Soggy BARC weekend

We're back!
I've not had a chance to write in the last couple of weeks, but suffice to say, it's almost taken this long to dry out from a thunderstormy, soggy BARC weekend. It rained so much I didn't bother unpacking the camera as I didn't want to get it wet so unfortunately we didn't get any pictures. Hopefully others did. Anyway, I ran our practice and qualifying sessions on the Saturday along with one of the 3 or 4 races I was supposed to run. This first race was my first absolute "chucking-it-down" wet race and boy, can I tell ya! running in an open wheeler in the wet is quite an experience! I found out that running up the straights wasn't such a problem as the "rooster-tails" off the front tires tend to go straight back past yer' ears, either side of your head. The real interesting part comes when you go to turn into a corner and those tires aim at you! It's like someone throwing a bucket of water in your face! Also, being passed, following or coming up behind someone was very soggy! Curiously, the "spec" Dunlop FV race tires were actually quite grippy and very predictable in the wet. I found they instilled sufficient confidence to allow me to make my first actual pass in these conditions. I overtook one of my comrades in his Alfa GTV whilst exiting turn one and held him off until Moss's. I was too busy patting myself on the back for being the exquisite "Rainmeister" - and as I exited 5C, I noticed another fellow competitor in the wall and this rattled me to the point I got on/off the throttle too abruptly and went part way 'round, corrected too much and snapped back-so I elected to do the "both feet in"-thing and slide to a backwards halt before I hit something (or someone) seriously. The GTV re-passed me and I felt I could hear him snickering! Anywho ... no harm, no foul and there was a big traffic break so I grabbed a cog and turned about and got on with it up the straight. On my very next lap there were more yellows as our camp-mate in his lovely bugeyed Sprite hit the wall very concisely exiting turn one - terminally damaging his car and ending his weekend. There were actually quite a few other "smacks" towed in over the two days, but thankfully (as far as I know) no-one was hurt. Saturday's rainy weather, shunts and clean-ups stretched things out to the point that the organizers elected to postpone the last few races on Saturday's schedule and put them over 'till Sunday morn. A massively, stormy Saturday night led to a sort of drying, but still soppy Sunday morn and I ventured up for my delayed race around 10:00 a.m. Off we went on the warm-up lap and the car was feeling good. Green flag and away we go, I'm kind of taking it easy still - until I get to Moss's (once again!) and as I exit 5C and just as I'm going past the marshall's stand, I boot it and shift to 4th and ... nothing. The gas pedal goes to the floor and the engine dies to an idle. I coast off to the side of the straight in the boonies, right in the middle of the 2 marshall's stations and become a spectator. Broken throttle cable. Hmmmm... blame myself for restoring everything but that piece of kit. The TSR has a kind of peculiar set-up. It's not a "bicycle cable-type" throttle cable. Not that it couldn't be, it just isn't. It has a steel tube similar to a long length of brake line welded to the chassis tubes and snaked up at either end to meet the carb and at the opposite, the loud pedal. Through this is threaded a length of aircraft cable with a simple loop-swaged thimble-thing at the pedal-end and a weird, complicated, turn-buckled, threaded and lock-wired adjustment-Rube Goldberg device at the carb-end. Again, not that it has to be. I'm re-thinking all of this. Maybe we'll try something different?! Anyway, I had no spare bits to repair the thing and time was getting on. We elected to end our weekend early and packed up for home. Kind of an expensive outing for one race. Next time, we will have spare cable-set-ups and we will have everything sorted and we will solve all these problems. HEY! Isn't that "KAIZEN"??? Oh well, given the carnage of the weekend, I guess a broken cable isn't too bad. At least I got it all home with all the other bits still shiny, pointing in the same direction and functioning properly. So, now I just have to do my 'tween race servicing and cable repair and we'll be all set for next month which will be our final event of the season.
See ya'll at the Celebration?? Sept 27/28th - Mosport Park! Come by & say "HI!!"
Cheers!
Doug Switzer!!!