Friday, October 19, 2012

Out With a Bang

Chris and I got up at an ungodly hour on Oct.7th in order to venture out to the final race of the season in Osoyoos. The weather was perfect and crisp and the turn-out was huge for this little airport/drag strip. As usual our beloved nostalgia slicks were giving us no love. We tried various pressures and volcanic burnouts carrying them right up to the lights but to no avail. Next season we will be addressing this problem but on this particular Sunday we were content to live with it. As usual we got plenty of qualifying passes but by the end of our fifth run, old Chupacabra shut down and refused to start. A quick glance at the oil guage showed no pressure. I coasted off the return road and glided to to a halt in the dust.

 End scene.

 A spun bearing is the obvious culprit but we won't know for sure until we tear it down. The ironic thing is that this was the last race for the old "Blue Bullet". This 440 has been with us since the beginning and has been a tried and true power house over the last decade. Wait a minute Pat. Why is this the last race for that mill? Well race fans, I guess you will just have to stay tuned since we have a super exciting transplant in the works that will be an all out game changer for this car and team alike. Sorry for the spoiler but I'll hold out the details until install time. Until then it's off season time for El Chupacabra where we will be doing some steering geometry refinements, fuel system upgrade and a few smaller tasks to prepare for the 2013 race season. Stay tuned