Feb 24th & 25th, 2001
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Yea! The madness is over!!!!
I don't really know yet how my season ended points wise. However
I could say that
"the wheels fell off our wagon" as the last weekend
unfolded.
Here's how it started....
When Mike, Gerry (Kraupa) and I arrived at the track Saturday morning around 8 am we were greeted by the site of Kiyo's AWD Subaru parked in the Minden University!
Click the pic at left for video
(Windows Media 760 KB, 160x120)
Kiyo says he forgot and left the keys in the ignition of the Subaru and some one had got into Kiyo's car and smashed it into Raul's little red house! The resulting damage to the house was pretty close to 100% with only the roof being salvagable. For the rest of the weekend, Raul and his brother Mark could be heard claiming they were "from a broken home". No other damage was done that was visible in that location. Raul's house was being used as a storage shed for various car parts, tires and tools. One of the important items that was damaged was Steffan's wing for his Rabbit.
The cops were called and a report registered because there was other damage done this past week. Someones trailer was broken into (ours was broken into last year), the Honda beside us had the side window smashed, Gianni's side window was smashed, the Ovlov had a piece of it's tail pipe removed. Earlier this season these vandals had passed through our end of the pits and snapped off our wipers.
The Ovlov (pictured at left) has seen two seasons now. Both Mike and I are feeling that even though it has great brakes and a strong motor it may be time to retire the mass of wrinkled wreckage to a demolition derby. Judge for yourself as you watch the animated GIF walk around (to your left) of the Scottish OVLOV; dear old battleship that she is! Note the 6 inch cave in of the "B" post. The passenger side front and rear doors still work but we are guessing one more good hit and they would be sealed permanently.
Race conditions were good on Saturday with
Temps down around minus 22 C in the morning and rising to around
minus 6 C by afternoon. 
We missed both our morning qualifiers altogether because during practice I further buckled the passenger side lower control arm by barely touching a snow bank. I had done the initial damage to it last Sunday and thought I kind of liked having it bent so didn't do any repairs. I limped back to the pits and we decided to try and get the arm off and look for one up in the gravel pit. No luck, no control arm could be found. We returned to the track and reattached the arm. Then using a come-along attached to the arm at one end and a hole in the rad support frame at the other (the only place far enough to the drivers side so the come-along cable would clear the passenger side tire on total left steering lock) we reefed the arm forwards until the toe out was within drivable range - about 10 degrees to the right! Ha! As I sat in last on the mock grid I thought I had btter have a look under the front. There lay the come-along on the ground. The rad frame was not strong enough to hold the hook. Too late to reattach I had to go out making sure to stay off the banks at all cost! Needless to say we did not do well but still managed to finish 5 places up the field. Back in the pit we reattached the come-along to the front towing eyelet (see the photo at right) which is made of heavier steel. This seemed to work and along with assistance from those on hand on the end of a sledgehammer (the amazing Scottish wrench), and using pieces of lumber we coaxed the arm into a driveable position once again.
This still was not perfect by a long shot and the positioning of the cable on the come-along interferred with the tire on left turns only allowing you about half way lock to the left. So if you over cooked your car on a right hander you couldn't always recover!
Any how, I am not sure how either of us did on
Saturday because we were so consumed with working on the repairs
but we did have fun.
Sunday dawned wet and mild. I looked out the upstairs
bedroom window of the Minden House where we bunk and watched as
the rain splattered and ran down the glass. There had been about
4 inches of snow fall over night but now it was a soggy, sloppy
mess. I wondered if we would have racing at all...
Tom Prentice answered yes to that question, but there would be no practice. Driving down the pits, all looked wet and the track had not been plowed clear as yet. They figured the snow would act as a sponge and they would clear it off at the last moment just before racing commenced.
The track was plowed and the first race (front wheel drive ) took
off. As the cars entered the first corner the track conditions
proved to have suprised a few drivers. It was evident that
moisture was also going to be a problem for some ignitions.
Yellow flags began appearing as cars would stall out after
splashing through one of the large lakes at the corners or
plowing the slush out of one of the numerous ruts.
Camera man Paul Gyger managed to get some good in car video of the Ovlov in a rubber race with Mike Evans at the wheel. The video is of the first lap and a half of the race. Note the lakes on the inside of the corners and the amount of water splashing up off the cars as they float through them!
Click the pic at left for video
(Windows Media 4.5 MB, 160x120)
One spectator took all this in stride and seemed to be
able to enjoy himself no matter what the (or his) condition.
(Mark Backstrom SAC#107)
Click the pic at left for video
(Windows Media 880 KB, 160x120)
Conditions seemed to favour rear wheel drive cars in the first stud race on Sunday and not as much so in the second. Here is a bit of stud car footage from the last race Sunday in the wet. Note the dual wheels on Steff's rabbit (the one with broken the wing)!
Click the pic at left for video
(Windows Media 550 KB, 160x120)
Congrates to Wild Bill who handily won the first Stud race Sunday!!!
Congratulations also go to Steffan Haas (SAC#14) on a well deserved championship win in front wheel drive studded!!! This season saw Stephan have more than his share of troubles including a motor grenading. Having already got the championship in the bag he couldn't resist trying Raul's dual wheels on his rabbit. This was entertaining to say the least and of course brought the tech hounds howling down to his pit immediately after the race to promptly disqualify his finish because of illegal tires. Everyone had a good chuckle at that.
Everyone else had pretty much gone but we had to have
one more BBQ for the season before we packed up and hauled
everything home.
Till next year ... SACEWE!!!!