Everything started out fine, then well, ah, it was fun anyway :)
Monee opens their doors around 5:30 with practice starting around 6:00, racing at about 7:30. Not much time to dial in a car when you're used to rubber tire racing.
Pulled out the Intimidator figuring that it was probably my best bet for foam tire racing and it seemed to hook going into the corners. Since there wasn't much time, I pulled out the trusty Rocket and threw it down on the track. For some reason, it still chatters horribly when the suspension unloads going in. It's got to be something that I'm not catching. I need a second set of eyes at the track to see exactly what's happening to it.
With only a little time to get ready for racing, I switched my efforts over to mod sprint. I dropped a 5.5 in there and it seemed to have plenty of pop, even running my old GTB. Then the diff went out. No problem, I had considered the possibility of being on the road without time to rebuild a diff, so I pulled out another complete transmission that I had for just such an instance.
Everything was good until 3 laps later, when that transmission failed on me. With no time to think, I pulled the transmission out of my rocket and strapped it on my Sprint car. I had moderate success getting that to run. I was a few laps off the pace to be sure, but at least I was out there running.
About a quarter of the way into the main, I jumped the curb and tore my sprinter up good. The left front axle was bent completely around and the cage was lifted off of the chasis.
You would think that this would be a total defeat, but I still had a great time.
Met a guy named Josh who has a little Dougherty in him. He showed me the car hes' been building, including his own GT transmission case and some custom designed rear arms that allow for toe in adjustments without changing the wheel base of the car. I've got some of these on the way...
Josh also hooked me up with some of his super-engineered axles. He started throwing numbers at me of why the stock axles and even the titanium axles weren't good enough. He gave me a couple of aluminum something something axles. If they stand up to my abuse, they are definitely strong.
Well, that's it for day one. Next stop, BFG for Saturday night racing. I've got some major rebuilding to do so I'm planning to get out there early.
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