though not close to race-ready yet, I took the car to BIR for their final race day of the season, mainly to get a road test of the work done so far. I regarded every system on the car to be suspect since I had only moved the car under its own power a few hundred feet previously. Ambient temp that morning was 40* and was informed by tech that they would only be running 1/8 mile and not until track temp was up to minimum safety level. that was ok by me, after passing tech, I proceeded to drive around the pits and return road for the next 30-40 minutes. most systems checked ok, carbs were a little fat but that was fine for today, I purposely set the throttle so it would only open about 2/3 of the way. finally got to make a pass about 1pm.
Traction was non-existant in 1st and 2nd, (i had not done any work on the rear other than set pinion angle and clamp the springs on the 9" that came with the car). coasted thru traps at 70 mph, the steering seemed to be ok but would take some getting used too. the guy at the time slip shack said I had left a fair amount of dirt and debris at the starting line! that was understandable considering the car had been sitting in the desert for years. After blowing air into the frame rails and taking with some other drivers in the pits, I went for a second pass, in the right lane this time where traction seemed a little better.
Up in smoke again off the line, short shifted to 2nd and Bang! car wanted to make a right turn, stopped and check for and leakage, none, so idled off to the trailer. day was finished with a broken left axel. Overall I considered a succesful day, look forward to next year!!
