Here's our race report from our team's Facebook page--yes, it's long, you don't have to read it if you don't want to
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Race Recap, 2015 Fall CMP. So...we were even less confident in the Marina's reliability than usual going in to this race. Usual sources of 1960's endurance asbestos brake pads had dried up. Finally found a set from France (no joke). Tires came from China by way of Nebraska and were even worse quality than the cheap tires we've been running. No one makes good affordable 205/60-13 tires anymore! Engine is tired. Tranny is tired. But we're having fun, right?
I'm out first. Car's down on power but OK. Possibly different rear end ratio (supposedly all Marinas were the same, but this junkyard one seems taller than our previous ratio—had to replace it because the axles were pulling out of the original). Until the rear of the exhaust starts to hang down. Two brackets broke that were checked pre-race—oh well. Team pulls me in before we get black flagged. 15 minute stop to reattach drops us even further than usual. Then I get run off road at turn 9, but no flag (thankfully). Jim gets in and car is ok, he sets our fastest lap of race (2:17.9, I think). Brian gets in and the tires are really going bad already. Oh, and the rear end is puking oil as well. And don't forget the exhaust manifold gasket that blew out. And the gasket for the fuel cell cap that is swelling and has to be re-attached at every stop to seal the tank. And the gear shift knob comes off; have to pit to get it out from under Brian's feet. He only slammed his hand once on the bare lever but it's enough to hurt a lot. Car is really squirrely by this point.
Brian comes in, gives it to our least experienced driver Alex. He comes in after one lap saying oil pressure is at zero! We pour in four quarts of oil (!), spot minor leakage (it is a British car, after all), can't figure out the problem and send him back out. We have oil pressure long enough for Alex to promptly spin in T14. Steering wheel now crooked, something bent in front end. Comes off for penalty box trip even before being black flagged and states he's nauseous. Turns out I screwed up and didn't hook up his cool shirt properly...my bad. Send him back out to run until we can get Jim back into the car (he still had his suit on because we help our teammates refuel). Jim runs until end, but car is down on power and won't stay running between gear shifts.
Tear into car. Find hole in oil pan (small). Mark from Grim Reaper (our teammates) welds hole in pan on car (thanks to Brian for bringing his welder); we then cover with JB Weld for good measure. Tighten front wheel bearings, surprised to find French brake pads holding up. Adjust rear brakes. Fill with oil. Pick four best tires (two rears from Saturday, two others from May CMP) and re-install. Decide exhaust temporary repair is as good as it's going to get. Can't find what's bent in the front end. Drive out to convenience store in Marina by flashlight at 8:55 to fuel only to find it closed at 8:30. Alex drives car off pavement due to poor lighting from flashlight and breaks exhaust again. Fill up with $5.30/gal track fuel. Head to Camden hotel at 9:45 pm.
Sunday morning, Brian in car to start. Car is running horribly for him...won't climb over 4,000 rpm. Bring him in thinking it's something simple...it's not. Send him back out to complete stint. At quiet hour, take shotgun approach. Re-work fuel pickup, replace spark plugs (3 of 4 look good, one is running rich, how can this be?), distributor cap, disassemble SU carbs and clean, replace fuel filter. At startup, fuel filter won't fill up despite fuel pump sounding like it's working. Assume fuel pump is bad (electric, near tank). Replace fuel pump, new one now held on by tywraps and prayers. Try to start and filter won't fill again. Find out NEW fuel filter is defective, replace with another new spare, now car will start. Make it out just in time, car runs well for all of 20 minutes with Jim. But I screwed up and didn't attach the top of one of the SU's properly, so Jim had to come back in for a fix. Then the power was off again, finally having to start using 2nd around corners to keep engine running. Car going slower and slower. Engine missing for a large portion of each lap. Jim nurses it around and hands it back to me. Somehow he turns a 2:23 while he’s out there.
Oh my. Car REALLY is bad by this point. I state over the radio that Jim must be a miracle worker to get a 2:23 out of this blankety-blank car. I'm now using 2nd for all corners other than 4, 8 and the kink just to try to keep the revs up and therefore the engine running. If you can call what it was doing running. Alternator quits charging about an hour from the end; I turn cool shirt pump off to save juice. This does not improve my outlook on life in general. We're in third at this point in Class C, about 6-7 laps behind the Gremlin. Suddenly the Gremlin is off the track in T12--I decide that we have 17 minutes left according to our in-car clock and if we don't pass the Gremlin, at least it won't be from lack of effort. So I start ignoring the shift light and pushing the poor car for all it's worth. Our shift light is set for 5400 rpm, I saw 7500 several times…I have never driven so hard in 5 years of racing. We made it past, I believe on the last lap. By now the Marina is making all kinds of bad noises and it's all I could do to keep the car running...it didn't even have enough torque to make it onto the trailer once we got back to the paddock! Many thanks to our teammates from Grim Reaper, Radioactive, and Hard Parkers for all their help and encouragement! And especially David and Ani for their crew chief abilities!
If you've kept reading this far, I want to thank the other racers for the courtesy they continue to show us--it's tough being in one of the slowest cars on the track and we try to stay out of people's way and give point by's, but I'm sure we end up slowing people down. We appreciate the fact that you wave back sometimes and try to leave us room! See you all next year...not sure what car it will be in...but I'm sure we'll have fun nonetheless!
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