Motor Racing story.

[Mark Alford]

Hey guys,   Not strictly Dat related but some of you may Relate to this.    I have just returned homw from a weekend of racing at Wakefield Park - crewing for a good friends car whom I race with (when I have a car - new one still coming). Check out this for a race weekend from HELL! or delete it if you don't really give a damn!!!!!!!!   Friday;   8am - get picked up by owner/driver of car (Toyota Sprinter - highly tuned 20 valve 1.6) 9:30 -  arrive at Wakefield Park - and unload. - Big day of testing planned, We could seal the championship this weekend. 10:30 - Hit the track for the first sessions of the day. Complete 6 laps. 10:38ish - Car comes into the pits, driver complains of lack of power (nothing new there!). He swears something is wrong. 10:40 - I jump into car - and we start to roll back down to the pit garage - engine stalls - weird! 11 am - after chasing what is thought to be an electrical prob. I check the crank and it is locked up solid - the engine is seized!   12pm - We give up all hope of racing this weekend and head back to Sydney. 5pm -owner pulls engine out ready for rebuild - expected that engine has dropped a valve (expected to be very costly)   Saturday:   9am arrive at car owners house and head out to engine builders workshop. (after a bit of a chat) 11am arrive at engine builders workshop - strip engine. All valves accounted for, no head damage, no piston damage?????????? Finally get to bottom end - destroyed big end bearing - conrod is basically welded to the crankshaft!!!!!!! 12pm - decide that we can fix this and go racing tomorrow  (What were we thinking?????????) 6:30pm After replacing the crank, rods and bearings - the new engine has been re-assembled and is ready to race! 7:30 get home and start preparing car for re-vitalised engine. Midnight - start the engine - everything ok, but oil pressure a little lower than normal? 1am - we have oil problems - pressure is low at times, and oil has bubbles in it - weird. Decide to load car on trailer  and get ready to go back to Wakefield Park tomorrow. 2:45 - arrive back at my house (closer to Goulburn) go straight to bed.   Sunday:   5:30am - after two hours sleep, we hit the road again - headed for Wakefield Park. 7am - to the suprise of many fellow competitors we are back in the race. 9:30 Race 1 - start from rear of grid (didn't qualify on Saturday!) Engine is deemed as "run-in" after the two warm uplaps. Complete the race in 10th position, and pick up crucial point towards championship. Engine survived.Oil prob dissapapears 1pm - Race 2 Start from tenth and this time no holding back on the engine! Finish in 7th position (1st in under 1600cc)and the owner/drive is over the moon. He is now all but un beatable in the club championship. Engine is "fantastic" - Phew. 6pm - get home - type this pointless email and wonder why the hell I am still awake????????? but knowing that we have acomplished an amazing feat in one weekend.   For the Record - the car was quick enough for 5th place - but having to fight our way through the field in both races, made this very difficult.   PLUS - Wait there's more (and it's dat related)   Also 1st place in the race was DATSUN 1600 (SR20)         2nd place was a DATSUN Sunny (L20)         4th place was a DATSUN 1200 coupe (SR20)   GO THE DATSUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                 --membersozdat------------------------------------------------------- OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:- Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED] No unauthorised redistribution of this email http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html http://www.mail-archive.com/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------