<VV> Time Trials Report

[ricknorris at suddenlink.net]

It's early Sunday morning and I'm posting what I'm posting this from the local Mickey D's! 


Talladega GP Report, Saturday, April 12, 2008

Whattaday!
The morning began with black clouds, lightening and some rain. Temperature was in the sixties and windy. In fact, it’s been windy here every day!
The track opened at 7:00 AM and we were there shortly after to wipe down the rain we had the night before and get the tree pollen off the car!
The weather improved as the day wore on and it became a sunny day in the sixties. Very nice for air cooled engines and drivers in multi layer suits! 
We had the usual Time Trial class then on the track sessions, which lasted all morning. The first two times on track we followed the instructor around the track to learn the lines as it were, then we were turned loose to run on our own. They ran all of us students together as a class run group for all our practice runs. There are 12 of us here to obtain a Time Trial license and out of that number I was third fastest in practice. Two BMW M3’s were faster but only on the straights. I could catch them in the corners….well…some. Actually, I was catching and passing the Miata’s! Damn good fun that! 
That was all in the morning session. In the afternoon session it was timed runs. They run what they call pods with three or four cars each based on the practice times to keep them equal as possible.
You get five laps. The first is a warm up, then three hot laps for time , then one cool down lap.
I was pumped and ready but…after my second hot lap the engine went sour. It would not pull past three grand on the back straight where before it was easily pulling six grand. I thought of all the bad things it could be. I have had valve spring and push rod issues before.
As it turned out the No. 6 plug wire had blown off. Man was I relieved. Now I can run the Sunday event and finish the school. Plug wire retainers will be installed!

Dan was running well all day and in fact during the timed runs he broke his previous track best time by better than a second! Janet has been shooting the still photos and hopefully we’ll have some good shots which I will post when we get back home.

We also had a pleasant surprise visit by two Corvair people. First Lee Howell dropped by and then the Honorable Chuck Armer, aka Da Chuckster! It was good to have some moral support and Chuck pitched in to help find the problem with my car. It was opportune to say the least as I had forgotten some of my tools and Chuck came to the rescue with some of his “Collector Series” items. It almost felt like a mini convention!

After all the equipment was secured for the night Dan, Chuck, my wife Janet and I went to the local Logan’s Road house here in Oxford for some dead cow flesh and cold adult legal beverages. It was a well-deserved celebration of a successful day at the track.

Tired but happy and looking forward to Sunday. Now where did I put that bottle Aleve…… 

--
Rick Norris
#36 Sunoco Corvair
www.corvairalley.com