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24 Hours of Lemons Thunderhill
Well, we're back from the 24 Hours of Lemons at Thunderhill. We had rebuilt the motor after blowing the head gasket in the Oct. race and getting it so hot that we cooked the rings and had NO compression in any cylinder. We also had to install headlights and thought putting the heater back in the car would be a good idea so we could defrost the windshield. The original weather forecast was for rain throughout the weekend but as the weekend got closer the forecast actually improved a little to rain most likely just on Saturday. When we arrived on Friday it was cold and cloudy but at least it wasn't raining.
We got the car thru tech and judging just fine on Friday so that was out of the way. We had to finish up doing the the in car radio install and get all our helmets wired so that we had some decent communication.
At the prerace driver's meeting Jay Lamm, the event organizer, laid down the law about absolutely no contact between cars. It pretty much came down to if your car touched another car or the wall or spun you got to come in and talk to the stewards. This was very much needed to calm down the driving because the last race had been to much of a destruction derby which was not fun and although they had installed two chicanes on the main straight and we were taking the left right after turn 5 the speeds were going to be higher than we had run at Altimont.
The cars got out on the track a little after 1:00 on Saturday and started going around under a full course caution, after about 15 minutes the car whose number had been drawn out of the hat got the green as they past start/finish and the race was on. The track was damp but a least it wasn't raining and has the cars started to dry out the track the speeds picked up a little. Our Alfetta was running strong and after our first driver Gil got the layout of the track down he started to move up thru the field. The plan was to run 2 hour driver stints so as to limit the amount of time in the pits. Things were going great right up until Gil called on the radio and said the car had shut off. After a couple minutes he was was pushed in to the paddock and a little diagnosis was needed, right away we found no spark and after messing around with another coil we determined that the oil pump shaft had broken. There was another Alfetta from JMC Motorsports out of San Diego entered and I went down to see if possibly they had an extra oil pump. They had just bought the car off of Craigslist and had no real spares to talk of.
Back to our pits to come up with a new plan of action. I had another pump sitting on the shelf back at the shop and our fourth driver had yet to leave to come to the track. As we were trying to figure out how to have Bill get in the shop without a key, the JMC Alfetta hung #2 connecting rod out the side of the block. In the true Spirit of 24 Hours of Lemons they came down and offered up their car for whatever parts we needed. Now we had some work to do. We got the pan off our car and the pump out and proceeded to remove the pan and pump from their car. As soon as we got the pump out of their car I took it apart to make sure it wasn't full of metal and to make sure the pressure relief valve was not sticking. While I was doing that we put their pan back on with a couple of bolts to keep the motor from leaking in the trailer.
As soon as I had the pump clean it was back together and installed in the car, the oil pan went on and we were buttoning back up. Filled the oil, cranked it over for oil pressure, rolled the plugs back in, fired it up and set the timing.
As soon as we had it fired and running we called Bill and told him to head to the track. Total down time was about 3 1/2 hours.
It was my turn to drive so as I was getting my suit on they fueled the car and cleaned the windows. Just so you know this was the first time I've ever been to Thunderhill and I didn't get a chance to walk the track in the morning because of helping another car. So I have NO idea where this track goes and my first laps are going to be in the dark. I went out and did a couple of laps and then came back in so we could adjust the headlights. After that the lights were better but I know for next time we need two lights aimed out at an angle so you can see the apex of the corner. I could also tell this track would be a whole lot of fun in the daytime when I could see it.
I drove until about 7:40 when Tony who was going to drive second got in the car because Bill figured that since we had done all that work it wasn't fair for him just to show up and hop in the car. Tony went out and ran well and finished the night for us at 9:00 when they ended day one.
More to follow it's time to get ready for New Years Eve
__________________
Wes
Have:
85 Spyder, 79 Alfetta GT 24 Hours of Lemons 2007 Eyetalian Class Champion
Gone: 61 Sprint, 61 Spyder 67 Super, 73 &74 GTV 74 Berlina, 74 & 76 Spyder, 79 GTV Not including cars parted out
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