break into the 31's last weekend.

Steve Sancricca
ITA CRX #27
 
I think Saturday was the only day for a time close to last year, by sunday the rubber was washed completely off. I was experimenting with the 'rain' setup on the Hoosiers on Saturday afternoon so the car pushed pretty badly while Kevin was laying down 31's. By sunday with a new setup for me we were both in the mid 32's so I think the track had really fallen off. Like Steve said, on Sunday the car felt great, I expected low 31's from that session.

Oh well, Sunday's rain race in the morning was worth the whole weekend!
 
Hey Marty!!

Tom the "guy that does magic" here (although I'm not doing it much lately). I didn't recieve an entry form for Grattan but skipped it due to a major project we're doing that's taking all my time (and money!).

We're building a full size and drivable/raceable (at "exhibition speeds" as the Vintage Oval racing group says) replica of the NASCAR racer I was a "helper" on back in 1979 when I lived in Charlotte. This was for my favorite driver Frank Warren and his Dodge Magnum #79.

There's an event in about two months where we'd get to take this car to Michigan Int Speedway and not only have it on display but we'd get 4 ON-track sessions over the two days there...plus free tickets to the Indy Car race that's running the same weekend (I'm HOPING Danica Patrick stops by to check it out!!)...so I'm really putting everything towards getting this car done but hope to maybe make the next Grattan race in the Cougar Labor Day weekend.

Since I did the drivers school and race last year at Gingerman, I could skip this year and still have another year to run another race (at lease I HOPE that's the way it is!!??) which might be the case with still so much to get done (and spent) on this.

I really WANT to finally get ON the track at Grattan but sure want to do the fun event at MIS (the weekend of August 4-5) too!! May I could bring the Magnum to Grattan "for exhibition only" too!!????

If anybody wants more info on this, check out vintageovalracing.com

Talk to you later!!
 
Hey Tom. I wondered where you went. Sounds like you're having fun - keep it up. Hope to see you at Grattan.



Marty
 
BTW, my 'loose wheel bearing' that was bothering me throughout Sunday's race on Labor day weekend at Grattan turned out to be a completely broken hub, thank god for a good stake on the axle nut! I'm hoping a properly attached wheel will be worth a few tenths next weekend.

Alex MacDonald
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Hey guys I was out there taking photos. The full gallery is here:
http://00photo.com/photos/thumbnails.php?album=41


I think I got a shot of Alex developing another "loose wheel bearing" <_<
20070528_GrattanAlfaRomeo_2855.jpg


I see he also forgot to mention this little incident..... lol

20070528_GrattanAlfaRomeo_2032.jpg

20070528_GrattanAlfaRomeo_2035.jpg


That series starts here:
http://00photo.com/photos/displayimage.php?album=41&pos=2012

It was fun watching you guys out there and I had fun driving the lunch touring sessions.
 
That was Alex in the passenger seat...Lisa (Alex's wife) was driving his CRX at the open track event on Monday. Prolly won't be long before she is mixing it up on the track with us!

As Alex says: "Oversteering girls are cool"!!!

Steve
ITA CRX #27
 
R2 Racing said:
Sunday morning's qualifying race was wet too....I pissed off a lot of Corvette guys and hurt some ego's. I loved it! The video's great - I'll get it up eventually.
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Eagle7 said:
I had the biggest grin on my face watching Kevin run up through all those Vetts - way to go Kevin. :OLA:
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Well, that only took 22 months. Sorry.:(

But it's still a pretty good video.:eclipsee_steering:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5jbuZN9Ylc]Clip 1[/ame]
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uyuhsx5O_A]Clip 2[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uyuhsx5O_A"][/ame]
 
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