Wow, four CMC races, four 1st time winners! Congrats to Sammy, Craig, Kevin, and Jay. The lead pack in CMC was six or seven cars deep every race. 39 cars total in Thunder...never had such a big drivers meeting! Its wild to see this many cars in AI and CMC. Lots of new faces in the four events that I've missed so glad to meet all of you guys and glad to see some of our guys return.
Al Fernandez
That is pretty awesome.. Congrats to all the new winners.Originally Posted by Al Fernandez
First time SI winner also, i think - Bill Agha
Is Allford still writing checks?
Randy English
NASA Texas --> Rocky Mtn Region
CMC #77 Camaro
Yes he is and he blew his engine I think. It's really nice of Dan to do this. I have my plaque on my office wall. I'm very proud of it.
Thanks Dan!
It was a pretty frustrating weekend. Dan worked his ass off to try and deny those first time winners. He clearly had the pace and the skills to do it but we couldn't give him a car that would stay healthy through a whole race.
At a DE a few weeks ago, something happened to the clutch so we packed up the car and went home. Disassembly found a broken clutch arm pivot bolt and a trashed throw out bearing. Hard to tell which happened first and I never saw the parts. We put the car back together on Monday.
Friday morning, Dan and Craig took the car to TWS for practice. The car was working great except the clutch was starting to slip. Brought the car back to the shop to swap the clutch out again using the lift. Found that the clutch disk that was used had some sort of urethane encasement on the center hub springs. Never seen that before. The urethane melted and was flung onto the clutch surface. Guess that crap works on the street to dampen stuff out better but didn't last one session on track... Got it back together with new parts and made it back to TWS Friday evening.
Saturday morning practice found the car working great and Dan got the pole in qualifying after lunch. Leading the first race when the clutch gave out mid way through. Dan finished fifth using only fourth gear. Back to the shop for another swap while we miss the second race. Got the transmission out 15 minutes from rolling it into the shop. Practice makes perfect... Closer examination of the transmission found the input bearing retainer thing that the throw out bearing rides on was wobbly inside the transmission. That caused the clutch disc to flail around and come apart. Different transmission and new clutch parts go in and we head back to the track for a couple of beers with the gang before collapsing at the hotel.
Sunday morning practice shows the car is back to great and we are hopeful for a new day. Dan's first timed lap in qualifying is always his fastest but he got balked on that lap. The second lap was pretty fast but a bit over a tenth off the pole time. That puts us in... third. WTF? The top four in CMC separated by less than two tenths??? Damn, it's getting brutal at the front.
In the third race, Dan gets an OK start but hits fifth instead of third on the upshift. He is swamped going into the first turn and comes out in fifth or six. He claws his way back up to the front and is poised to attack for the lead (with the help of Jerry who apparently wanted to set his car up strategically for the invert rather than finish second) when the car starts a light miss on the high end. He barely keeps second.
We look over the car the best we can but there really isn't much to do to make it better for the last invert. Dan starts from the back of the field alongside the race three winner while Jordon and Mosty take advantage of their poor finishes in race three and put a big gap to the rest of the field. Dan works his way up to third and reels in the front two and starts attacking when the miss shows back up, this time getting worse fast. He hangs tough through the twisty bits but is swallowed whole on the front straight to finish fifth again.
We have another TWS event in a few weeks to try and work out the engine issue with the Orange car. Hopefully we can make it solid for Hallett.
Dan doesn't mind giving out trophies for first time winners but he would clearly rather be the one on the top of the podium...
Richard P.
Quite a weekend. Along with co-drivers Rob and Marshall, were able to complete the 8 hour enduro. A few late issues knocked us out of second position but resulted in some pretty cool pit stops. Many thanks to Michael, Chuck, Jerry and everyone else that helped out with the effort. Found two broken wheels on the drivers side and a broken panhard bar/shock mount on saturday morning and was ready to pack it in. But after obtaining a few consults the prognosis improved. Called in the Dr. Debakey of welding and Dan Allford saved the day with some expert welding, thank you Dan. With repairs complete was able to make all 4 races. That is the beauty of our group. FMR
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