Andy in Memphis

The 2003 race season for Two Dog Racing is under way. With great anticipation Frank, Jack, Steve, (Jack's son) and I went down to Memphis Motor Speedway March 8th and 9th to kick off the season. The track in Memphis is very technical. It is almost an Autocross track on back end. Then it mixes in a 3/4-mile front straight. The track is a blast! The Gt-6 was hitting in excess of a 130mph 2/3 of the way down the straight. Then I just held it at redline until the end.

Frank and I were both entered in the regional race on Saturday. A long winter working on the cars was about to payoff. Warm up produced mixed feelings about both cars. The Spitfire was a little loose entering turns and was not feeling as powerful as it should. Frank was having a tough time getting comfortable with the track. There’s nothing like lack of seat time to dull the driving skills.

I was also having some problems during warm up. I had installed new axles over the winter and then had the car completely realigned. The car felt completely different from the last time I drove it. This was a good thing but I did not get a chance to benefit from it in practice. My brakes felt soft and were getting grabby as I continued practice. After about ten laps I felt like the walls had magnets in them temping my car to bounce off of them. I called it quits.

In the pits we actually did not have much to do preparing for the afternoon race. Frank installed new tires and I bled my brakes. Frank adjusted a few things under the hood and I watched the in-car video trying to figure out the proper line of the track. For the most part it was pretty relaxing. Jack and Steve poured over our cars like they were candy. They both love to work on our racers. Jack has been a very valuable asset to Two Dog Racing. The addition of Steve promises to be great in the future. Jack and Steve give Frank and I more time to concentrate on driving and learning the tracks.

What is amazing and fun about trying to race 32 and a 39-year-old cars is the amount of attention these ratty old beasts get. Pretty much the whole day there was a constant stream of racers and spectators checking out our cars. The fascination with British cars is a far from dead in this country. It is also great fun to hear the stories from seasoned racers about how they used to drive a Triumph. I don't know the percentage, but a lot of racers started in a Triumph. They all have very fond memories that they are willing to share. I am thinking about setting up a camera and start interviewing people. I think we could get some great insight from the past.

When race-time came I had talked to enough racers, and watched the warm-up video enough to feel somewhat confident about driving the Gt-6 harder than I had in the past. Luck would have it that I actually qualified ahead of a really nice Prather prepared MGB. This car was over four seconds faster than me at Gateway last fall. I was more intent on staying ahead of him than I was trying to pass that Pinto last Oct. At the start the Gt-6 used its valued advantage of horsepower to fend of the MG's advances down the straight. Turn One was a wild experience. We were three cars wide! I used horsepower to make sure I was ahead of the MG at turns 2, 3 and 4. From there on it was battle of traffic. I had settled in behind an Rx-7 and a very fast FP-Midget. The Rx-7 was doing pretty well but was leaking gas every time he turned right. This made things a little dicey from my point of view. After four laps the Rx-7 was bumped out of its line and I was able to pass him and get out of the rain of gas he was spewing out. I was still hot on the tail of the Midget while the MGB was pressuring me from behind. We had a good battle going for seven or eight laps until a Bugeye Sprite hit the wall and caused a caution. Several times I had all four wheels of the Gt-6 off the ground in turns 3 and 4 attempting to pass the Midget. The Bugeye crash caused the race to go under full course yellow for four laps. During this time my engine started to heat up a little. The temps were in the green, but I had a problem I would not recognize until we were back under green.

At the green flag, we once again had a wild start. Heading into turn one it was a battle of who had the most nerve. Due to late breaking I did. I kind of slid all the way around turn One and came out the other side well ahead of the MGB and nearly collided with the Midget. Lucky for me the Midget took the inside line for his exit of the turn. Entering turns two and three the Midget got tangled up with another car and they hit. The both spun off the track and opened a gap that I needed to get through.

Once free of traffic, I was able to stretch the legs of the Gt-6 in the backfield of the track. Like I said before the backfield was like an autocross track. I felt completely at home. The Gt-6 was sticking like glue and I could use the horsepower to muscle around the tight turns. I was opening the gap on the MGB and improving my times. Unfortunately however, with less than five laps to go my water temperature gauge hit the WAY TOO HOT MARK!!!

I had to shut it down and pull off the track. I was bummed! I was in third place, and the 2nd place car was not that far off. I doubt I could have passed him but at least I would have been able to get close. My problem turned out to be simple breakage on my car. I did not clamp the overflow tube properly on my radiator. I pumped all my overflow water out during the caution laps. When we went green again, the Gt-6 cooled off and sucked air back into the cooling system and then over heated the engine. I was lucky. I tore the engine down the next week and no damage was done. :o)

I did not see Frank at all during the race. From what I gathered from him after the race, he felt the car was really doing well. He was able to win 2nd place, so it must have been running pretty well. The big disappointment was Sunday. Frank ran the national race with some serious competition from Florida and the Mid South region club. Frank had fought his way up into 2nd place behind Chris Alba (one of the fastest guys in the country). Unfortunately the Clutch in Frank’s car had other ideas. It exploded after five laps. Frank was bummed. He was really flying, everything was working then boom!

So the weekend ended with some mixed feelings. For the most part it was positive. We won one trophy, and both cars and drivers performed better than they ever had. Unfortunately mechanical gremlins robbed us of two more trophies and caused some further unexpected expense early in the year.

As I write this I have the Gt-6's engine back in the car from investigation type rebuild and it is ready to race this coming weekend March 30th. Frank is waiting on a new flywheel because the clutch destroyed it as well when it blew. Frank will be racing next in early May at Gateway. If I don't break I will be there also. The May event will be the first official STLOA event at the track so be prepared to have spring pit party early May with Two Dog Racing.

Keep the shiny side up!

Andy