[Ian890]

Ditto to all about the great weekend....what a blast!

First of all, and most importantly, let me set the record absolutely straight. The hard core guys are, without question, James and Bill.

It began Saturday morning on Bill’s first run, with his diagnosis and fix of the "missing RTV in the fuel line", which. I might add, he fixed in time to make the second run of the blue group on Saturday. Then James has engine trouble. But instead of calling it a day, he starts and completes a complete top end tear down to locate the offending pieces(s). Bill donated significant wrenching assistance to James; me, well, I drank beer and offered banter. I think I held a wrench.....once.....briefly.

James had his engine stripped and ready for reassembly when all left at 7:30pm Saturday night. Got back to the track Sunday morning about 7:45-8:00am and by 9:45am James and Bill had it buckled up and ready to fire up. It was just a shame that something deeper in the engine kept it on the sidelines, but it was an impressive tear down/rebuild effort. As fast as James works on this stuff, he probably has it back up and running this afternoon. No B.S., these are the guys you want to have with you when you go to the track.

It was an ideal weekend to do my shakedown cruise for the Coupe. The green group had a bunch of folks in it which was OK because it gave lots of opportunities to work on passing skills. The Keith Craft engine ran great and made awesome noises. Even staying well below 5000rpm the whole day, overtaking and passing was simply not an issue (as the Viper and Vette drivers would have to confess to). All that, and with no show-stopping mechanical incidents. Speedometer was apparently on vacation this weekend, so I’m not sure what we were doing at the end of the front straight, but it felt like it could make some speed. Instructor asked if I wanted to jump to the blue group, which I respectfully declined. I offered some lame excuse about the car needing to have a relatively mild weekend (which it did) when, in truth, the driver needs more time on track before even thinking about running with James and Bill.

After the first Sunday morning run, I saw high water temps and asked James for a consult before taking it out again. Within seconds he pinpointed the “Stop-a-Leak” that blew out of the fill cap and then diagnosed a steady leak at the water pump. Done for the weekend. But, the car is great shape, runs like a beast, and I have much accumulated knowledge of what to sort out and tweak before getting on public roads. My plans are to have it sorted out and titled (a Royal PITA; ask me how I know) and take it to the fall meet in a couple of weeks.

Jim – It was great meeting you for a bite to eat Saturday night at the Dixie Chicken with what seemed like the entire undergraduate enrollment of A&M. I’ll look forward to hearing that all has been put right with your Hurricane and (hopefully) see you at the HCC fall meet.

Should have some video/pics of this weekend posted tonight to share with the group. I had a great time and am looking forward to another track day soon (which, actually, will be back at TWS on November 6).

Cheers,