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This is as good as the car
looked all weekend and that was before it went on
the track. In the first time out Sat. this side
had rubber donuts all down it. Thought that the
rookies were rather crazy out there. I did both class 1 and 11
qualifier and 7 laps of 1st class 1 race and then
the car went sputter, sputter like it was out of
fuel. After race I got pushed back to pits and
comenced to add fuel to tank, only got in 2
gallons and it was full. |
Stud race Sunday noon |
Maybe
it was condensation from having sat for a year so
I dumped in some antifreeze and drove car around
and it seemed OK. I left it idling and went to
watch a race. When I came back it had stalled and
when started would run really rough after about 5
minutes. This continued for next 3 hours as I ,
Brian Hunter (God bless him) and occassionally
Kiyo Tabuchi (God bless him too) worked under the
hood like crazy trying to diagnose the symptoms
amid the maze of wires and electronic sensors
that come with a 1985 electronic fuel injected
Ovlov. |
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Finally
pulled the plug on the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor
and heard the engine go into a smooth idle as the
computer went to a default code. Too bad I could
not drive it like this. Ian Lok has the only car
(240 Ovlov) in Minden with the same MAF as my 740
Ovlov so when he finished racing for the day we
swapped out his MAF. My car ran like a top, in
fact seemed to be better than ever. Brian said he
was driving back down to Pickering Sat. nite and
that he had a 740 turbo parts car that he would
get the MAF off that and bring it up Sunday am.
It was just as well that the temperatures this
weekend were well over zero as I would not want
to be doing this in any subzero stuff. |
My favourite tool.
Click pic for a short movie (770KB) |
Put the MAF sensor in Sun at
11: 30 a half hour before practice and never
looked back! Thank you all who helped resurrect
my weekend and thanks also to my sponsors Brooklin Concrete Products who supplied a new
set of blocky Blizzaks for great grip in the
slush.
Had a great time in practice, very fast but as
day progressed we went back to the slop and more
"boat" racing. It got so mild in fact
that a modification to the front cover was
required as engine temp was climbing.
(see short movie at left - courtesy Terry Dalton
SAC#60). |
Tony McGrath |
Beyond that the racing was
pretty good, I managed to catch up to the duo
(Terry and Larry) in the last race Sunday, pass
Larry and got up behind Terry only to have that
sneeky dog Larry pass me right back into the
straight. I got two 3rds and two 4ths for Sunday.
Almost rolled the car on Sunday I think it was
the 3rd race later in the afternoon with tons of
slush towards the outside of the entry to turn 1
at the end of the straight I had too much speed
to handle the slop and got literally sucked
straight for the bank . The back corner hit first
whipping the front corner around and up the bank
and into the start of a vicious roll over, but it
never happened. Instead the front of the car
miraculously leaped off the bank as it continued
to spin around and bounced down onto the track. I
didn't even lose a position it all happened so
fast. |
$9.99 Walmart hellraiser |
This "guitar"
provided hours of entertainment as Sat. evening
progressed. I guess some of us never grow up
cause Gianni Biral's 2 year old boy thought it
was good fun too.
Have a
listen ... Walmart Special.mp3 (54KB)
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Talked to several of the new
Street Stud (SS) class drivers to get some
feedback on their reaction after 3 weekends of
competetion. Most were very pleased. As Tom
Prentice put it, "It's like going out in a
rubber to ice race just after a stud race has
been run but that level of grip never goes
away". As long as you don't keep your foot
in it all the time the studs stay in. Tom said he
only lost two so far.
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| Stud
people pics ... |
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Doug Martin |
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Steff Haas |
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Sirrocco, Carol Raitt behind |
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Gianni Biral |
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Tom Prentice |
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Lee Waterworth, SAC#200 |
Lee Watterworth's first ever
full stud race |
Kiyo Tabuchi |
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Latenite sled ride ended shortly - out of gas. |
The end of racing Sunday saw
myself and Glen McKay SAC#70 sitting in the
Cliffe watching the pre-game for the Superbowl.
Glen offered to put me up at his cottage overnite
so I accepted as I didn't have much to do Monday.
We played a ton of music and told many icerace
lies well into the wee hours as the airtight wood
stove was kept stoked with plenty of hardwood. We
awoke Monday to rain. I don't know about the rest
of the week but it really needs to remain cold
for the last 3 weekends of iceracing. |
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Glen has a beautiful place
on Little Bob Lake about 10 minutes from Minden. |
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Glen has two of these early
'70's Elan Skidoos, but we could only get one to
work |
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and I went for a ride down
the other end of the lake to see what was
there...another lake. |
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This
pic of visitor to the Cliffe sent in from
previous weekend by SACsty. |
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