BEMC -
Feb 11th & 12th, 2006
(Story and photography - Scott Miller)
Ice Race Journal Index
I think you should read this disclaimer if you are
one that is prone to believing everything they read.
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The Swedish Motors sponsored 242 OVLOV
performed flawlessly garnering two SACond places in both Street Stud
races on Saturday and two first place finishes in both Street Stud races
on Sunday! Special thanks to all at Swedish Motors for your efforts
earlier this week in fine tuning the beast!
On the downside the 740 OVLOV suffered from a siezed front left brake caliper piston with disasterous results. In the first race Saturday I could not get the car to move off the grid until all others had reached the first corner! The car would start to rotate into left hand corners all on it's own! I removed the caliper at lunch thanks in large part to coaxing from Steve Drysdale and much needed assistance from Ian but in the process of being wrapped up in that I missed the first race in Class 1 rubber-to-ice right after the lunch break. The one piston worked fine but the other was seized and required much working in and out, liberal application of WD40 and propane torch heat before it seemed to be freed up. The calipers are extremely rusted and most likely rust dust and debris had got in past the rubber dust cover of the piston. The rest of the Saturday the brakes still stayed on but not as bad as earlier. On Sunday the brakes seemed to be totally free but with a different pedal feel until late Sunday when I think they returned to the sticking issue as the car's behaviour on track was the same as Saturday morning. I think there is probably moisture in the brake fluid as well and therefore may have some freezing in the piston. The 740 also suffered an impact with a rookie driving Terry Dalton's old Ovlov 242 (the tank) resulting in front right tierod linkage bending giving slight toe in and slight increased camber to the right front wheel. Not sure about the steering rack now as it also seems stiffer.
There were again many rollovers and red flagged races this weekend mostly due to contact with the very solid banks. However in the first stud race on Saturday Doug Martin's Mazda had an incident (not sure what happened) but was parked in the kink when Nick Majors nailed him in the right rear corner. The force of impact was pretty severe with the rear shock mounts on Doug's car ripping out, the driver's seat mounts ripped out and the head rest jamming up and over the cross bar of the roll cage. Doug was able to drive it off the track after jacking the back quarter away from the tire and missed second race Saturday but continued Sunday. As you can see from the picture of Nick's car he was unable to race for the balance of the weekend and I'm not sure but I'd bet the car is toast.
Saturday nite at the Cliffe there were a multitude of new SAC members signed up but no record of who they are was recorded other than they all received the traditional piece of SACtape applied to forehead with SAC membership number on it. Anyone reading this who signed up should forward their particulars to the SAC headquarters for inclusion in membership records.
New SAC member # 300 - James King is our official SAC Sword Dance performer - (didn't know we had an official SACsword Dance but it looks simple enough- ed.)
Racing: Saturday: The 242 ran exceptionally well as previously noted while the 740 did have brake issues. Had a couple of comings together with Ahmad Khodcar who drives AWD street stud car and congratulations Ahmad, you have christened the new 242 with it's first body indentation just behind the drivers door. In rubber-to-ice racing I swapped tires on the 242 for an after stud race to see what the 242 would do with the locked diff. and also tried the new Hakkapolita 2's. I'm not overly impressed but then again those tires were not meant for subzero temps but for slush. Probably would have done better with Blizzaks on. Again I ran three classes - two rubber -to-ice (Class 1and 11) and the street stud class SS1. I think next weekend I will drop out of Class 11 and focus on SS1 and the remaining rubber-to-ice class1. That way I will be better able to swap tires on the 242 from street stud to rubber and vice-versa without feeling as rushed. Had a good back and forth with Larry Kovacs in the second race in Class 11 saturday and finally made it stick for a second place. Sunday: Sunday saw the return of the sticking brake piston on the 740 - the main rubber-to-ice car so had worse than usual starts and difficulty on turn ins. The 242 went from second place start to a win after a somewhat crowded first corner entry and a poor start in Street Studs. All races had a passenger in the car, Carol Rait in the 1st and Ian Lok in the second. We may have new Street stud converts after their Ovlov experience.
Track Conditions/ Weather: Saturday:
Sunday:
Results: My best results were in Street Studs again : 2nd , 2nd , 1st ,1st Pics:
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