Living In the Land of ...

... well since you're already there, now would be a good time to ....

We've all been there. Especially if you like to fix, fiddle, engineer and restore. You start a simple project, like fixing a bad heater fan, and the next thing you know, you have become a metallurgy expert and have built a small scale smelter in your back yard - yes dear, I promise I'll take it down once I'm done - to create the perfect blend of alloys to replicate the motor windings of the 40 year old fan.

In this case, now that I have pulled the old motor so I can replace it with the new built motor ...

Old motor up and out

With that empty tub staring at me, I think to myself. Now that motor is out, why don't I ....

And so it starts.

First up is fabbing a little plate to cover the hole in the firewall where the heater hoses and bits used to go. Since none of that stuff is in the car anymore, there was a nice big hole there. A couple of winters ago, I welded a sheet of steel on the inside of the firewall. But it was up under the dash behind the roll cage and I had to do all cramped and lying on my back, it wasn't a perfect seal. Later that year at the next race weekend my motor blew up and caught on fire. I was plenty glad that plate was there but it could be improved on. Now was the time.

That's the plate in the upper right. There's a padded notch where my fire suppression lines feed through. That will make the firewall nice and tight.

And since I'm there...

why don't I add some hi-tech heat reflecting foil to the firewall. I remember seeing it on Bill Comat's car and thinking that was great idea. Well, now's the time ...

Of course, that means detaching all the lines, cables, fiddley bits and cleaning everything.

And since I'm there ...

Let's replace that beat up old heat shielding on the right side frame rail with one from the parts car.
Of course it's pretty dirty and will look pretty crappy next to the new gold heat foil, so lets spend an 1/2 hour cleaning it up.

Okay that's installed. But now the frame rail and side of the engine compartment looks pretty crappy now.

And since I'm there ...

Might as well repaint the engine compartment. It will be only a couple more hours ...

Finally, the foil wrap of the firewall is done. Most of the engine compartment has been scrubbed, washed, degreased and paint bombed. Done right? Well..

since I'm there ...

Let's remove what's left of the emissions stuff in the upper right corner next to the brake booster. That will mean I also will need to cut the vent line going back to the tank and put a filter on it later. Can't get to it physically right now.

And look at that brake booster. All the paint's come off of it from brake fluid being spilled over the years. It could stand a little rustoleum paint on it .

And since I'm there ...

A tale of two motors

So finally finished up the motor today. It just needs to be stuffed into the car and all that entails. But meanwhile I thought you would like to enjoy some moto porn. Who doesn't like naked motor pics?

First we have some down and dirty - and when I say dirty, I mean *filthy* - pics of the street motor that got me through the season. New rod bearings, and two head gaskets and about 1/2 lb of red gasket sealer was all the love it got this year.

Greasy, oil seeping out of every seal, rusty bits everywhere. Maybe I should have bought a couple more tubes of gasket sealant. But I can't be too harsh. It did bring me 2nd in the championship this year.

Now here's a face only a mother could love. It makes me want to wash my hands just looking at it.

Finally a side that doesn't look like it's sponsored by Exxon or Shell. After a couple of beers, and last call coming up, you might take it out racing. But you wouldn't bring it home to meet Mom.

And just in case you thought it might be a Pinto or tractor engine, here's the photo evidence buried under the corrosion.

Okay, everybody back from scrubbing their eyes with Lysol? Good, here's the good stuff.

Purdy, isn't she? Block clean and painted. New bearings, seals, etc everywhere. Ceramic coated MSDS headers, tarted up camtower in CFM red.

Driver's side, a nice tasteful mix of different silver textures.

And finally the nose, just before I button the front up and hide those anodized balance shaft pulley covers.

Once this gets plugged into the car and is up and running, I'll take the other motor and give it the same treatment. Down to the bare block, rebuild it from scratch and put it up in the attic. The way it works in racing, if you have a spare <insert part here>, you'll never need it.The only things that break are the things you don't have a spare. So this should be the last motor I'll need for the car...


If you're a racer you probably just blew beer all over your keyboard after reading that statement. Sorry about that, but I can dream. Right now it's the 2012 pre-season, and anything is possible.

November Progress

The 2011 Racing season is over, but just like in Formula 1, the preparation for the 2012 season has already started.

Most of the new motor is done. Bottom end done, water pump, oil pump, head attached, oil cooler and balance shafts done. Just need the camtower, flywheel and clutch and wiring harness. The clutch, intake manifold and alternator with a/c delete bracket are on the street motor in the car. So I need to pull that lump before finishing it off.

 And the unstuffing of the street motor is well underway, hopefully I'll have it pulled by tomorrow.

I ran into a couple of slight snags with the new motor. I was attaching the oil pan since the bottom is done. The proper method to tighten the pan is a spiral tightening sequence that starts in the middle and moves out in a clockwise spiral to draw in all 22 bolts in a nice even fashion. There are 3 spiral seqences: finger tight, to 4 newton meters (nm), then finish with 8 nm. I was working on step 2, when I heard a nice sharp crack! Close examination revealed a nice crack splitting my case at the bolt hole. Off to the machine shop, where they sprayed the crack with a penetrating dye, finding the end of the crack, drilling a hole at the end to relieve stress and then tig welding it all back together.

A couple of days later I had it back from the shop and back to attaching it. This time I made it to step 3 when another crack was heard. Another hole split. I torqued all the bolts but didn't hear any more cracking. Back to the machine shop where Jim will inspect all the other areas and touch up if needed.

Look closely, you can see the split where the red mark is.

While the 944 work is progressing, my rear spacers for the 2002 showed up and I couldn't wait to fit my new wheels. The rub in the front at full lock is gone - a BFH took care of that. There still is a little rubbing in the rear, on some bumps and on turns. That tells me there's a bit of flex in the rear and the rear suspension bits probably need a good refreshing. Plus the front looks a bit high, need to lower it. I'll be looking at that and the rear in a little bit, but here's some pics.

I went up today and met with my body shop guy and talked paint. The plan is to pull the motor and all trim and deliver it as a roller. There's some minor rust work, bottom of the door and few other spots, but nothing major. His major comment was he couldn't believe in what good shape it was. I plan on having the lower trim deleted and the "american federalized" marker lights removed. The body and engine compartment will remain the original Chamonix white, while the hood, trunk and sidelines above the beltline to be painted either dark blue or black - ala Alpina style.

But that's in the future, right now it's looking sweet!

Driving by Braile

Thought you might enjoy a pic of my windshield at the end of the Nationals Race. Now imagine driving straight into the sun at 100 mph with a bunch of other crazies out there ...

That's the outside, here's a view from inside the cockpit.

If you thought "That's Frigging Crazy!", don't worry, you're normal. But if you thought "Cool!", you might be a racer ...

'02 Love

The racing season got a bit hectic in the last couple of months and the poor old 2002 has been neglected. In fact it refused to start back in Aug/Sept and I just haven't had the chance to look at it. It's been fixed now - a new distributor cap took care of it - and I've been blasting around the back roads this fall, reminding me of why I love this car. Just a sweet little car that's so much fun to toss around. With minimal sound deadening and a blistering 105 hp, it feels like you're really going a lot faster than you are. A speedo in KPH doesn't hurt either.

But it's time to show it some love.

First up is a Elefant front strut brace. I put in a rear strut brace and combo battery box a couple of years ago, but neglected the front.

This is a nice piece, powder coated in black, and should tighten up the front end considerably. A 1970's car stiffness is a bit lacking shall we say.

Strut bar installed

Next step is to install the "Appearance Package". Time for some wheel and tire upgrades. The car came with 13" E30 BMW wheels which was a popular style. I hope to end up with a what an enthusiast would do back in the 70's. Bigger wheels and brakes, upgraded suspension, a bunch of Alpina upgrades, etc. This isn't a pristine original car when I got it. The turbo flares, front and rear spoilers were added sometime in its earlier life. So while I won't be turning it into a Restro-Rod, I don't have to worry about the purity of originality either.

 Panasports and MinLites were the hot ticket for race cars and race car wanna-be's back then. So let go with some 15" Rota RB's in gunmetal. Some nice sticky Kumho Esta 225x45's will replace the wimpy US Generals junk currently on. Of course, that will mean I will actually go around corners with some grip instead  of tortured squealing.

Nationals 2011

So how was Nationals? 

Well the partying was good ...

Team Comat showing how the Canadians drink beer

The results were good.

I placed 2nd in the Region Championships

The Spoiled Boys Racing Team (Joe and Case Crowell) came up from North Carolina and dominated the field, breaking the stranglehold the Canadian's had on the 944 Cup championship the last several years. And when I say dominated, on Friday on the test day, at a track they never had seen before, they were putting in 1:36 laps. Now I've done 1:36's before there, but this time, we were using the turn 3 chicane, which adds another 2+ seconds at least. I'd hate to see their times when they actually get some experience at this track!

But getting to the end of the weekend was a challenge for me and many others.

Friday

Friday started out well. Most of all the 44 guys were here for the test & tune day. Skies were clear and sunny, temps in the upper 50's,lower 60's. Just a nice day to be at the track. There were reports that a wicked snow storm was coming - several inches of snow was predicted - but that was hard to believe with the perfect weather we were having. Plus it's October. Snow? Really?

Dyno testing of cars was done throughout the weekend by John Behe

We ran the course with the turn 3 chicane in, this is the first time I have done that configuration. I like the course much better without it. It hurts our momentum too much. First session was just a get acquainted with the chicane laps. 2nd test session after 3 laps I started to hear a clunking noise out back. I started to come into the pits and on the entry the rear started to lock up. I coasted to a stop and took a look under the car. Nothing obvious, axles still looked good. I tried to move forward under power and get about 3 feet and then  hear this nasty clunk and the rear would lock. I had to be towed back to my spot with the rear lifted off the ground. Diagnosis: Broken Transmission. Welcome to my Nationals weekend.

Looking down the garage bays - mostly 944 cup racers

The left side of the garages were mostly 944's also. Here is Rob Provost's SP1 car in the foreground.

However, I did have some luck. I don't have a backup tranny, as all the parts cars I've bought over the years have been automatics. That has been something on my shopping list. Now it was time to go shopping. Big Joe Boschulte had a spare 89 tranny with factory LSD in his trailer and was willing to part with it for some cold hard cash. I had also sprung this weekend for a garage which I usually don't, so we had a nice dry workspace. Gerald Sweetwine from John Behe's shop, and Bernie, Steve Randolph's mechanic gave me a hand throughout the day and we swapped the trannys in and out.

Working tranny going in, dead tranny on right. DD supervising

I missed all the rest of the track sessions for the day, but a spin around the paddock showed that at least I had 6 gears, 5 forward and 1 reverse. I was back in business.

Alan (red/white suit) Cohen's #144 going on the dyno. 

My garage mate, John Torgensen from South Carolina

Next door garage neighbors: some of the fast guys from Canada: Gary Loudsbury, chief mechanic for driver Randy Smith (#78)

Saturday

On Saturday we woke up to the sound of rain. Unbelievably the Weather channel was predicting 4 inches of snow in Baltimore and Washington, and 12-18 inches in New York. It's still freaking October! The day was the perfect definition of miserable conditions. The track was wet with poor drainage, streams and puddles everywhere. Which is the norm for Thunderbolt. Lightning, the companion circuit, drains pretty well, and racing in the rain there isn't too bad. Not the case for Thunderbolt. And it was cold, upper 30's and lower 40's. Grip was a theoretical concept at best.

Today was qualifying, and the qualifying race which would set the grid for the Nationals race on Sunday. It also counted as the final regional race for the chapters. For me, this was the focus of my weekend. Finishing well meant clinching 2nd in the North chapter. Regional championships are a season long affair unlike National which is a one shot deal. With the miserable conditions my goal was to stay out of trouble and cruise home to take 2nd. I qualified mid pack and took the green in light rain. By the 1st corner, the rain had intensified and coming sideways. Visibility and grip were horrible. I thought I saw some snow flurries mixed in with the rain. This was going to be a long day.

Surprisingly the race was clean with cars spinning off the track every now and then (including me) but no metal to metal contact. I brought the car home in 18th overall, 15th in class and took 2nd in the region. Mission accomplished.

Maggie, my official photographer, spent her time in the garage or the cab of the truck and declined to take any pics, not that I blamed her. With the racing done, I retired to the hotel room for a long hot shower and then to the Cup Annual banquet and awards dinner.

Congrats to Steve Randolph who took 1st in the North Region.

Steve wins a Million Cup Dollars. 

The Crowell brothers display the latest in tasteful raceware.

Sunday

Sunday brought us clear skies and a drying track. It was still cold, but a 180 degrees turnaround from the conditions the day before.

For the rain racing, the chicane was taken out. But for today, the chicane was back on the table. A short practice session gave me some more time to work on my line though it and then it was time to go racing.

Heading to grid for the main race

The track was still cold, but at least it was dry. There was still a river running across the track through the braking and turn in zone for the chicane, and other wet spots around the track. And you definitely don't want to go off, as where it wasn't mud it was sodden grass.

I finished 18th overall in the qualifying race on Saturday, so that's where I started, in mid pack.

Green Flag!

Well, the start was wild and woolly for sure! 3 or 4 wide into turn one, offs, contacts and more. Here's the start from John Torgensen who was towards the back of the field.

And Yan Tremblay's view. You can see me tap Chris Lubinski (red car) going into the chicane.

And here's mine, but my video is pretty crappy.

Going into turn 1, a whole bunch of us were showered with mud. My windshield became totally opaque. I tried my wipers just before going into the chicane and that just made matters worse.

My video died when Chris L and I hit. I continued on but could barely see out the front. This seems to be my season for driving blind. From turn 2 on, through the entry into the Jersey Devil, the sun was shining directly in front, making the mud impossible to see through. I needed another car to follow to make the turn in to the chicane. Once I passed a car and had nobody to follow I would miss the turn in and go careening over the curbs and grass. Despite driving by braile, my lap times were competitive and I was able to hunt down and pass some folks. I started 18th overall and ended up 8th overall, 7th in class. However, I paid for my misdeeds, receiving a 13 for contact with Chris.


Tyler Comat, who had to start at the back due to a Team mistake, came up on me later in the race. I held him off for several laps until I blew the entry (and probably the exit) of the chicane and got by me. Tyler went on to take 3rd. But way at the front were the two Crowell brothers, Joe and Case. It was like watching Seb Vettel. Those two just checked out at the front and nobody could touch them. The were 3 seconds a lap faster than the rest of the field. Joeboy went on to take the win, beating his brother to the checker.

2011 Nationals Cup podium (photo 44Cup.com)

And so ends the 2011 Season. Considering all the challenges, 2nd place in the standings wasn't too bad. I had some bad luck and some good luck. Almost every race was a podium finish and  I had several poles plus the track record for the Lightning course. And while it took a lot of work for that result, most importantly, it was a lot of fun. But it could be even better of course. So it's now officially the "off season" which means time to start working on the car for next season. My partially built motor in the garage is calling my name....

Summit Point PCA race - part 2

So where were we? Ah yes, strapped into the car, rain pouring down and ready to start another race at Summit Point. The skies teased us with some lightening of the deluge, but no love for race 2. 10 miles away in Winchester it was dark and gloomy, but not raining. Looking at the radar, Summit Point seems to be stuck in a Groundhog Day loop, a giant rotating green splash that seems stuck on us. All totally irrelevant of course, 944 Cup racers are made of stern stuff, we race in the snow after all (February @ VIR). While I wasn't on pole, I was on the outside of pole but with a transparent windshield this time. A tradeoff I would glady do again.

Bob Page (blue 76) and Chris Derecola (yellow 24) at Nationals 2010

Bob Page in the blue #76 was lined up next to me on the inside on pole. Right behind me is Steve Randolph (#3). We're in about row 4 or 5 of the race group. We round turn 10, eyes straining for the green flag. Revs build and hearts are beating 180 bpm and then Green Flag!

Bob and I pedal neck and neck down the straightaway. I decide to stick with the outside lane and not do anything stupid since it was still pouring. I tuck behind another car and follow them in the braking zone. Now I'm usually a good latebraker. I'm even better in the rain since my car has ABS ... As I'm diving on the brakes, I'm watching some cars skid off in front of me into the gravel trap or run off road. I'm also thinking. Man, Bob's waiting awfully late to brake ... I bet he's going to not going to make the corner, I better do something about this.  I check up and go wide in the corner figuring he would go flying past the front of me. And here's come a flying splash of blue 944 on my right side. Unfortunately Bob didn't miss me, but nailed me pretty good in the wheel and front fender. Just like a banked pool shot he goes flying off at an angle and into the outside gravel trap.

Other than a slight deviation in my course, it didn't do a whole lot to me. I continued on at full tilt and into the class lead.

Bob Page's car at Nationals 2010

Now Bob is breathing down my neck in the championship. With his win in race 1, he's only 2 points behind. With him in the gravel, now's my time to make some points. With cars spinning off everywhere at the start I guess the corner workers were busy. I watch the black flag stations (I could see them this race!) as I go by but don't see any call to come in. A couple of laps later they close the pits as Bob was able to make it to pit lane but broke down and blocked it. He needed to be towed in to clear it.

Eventually Steve Randolph (#3) is parked on my bumper. This should be a fun race, we should be evenly matched in the rain. Entering the carousel (turn 6) my car just doesn't have any power. Normally, I downshift into 3rd gear at the bottom of the Chute (turn 5), accelerate on the short straight, a light left foot brake, turn in and back on the gas. This time nothing much happens. WTF? I glance at the Data System and it says I'm in 3rd gear. I don't believe it, it feels like I'm in 5th. I reshift and back into 3rd. Still no power. Steve just dives into the inside and motors on past.

The car feels slow. I'm keeping my foot to the floor through the rest of the carousel - normal proceedure for a 944 anyway - but not much drama. Rolling through turn 9, it's like my turbo spooled up and came on boost as the power came back online. The middle of turn 9 was not an auspicious location for this to happen and the rear stepped out on me. Some quick hands and we were back on course. With Steve disappearing in front of me of course.

Halfway down the straight, the power goes away again, then reappears halfway around turn 10. And so it goes the rest of the race, power, no power, power - holy shit not here! - no power ... I'm in 2nd but not destined to stay there long. Dave Gibson comes rolling up and after some token resistance by me, goes on by. Into 3rd now. Crap.

And now here come Robert Provost in his SP1 car filling my mirrors.  Here's a couple of laps from his viewpoint.

My car is at least consistent. Power, no power, power, no power. But as the race winds down the on power cycle is getting longer. I figure something got wet (duh!) and is finally drying out a bit. I manage to keep Robert behind me and bring the car home in 3rd. Another podium finish and some breathing room from Bob. With the finish I now need to just finish 14th or higher to get a lock on 2nd in the championship.

The turn 1 hit resulted in a dented fender, easily fixed at home with a mallet and some krylon paint, and a cut tire. It was time to get another set of wets anyway.

Tomorrow is another sprint and a 60 minute enduro, both non-point races. Still more challenges ahead, the weekend is definitely not over. However, it was time to head off for beer and the bar-b-que track dinner.

Delaware PCA DE @ NJMP

After the Summit Point club race - which I'll get back to shortly - I had to quickly fix up the car for the annual Delaware PCA region DE event, which is held at Thunderbolt the next weekend. This is our 4th year doing this, and for the past several years I've been the registrar. We only do one DE a year, but we try to make it one of the best for everybody.

First item to address was to replace the radiator fan that was given me so much problems. Pulling it out I was surprised to see that it wasn't a thrown balance weight, but that a whole fan blade had broken off.

Well, in my defense, it was pouring rain, wet, dark and gloomy at the race, and the fans black, so hard to see. I had my choice of fan assemblies from my pile of parts and bolted another one right in. A quick wash of the car outside, when it finally stopped raining for a bit, and it was off to the track.

Friday was our "open track" day where we run alternating 30 min sessions and in theory, get 4 hours of track time. I had a blast, running on my Toyo RA1's that look like Hoosiers now, with god knows how many heat cycle on them. On Saturday my on-track time came to an end during the 2nd session in the morning when I blew a hole in my headers. Not wanting to risk a burnt valve, I parked the car. After all, all I have to do is one more race where I finish better than 14th and I grab 2nd in the 944 Cup North Region championship. I finished out the weekend doing my registrar duties and the occasional instructing stints.

Back home I pulled the header and unwrapped the heat tape and found the damage was greater than I though.

The top area is the one I was able to see at the track. The bottom crack was invisible.

 Even worse, the crack went all the way around the pipe. This header is done. I'll keep it around and try my modest welding skills on it. If it survives I'll keep it as a backup. But for now, I went and ordered a new MSDS Header that was ceramic coated from Lindsey Racing.

Looking Sweet!

The car was running warm at the DE and using water somewhere, so I'll also take the opportunity to tear down the top end to see if I can find out what's up with that. Most of its already off the car and I'll finish up this weekend.

Summit Point PCA race - part 1

For the twitter nation, here's the short version of the weekend: dry, warm, beer, cold, rain, fogged up, 2nd, more rain, bang, miss, 3rd, beer, ribs, trophies,tires, more beer, dry, cold, still missing, 2nd, cup car, mud, 1st, pit, cup car, spin, overheat, dnf, home, beer.

You can leave now, the grownups will stay.....

Friday was dry and warm. With my old 12 heat cycle tires I was able to get down into the 1:27's. Which was nice as I haven't been to Summit Point in years after the thousands of laps I've done there. The track felt good and I remembered where all the turns where. We had 3 practice sessions and then the rookies had their practice starts and fun races and it was time for some beer. We ended up at Winchester Thai (recommended) for dinner in the pedestrian mall in Old Winchester.

944 Cup Head Honcho Dave Derecola has moved to South Carolina from the Maryland area, and so has joined the ranks of the Gentlemen racers, doing arrive and drive, letting his crew, in this case, Gerald from John Behe's shop, drive the truck and trailer and wrench on the car.

Gerald working on DD's car

David Mann and Dave Derecola.Steve's Randolph's car in the background.

By Saturday morning, the clouds had moved in and it was threatening rain. Soon it was time for qualifying and the track was damp enough the decision was made to go to Hoosier Wet tires. And they stayed on the car for the rest of the day. Our group was a mix of 944 Cup cars, Spec Boxsters and misc 911's. It was a bit crowded and I never got a clean lap and qualified 4th, within a second of the rest of guys on a wet track.

Steve Randolph #3 - North Region Champion 2011 -
I was mathematically eliminated over the weekend. when Steve finished
only 1 position behind me. Still in the hunt for 2nd.

Bernie, Steve Randolph's crew and mechanic

Sitting on the grid for race #1, the rain was coming down pretty good. I was feeling pretty good myself, I enjoy rain races. It seems though, that is a minority opinion, as the run group size was only 50% or less from the day before. The call comes, and we head out for the pace lap, taking my position on the outside (left). Just them my windshield starts fogging up. WTF? I use shaving cream on the inside to defog since I don't have any defrosters. The qualifying session was just as wet and visibility was great.

That wasn't the case now, it was seriously fogging up. I could wipe about a 1 foot square circle just in front of me, I couldn't reach any more. We come onto the front straight and there must have been a green flag, not that I could see it, but we all went. Huge waves of spray coming off the cars in front of me. I assume it was coming off the cars, as even if they were 5 feet in front of me, I couldn't see them.

'Well this sucks' I'm thinking. I head to the inside hoping to get out of the spray so I can maybe see turn one and brake for it. The spray lessens and I run down the inside with all the other 944's stacked behind a slow Boxster and take the class lead.

Some of the SuperCups - Noel Hall's turbo

Meanwhile in the car, the fogging is getting worse. Pretty soon my windshield is solidly opaque with just the little porthole in front that I can reach with my glove. The rear hatch was mostly fogged up also, so visibility to the rear was mostly from my left side drivers mirror. Anything out the right side of my windshield is just not there. Since there is only 3 left hand turns with all the rest right-handers, that made driving a bit challenging. I started playing the game "Guess where the ... (brake marker/apex/track-out) ... is". I started taking mental snapshots of the turns ahead and when I thought I was in the vicinity, I would turn in.

Overall, I sucked at this new game. I think I may have hit 3 apexes and maybe a couple of braking points in the entire race. I would brake way too late, get all crossed up and squirelly - remember it's a wet track and slippery. But I was still in the lead!

About lap 7 I caught a 911 that was getting stacked up in turn one behind a Spec Boxster, slowing us both down. Bob Page, who I had been keeping a consistent gap behind me even with my driving by braile style, was able to catch up and parked himself on my bumper.

Heading into Wagon Bend (turn 3) I totally missed the braking point (my marker is on the right side ...) and got the car very much out of shape. With arms windmilling, I gather it back up, but Bob got by. With Bob actually able to see out his windshield, I was never able to get past him and brought the car home in 2nd place. With Bob taking the win, he was now only 2 points behind me. I must finish in front of him in the next race. Steve Randolph rounded out the top 3. Since he finished only 1 position behind me, I was told that mathematically eliminates me from the championship - ala  Formula One! But I still have a good shot at 2nd as long as I can keep Bob behind me.

More SuperCups - Steve Wilson's turbo

Check out that wing on Wilson's 951

944 Cup dinning at Joe's aka The Racing Chef'
(from left) Bob Page, Steve Randolph, DD

After a nice lunch prepared by our own 'Racing Chef', Joe Boschulte, it was time to strap back into the car for Race #2. Still raining, but  I had redone the shaving gel treatment to my windshield and I was expecting to at least see this time. And that was the result, good visibility throughout the race. With that problem solved, Mr Murphy wasn't done with me yet. More drama was in store.