Skaraborg Street Finals, 28-29 August 2010
We came back tuesday lunch from our trip to Poland.
Friday efternoon we headed off for Moholmsstrippen, some 300km away.
In between I change cylinder head gasket, regrinded all valves and repaired the gearbox.
Good thing I had vacation from work all week.
In Poland there were still summer.
At Moholmsstrippen there were more winter than summer.
Okay, it was maby not that bad but it was autumn by sure.
5-6 degrees C at night and maby tops 20 degrees C in daytime.
We came to the track right after 01.00 and everyone were already asleep,
so we decided to build the pit in the morning instead.
The weather were shifting all weekend, from sun to rain and thunder.
We ran in a class called Index B, wich means free modifications but 10,0seconds breakout.
The track really fealt slippery. Almost like doing a second burnout.
In our second round traction was alot better and we ran 10,002 wich made us No 1 qualifyers.
Even though the cylinder head gasket was brand new we found some water in the oil...
...so we chose to save the engine from more rounds than needed until we had time to correct that.
Being No 1 qualifyers we didnt have any more to proove anyway.
In the evening it started to rain heavily transforming our pit to a small lake.
We were invited to a lobster eating party so we didnt have to sit in our lake all evening.
Sundays weather offered similar conditions.
Cold, sunny and possibillity of rain at any second.
The track was misted with track bite all morning so we just had to have a go before the eliminations.
Exept for water in the oil, we also noticed the EGT was climbing some 20-30 degrees for each run.
After this run the EGT was starting to get dangerously high.
I talked to some friends and got help realizing it was a timing issue.
A quick check showed timing was 6 degrees too late. Question was now why and how.
First we checked the adjustable timing gears, but they hadnt mooved at all,
so we retightened the trigger disc in the distributor/cas
and manually advanced the timing until we got what we programmed.
As qualifyer No 1 in a 9car ladder,
we got a solo run first out wich we used to see that everything was ok with the corrected timing.
In such a small ladder it tends to be quite little time between the runs
so we didnt want to run too hard causing the car or cluch to overheat.
The solo run was like a walk in the park.
When I met No 5 qualifyer Roger Pettersson in his green Volvo P1800 it was a complete different story.
Now it was all in, and preferable a bit more too.
Unfortunally it was a bit too much attack,
so I redlighted with 0,3 seconds, and then crashed second gears synchro...
...and that was really sad since I ran my second fastest 60-ft time for the weekend in that run.
We packed up our pit amd loaded the car as soon as I got back,
becaus at that time the clouds were looking really dark.
Not surprising at all it started to rain heavily as soon as we left the track.
It was raining and sunny in different combinations the whole way home.
Someware on the way home the truck needed more oil so we stopped at a petrol station to buy some,
but it took almsot 30 minutes to get it due to numerous middle aged fat whomen
trying to decide wich kind of hot dogs they wanted and how the soda mashine were working.
After a while I just had it and shouted, Go the hell to Mc Donalds! This is a petrol station, damn it!
Suddenly the next five customers or so didnt want any hot dogs anymore... =)
Now the engine has to be repaired, just as the gearbox. Cluch has to be cleaned
and I will look for a different trigger instead of the distributor.
Next race is 18-19 september at Kjula raceway.
Pray for no snow, and good traction. =)
Photos: Therese Bodell, woken.se, Elenor Bengtsson Skaraborgsbild and Daniel Larsson.
