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
All I can say is "WOW!!!" This weekend was an absolute blast!
14 Cars in AI
7 Cars in SI
18 Cars in CMC
That's just plain crazy...
It was good to see new and old faces show up to battle it out once again at TWS, with everyone (for the most part) trying to figure out the secret of the RR. Thanks to Raegan for running to town to get me a new power steering rack so I could replace the leaky transfer line. Unfortunately, the rack let go at the end of R4, so I get to use all of it now...
Thanks to Mike Patterson for pulling me around the track during R3. You showed me some definitely different ways to get around the track and allowed me to completely bypass the 1:54's and run a 1:53.997. Not good enough to dethrone the alien, but good enough for me.
I look forward to getting the car buttoned back up for Hallett. With the repave, it is definitely going to be a big one!!!
Marshall Mosty
AI/SI Texas Regional Director
2011 NASA-TX American Iron Champ
AI #67 "Mosty Brothers' Racing" (RIP)
ST6 #21 Toyota Corolla (being revived)...
Huge thanks to Dan Allford for that 1st time winner plaque and check. That is just soo cool. And many many thanks to everyone that tried to figure out WTF is wrong with my engine including Casey, Glenn, Ross, Gary, Shawn, Kevin...probably more but I was a bit drunk by then.
Al Fernandez
I felt sorry for Dan so I spun to throw away $150.00 in Toyo Bucks!
Jay was on fire. We are usually never more than a tenth apart in lap times but he was running low 1:57's and I was two seconds slower.
JJ
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