Well it has been a busy few weeks since the last time I sat down to write up something. The first event we did was Topeka regional/national race at the end of May. This was going to be my first real race. Frank wanted me to run his car on Sat. in the regional and he would run it Sun. in the National event. I was very excited to run his car. Even though it has some issues it is a very trick car that has potential of being a national champ.
The nice thing about road racing vs. auto cross is you get to practice and qualify. It gives you the opportunity to learn the track and what your car is going to do on that track. In my case I had to learn how to drive Frank’s car and learn the track and see what his car was capable of doing on this track. The two things I had to worry about going out were “don't blow the engine” and “don't hit anything”. I was nervous about both.
Once on the track I felt OK. Driving the car was like stepping back into my old white Spitfire that I auto crossed years before. It had about the same about of power and it handled kind of the same way but it had a lot more grip on the tires. I could drive much farther into the turns. After a couple of laps I was completely at home and started concentrating on learning the fast line around the track. Topeka is a very technical track. There are places that are very fast and smooth and other places that are so slow and tight that I had to drop into second gear just to make it around with any power at all.
After about five laps I started picking the car apart. For the most part it was great. Little things bugged me. First were the tires. They were very out of balance. On the long straight I was not sure if it was the track or the tires but I could not hold a line to save my life. I was all over the place. Second, the car just did not run with others in its class. In the turns it held its own but as soon as power was needed the other cars walked away with little effort. This was a problem. No matter how good a car handles it has to have horsepower to win. I knew how to fix both problems. If I could get Frank to agree to the fix we would be in business.
I ended up third in class out of four. Not great but I would just be happy to make the day without breaking the car. In the pits we agreed that the tires needed to be balanced. Jack and I took off the wheels and sent them over to the tire truck. I then set my attention to the engine. I was convinced it was the distributor. Since the previous event, I had not been able to convince Frank of how bad it was hurting the cars performance, so he had not allowed me to change it out. Since I had driven it I was more convinced than ever that the distributor was killing the engines potential. The engine was missing badly at the upper rpm range and had no acceleration. I again lost the discussion and the distributor stayed in. Others out at the track are more than willing to lend advice but you must be very careful what to listen to. At this point we were listening to MG guys who did not and still don't know much about Triumphs. We ended up messing with the mixture. In my heart I new this was wrong but I had to let my ego go and realize it was not my car. I was just a guest at this point.
I ran the race later in the afternoon. The tires were a great improvement but the engine ran worse. I decided to make the best of it as long as the gauges did not show anything bad. I ran most of the race stuck behind a very pretty Bugeye Sprite. We mixed it up running nose to tail for 5 or 6 laps. I was handling better but the Sprite had more power out of the turns. He also was a bit shaky in the turns and not taking a clean line. I felt unsure about passing him and possibly of geting hit. It was always in the back of my mind not to wreck Frank’s car.
Then came the Spec Racer Fords. If there is a group of cars that are a pain in the butt, the Spec racers are it. They are fast, and mostly rental cars. The guys that drive them treat them as such and don't really care how their driving affects others out on the track. There are some pretty nice guys out there but there are enough of the bad Spec racers to give them a really bad name. I met one of the bad ones. Once the Spec racers started coming up on our rear I opened the gap a little between the Sprite and myself. The first group of Spec racers came by pretty much ok. One got a little loose right in front of me but caught it and continued on his way. The second group of Spec racers were drafting each other nose to tail. I gave them the wave by and took the inside line to get out of their way. Two of the three made it OK but the third broke draft in order to sneak under the guy in front of him. The only problem was that I was still there! He broke into me. I was off the gas and on the brakes trying to prevent the bump but it was to late. At the last moment I turned into him hoping it would be enough to keep me on the track with out spinning. It worked and we bumped my nose to his tail. He ended up spinning into the dirt and I was able to keep Franks car under control and on the track. I finished the race without further incident and pulled into the pits. From the look on Franks face he was not happy. When I got out of the car I could see why. The gentle bump actually did some damage. It knocked loose the headlight ring and pushed the hood mounts over an inch or so. Nothing major but I was not supposed to hit anything ;o)
To cap it all off I actually held onto third place only to be disqualified for weight. It seems the car was just a little heavy for Frank but 20lbs to light when I was in it. :o( So I was bumped to last place. Luckily for me the chief steward was a really nice guy and he signed my logbook as if nothing happened.
Now comes the fun part! I told Frank about how poorly the engine was running and how there was no way this Spitfire could be that slow. He still did not want to change out the distributor. We went around getting all kinds of advice and retimed the engine and still it would not run well. Finally the SCCA broke out the beer and food. This gave us a chance to cool off and relax. After about an hour of food and beer I basically announced to Frank that I was going to fix his car. (Beer had a lot to do with this decision).
Now Frank has only known me for a short time and does not really know how much knowledge I have of these cars. His engine is also sacred ground to the engine builder who had said quite firmly not to touch the engine if it is running. So to have me do something major like changing out a distributor out at 9:00 PM the night before his National in a parking lot was almost beyond his limit. My ego unfortunately would not let this car be. I knew what was wrong and could not stand to let it stay as-is any longer. The car was embarrassingly slow and my name was on it as the mechanic.
Lucky Frank had as much beer in him as I did, or I am pretty sure there would have been a wrestling match on the ground. I think he was too tired to argue with me any longer. So I staggered over to the car and started ripping it apart. For the most part, in my mind it was going to be an easy fix. All I had to do was take out the old distributor and swap parts into a new one and reinstall it. Easy right! No dammit! Its a Triumph! (A bastardized one at that.) I had two and a half spares with me in order to hopefully make one work.
The order of business was to mark the position of the old distributor and take it out. This was done quite easily. The next thing to do was see what it would take to swap parts. This is where I took the leap of faith. It turned out that the Distributor that was currently in the car was a late model electronic unit. They have a taller housing than the early models. This was part of the problem. The rotor was actually below the cap never making contact with the center electrode. To make things worse the housing was bent and the rotor hit the cap on two of the side electrodes. Also the mechanical advance system was out of whack and hitting the housing all around at random. This thing was junk! My leap of faith was taking the points plate out of the bad distributor and installing it in a better condition early model and have it work. I checked all the mounting points and screw holes and it looked as if it might work. Unfortunately in order to get it out I would have to completely destroy the distributor. That is when Frank almost lost it. It was now dark and he was pacing like an expectant father when I broke out the hammer. Not just any hammer a BFH hammer. I had to drive out the roll pin in the shaft in order to remove it from the housing. Frank was not prepared for this. He finally pretty much collapsed into a chair. And stared at me until it was done.
Once I got the roll pin out it was going back together pretty well. I did have some doubts about whether this was going to work or not but I was not saying anything. It was getting late and completely dark at this point. I put the new distributor in and it was 180 degrees out from the other one! Yikes. This is when my stomach did a flip. I looked at Frank and Jack and then the other distributor and figured I was hosed. In my mind I saying" Why the hell is this engine 180 degrees out? Was it some trick thing that the engine builder did?" I was freaked. Then luckily a guy who was standing around watching the show made the simple suggestion of pulling the gear out and rotating it 180 degrees. My mind started working again and I said, "Doh you’re right"
I took it all apart again and retimed it 180 degrees. The second flip-flop of the day for my stomach was when it still did not start. At this point Frank was darn near heart attack stage. Then again my mind cleared the cobwebs and figured the new distributor had to be advanced a bunch in order to run on such a highly tuned engine. So I loosened it up and had Jack Fansher crank it over until it started. Once I rotated the distributor enough the car fired and settled into a sweet idle. Whew! Time for bed.
The next day Frank went out and the car ran great. Better than it had since he owned it. More than likely that distributor had been holding the engine back for a long time. In Frank’s qualifier he was keeping up with and just about passing cars that in the past would leave him like he was standing still. He qualified fourth out of seven and pulled the car in early because he was concerned about oil temperature.
Again we listened to the wrong people. I fell for it too. Most of the people out there were saying oil temperature should not get over 200 degrees. Frank’s car was reading 250° to 260° at high rpms. We were told that this was bad! We could not reach the engine builder to ask him and ended up taking bad advice. We decided to go ahead and race but if the temperature went above 250 again we would back off and putt around until we had ten laps then call it a day.
At the start of the race Frank jumped onto the tail of an MG and did not let go. He later said he could have passed at any time but he was worried about the oil temperature. So after ten laps we packed it in. He was running third.
It turns out the temperature was fine. His engine takes the temperature leaving the block while most others take it leaving the oil cooler. The temperature would naturally be considerably higher out of the block. Lesson learned. But it was better to safe than have expensive damage done to a crank or cam.
So next event in St. Louis is the St. Louis regional National Aug 3rd & 4th. You are all invited to bring your cars out Sat. and Sun. to see the racing and my cars maiden race.
I have to add something about Jack Fansher. I did not mention him enough in this last segment and I should have. If it were not for Jack, this year would be a wash. Jack so far has been more helpful on Franks and my car than you could believe. Jack always stays busy and takes care of all the details while Frank and I go after the big headaches. If there was a member of the year award Jack would get it hands down for his efforts in supporting Frank and I with our race cars.
Thank you Jack! I may just owe you my life. Particularly after Frank saw the hammer!Andy
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