Day 2 starts out with our head's finally hitting the bed at 3:23 am Central time for a good nights sleep of about three and a half hours, or so we thought.
At 5 am I awakened to the sound of tornado warning horns and the building shaken by the wind in one of the worst storms I have seen for about 45 minutes, bad enough I thought to put pants on just incase I got swept out the window in my sleep drawers, sorry I know bad visual there.... Fell asleep finally as the alarm awakes us around 7 so we can be at the track by 9am as we were ranked in the second half of the starting grid. Really all and all, not as bad as it sounds, shoot Herman sleep right through it and doesn't reember me waking him up just in case we needed to take cover.
After a quick breakfast off to the Mid America Motorplex "MAD" and thats when it starts to get good.
Issue # 1
Less than a 5 minutes from the hotel Herman tells me he has HOT water pooring out from the dash on his side...... not good. We dive off the road to get a quick acessment of the situation realizing we have less than an hour to get to the track and start unloading. First we try closing te partial H valve we put in but it still had pressure dumping into the car, so had to cut the hose and bypass it all. Got everyting closed up and the fine people of Walgreens allowed us to use their hose to get us filled up.So off to the races,,,,, literally.
Get to the track in about 45 minutes so all is well except for the stress and nerves, but " it is what it is " take a deep breath and move on.
Spent an hour or so preping and studying the track map trying to figure out and get lined up in our quilifying spot. Finally calmed down and feeling pretty good about things.
Issue #2
WT doesn't like 91 Octane........ At all..... Right out of the gate on he recon lap as I appoach 4000 - 4500 RPM's it starts falling off hard, almost to the point of busting out. What we think is the lower octain higher ethanol fuel caused spark knock to blow the timing out of wack. Still though we went out first in my group and put in an OK time but left alot on the track but still had a BLAST! I think we were 59th over all even with all my off apex issues the lack of house power on top end. Didn't think I would ever say that about WT, lack of horsepower.
Issue # 3
On the cool down lap notice that the coolant temp was rising and almost to 230 which is high for WT, then it kept climbing and climbing and climbing....... We starting pooring what water we had over the radiator and got it down slowly by keeping the fans running cycling the water flow. Looks as though with all of the rushing on the side of the road and the Walgreens parking lot I didnt get all of the air out of the cooling system. that could have been really really bad. But another lesson learned, slow down, don't stress and do it right.
Got the cooling issue resovled and tested and all seems to be well. Utill..........
Issue # 4 and the hits just keep coming......
On one final check over before Herman takes ove the wheel for the afternoon session, we jacked up the car for a final check over and on the last wheel we check "the left rear" I notice the wheel bearing is almost shot...... we can't take a chance on putting Herman on the track to get a time.
So,,,, now everyone sees why we are late posting today BUT IT'S not over.
We have plan to miss Hallett in OK and try to pickup a bearing ASAP and and get it installed. We are heading to a local shop in the morning with a goal of being on the road to try to catch up with the group in and keep the points going. Our alternate plan if we cant find a bearing is to order one next day air and have it in so we can be there at Hasting Nebraska event.
At 5 am I awakened to the sound of tornado warning horns and the building shaken by the wind in one of the worst storms I have seen for about 45 minutes, bad enough I thought to put pants on just incase I got swept out the window in my sleep drawers, sorry I know bad visual there.... Fell asleep finally as the alarm awakes us around 7 so we can be at the track by 9am as we were ranked in the second half of the starting grid. Really all and all, not as bad as it sounds, shoot Herman sleep right through it and doesn't reember me waking him up just in case we needed to take cover.
After a quick breakfast off to the Mid America Motorplex "MAD" and thats when it starts to get good.
Issue # 1
Less than a 5 minutes from the hotel Herman tells me he has HOT water pooring out from the dash on his side...... not good. We dive off the road to get a quick acessment of the situation realizing we have less than an hour to get to the track and start unloading. First we try closing te partial H valve we put in but it still had pressure dumping into the car, so had to cut the hose and bypass it all. Got everyting closed up and the fine people of Walgreens allowed us to use their hose to get us filled up.So off to the races,,,,, literally.
Get to the track in about 45 minutes so all is well except for the stress and nerves, but " it is what it is " take a deep breath and move on.
Spent an hour or so preping and studying the track map trying to figure out and get lined up in our quilifying spot. Finally calmed down and feeling pretty good about things.
Issue #2
WT doesn't like 91 Octane........ At all..... Right out of the gate on he recon lap as I appoach 4000 - 4500 RPM's it starts falling off hard, almost to the point of busting out. What we think is the lower octain higher ethanol fuel caused spark knock to blow the timing out of wack. Still though we went out first in my group and put in an OK time but left alot on the track but still had a BLAST! I think we were 59th over all even with all my off apex issues the lack of house power on top end. Didn't think I would ever say that about WT, lack of horsepower.
Issue # 3
On the cool down lap notice that the coolant temp was rising and almost to 230 which is high for WT, then it kept climbing and climbing and climbing....... We starting pooring what water we had over the radiator and got it down slowly by keeping the fans running cycling the water flow. Looks as though with all of the rushing on the side of the road and the Walgreens parking lot I didnt get all of the air out of the cooling system. that could have been really really bad. But another lesson learned, slow down, don't stress and do it right.
Got the cooling issue resovled and tested and all seems to be well. Utill..........
Issue # 4 and the hits just keep coming......
On one final check over before Herman takes ove the wheel for the afternoon session, we jacked up the car for a final check over and on the last wheel we check "the left rear" I notice the wheel bearing is almost shot...... we can't take a chance on putting Herman on the track to get a time.
So,,,, now everyone sees why we are late posting today BUT IT'S not over.
We have plan to miss Hallett in OK and try to pickup a bearing ASAP and and get it installed. We are heading to a local shop in the morning with a goal of being on the road to try to catch up with the group in and keep the points going. Our alternate plan if we cant find a bearing is to order one next day air and have it in so we can be there at Hasting Nebraska event.
Wow, what a day... I was concerned all day when checking several times and then seeing the DNS posted on the OLA site. Glad to see the update and to know its nothing serious. Well, serious as in no one was hurt and WT is all in one piece. We' ll hope and pray for a better day tomorrow! Don't gjve up!
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