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deck and looked for obvious causes. Finding none we buttoned it up but the still warm motor wouldn’t even start. Kevin ran back to get the truck and it refused to start as well, so we wrote off the 20 minute session (and day) as a total loss. After the Swift and truck motors cooled they both started again so we staggered back down the hill to assess the problems. Thinking the problem to be electrical we set about changing battery, coil, dist cap, rotor, plugs and all wires plus set up to hot wire the master switch. Unfortunately there would be no way save running up and down the Hwy 67 construction area to gauge our success until Sunday’s early second round of qualifying.
With all the car mechanical flogging, I had very little time to wander about and keep up with what was going on in other races. There was a lengthy red flag delay during the first race (Sports Racers) after Colorado S-2 driver Mike Maurer heavily impacted the wall near the Mitchell bridge and had to be airlifted to a Milwaukee hospital with severe (but not life threatening) leg injuries. Steve Carlstrom wound up 7th in S-2000. We watched most of the F500/Vee race from turn 5, where Steve Jondal finished 5th in F500 and overall. Local Vee drivers didn’t fare as well. Bruce Livermore was running with the lead group until he disappeared on the 11th lap. Dave Bowman had a rough weekend with a variety of car ailments, got into a fender-bender on lap one and retired after 8 laps. A light rain put out a full course yellow for the last lap and looked like it would continue, so we headed back to town without stopping at the golf course. Thus we missed Norm Nelson finishing 8th in a huge EP group, while Steve Pommer was 4th in HP. We all enjoyed a great Saturday night
dinner at the 52 Stafford restaurant in Plymouth, returned to Siebkens to say hello to Kathy Maleck and Jerry Russet out on the patio, and passed on the beverages.
Sunday saw the third straight morning of sunshine. It took a half dozen tries to get the truck going so I approached the track for 8:15 qualifying with trepidation. It took only one lap and my fears were realized as the motor was again dying, so we pulled back to the paddock with 3.5 hours until race time to come up with a final solution. I purchased a fuel pump at Pegasus and set about changing it plus cylinder head (and gasket), intake manifold, carburetor and distributor with new condenser. Spoke with Gib Gibson who said he had been having many problems with head gaskets and he loaned me a can of copper gasket spray. Again there was no obvious problem although there was a suspicious buildup of carbon at the top of both 2 and 3 cylinder walls which could indicate a slight water leak. We buttoned up the car about the time they hit the first notes of the national anthem a little after noon.
I have experienced a number of mid-pack Sprints starts in grids numbering up to 80 cars, but I have never started from the absolute back of the pack. There was already a split start for Mazdas and FF, so I should have petitioned for a third green flag for Fubar all the way back in 57th ! The good news was the car seemed to be running good on the pace lap, and when I finally got the green I had a decent run up the hill and passed a couple cars into turn one and a couple more before taking the inside defensive line into turns 5 and 6. Things looked good for a couple more spots in the Hurry Downs, but a Van Diemen got loose going through
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The Tonneau is the official publication of the Land O’ Lakes Region of the Sports Car Club of America. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Land O’ Lakes Region, its members, officials, or board of directors. Letters to the editor are always welcome. The Tonneau staff reserves the right to edit letters for length.
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Tonneau On-Line August 2000
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Copyright 2000, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
