It’s nothing if not consistent: The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. This is the last year of my racing:
Except that the only sponsor I have is my barren wallet.
The warranty-replacement MCCS engine ran well at Spokane, after we found and fixed an interference issue between the rear main seal they put on it and the MED clutch assembly.
So I felt hopeful for the weekend when I rolled out of grid for a casual practice session on Friday morning. That session ended with me and the car sitting on the outside of turn 2, and a consequent flat-tow in. This is the second time in just over a year I’ve been flat-towed in from turn 2 at Pacific with a dead MCCS motor. The first one had a piston break at the wrist pin. It was a crappy cast piston, not the forged piston I’d paid for and that I received photos of.
Just call me Vinko Bogataj.
What we initially diagnosed as a bent valve and likely geometry issue actually turned out to be a broken cam follower. The broken end unfortunately fell off the cam, the top piece got chewed up too, and the push rod proceeded to gouge the cam. As I type this the car is sitting in the garage with the short block still in it; I haven’t had to heart to pull it, remove the pan, and inspect the metal debris in it. Of course, with the cam follower gone the valve lash was way too much and the top of the pushrod chewed up the rocker arm. So the top end has metal in it, too.
I’d like to know where the cam follower came from, but MCCS won’t tell me. Caveat emptor.
So the weekend started shitty. And, in case you haven’t heard, it ended with the most shitty thing that can happen in racing: A driver lost his life in an on-track incident shortly after lunchtime on Sunday. The rest of the day was canceled, we all went home feeling awful. Fuck. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Still here? Good. Because there’s some really good stuff to share, too.
Because this is how they roll, I wasn’t even out of my driver’s suit when Rod and Owen rolled their spare motor into my paddock space. They scoffed at my protestations about using their spare motor again (I ran it last year at Historics after the first MCCS engine failure). And so we spent the rest of Friday removing the sad motor, wrecked by a shitty $8 part, and putting in Rod’s spare. If I’d had ten more minutes I would have made the last race session of the day- great help all around.
Thankfully our first session on Saturday wasn’t until 11:15, so I got to sleep in a bit and make sure the car was ready. Having missed qualifying and race 1, both on Friday afternoon, I start at the back. I spent my first two full race seasons, running on low-power 948s, starting at the back of the grid. It feels comfortable and familiar- no expectations, no pressure, just fun.
I move up some positions and have Stephen and some sports racers in view when a sports racer behind me goes off into the tire wall on the outside of 5a. For reasons I don’t know, instead of a local yellow, the race is checkered very early.
Next up, right after lunch and as the feature race of the day, is Battle of the Brits 2. Started in 2025, this race includes Minis of all types, along with all the Sprites and Midgets. It is its own race and also serves as the Sprite-Midget Challenge race for the weekend. We’re gridded in a random order and 15 of the 26 Sprites, Midgets, and Minis in the paddock take the green flag (another strong attrition weekend). Five go side by side past the starter’s tower and the race is epic fun across the grid. Unfortunately, a well-meaning person in grid turned off my front camera after I’d already started it recording, so I have zero front-footage from my car. Evan graciously sent me his video, which I’ve edited in with my rear camera footage and some that his parents took from the grandstands at turn 9.
With a decent grid position relative to the fastest cars and some luck at the start, I had a 2 second lead after the first lap. But it was Evan rapidly closing that gap and when he passed me on the front straight after the second lap I expected him to disappear. I was as stunned as anyone when I somehow kept up and managed to pass him back. He got me again on the front straight and we swapped the lead five more times before I managed to grind out a lead that I was able to hold against his faster car on the straight. In the end we both ran personal best laps and both recorded our first laps under 1:40, a 1:39.665 for me. Wow…I knew the car had a sub-1:40 lap in it, I just didn’t think the driver did.
Photo: Tom Brookshire
Unfortunately, Rod went back to the paddock during the race with his second blown head gasket of the weekend and his spare motor, in my car, became his primary motor. After some conversation, I convinced him that we should wait until after the last race of the day to start pulling it, and that he should drive my car (so we didn’t both miss the race). He drove it well, with best lap just two seconds off his personal best in a car he’d never driven. Did I mention his car is right-hand drive? So he was also shifting with the wrong hand. So well driven!
I then hatched a plan to take a good stock head and put it on the short block I’d started the weekend with. At the time I still thought it was just an unexplained bent valve on the race head. We worked until midnight on Saturday to get Rod’s motor out and put my cobbled together motor in. It wasn’t until I went to set valve lash on Sunday that we realized something bigger was wrong.
Rod had a good race in my car Saturday afternoon and two good sessions in his car on Sunday. The dice I had with Evan is really a dead tie for the most fun session I’ve had since I started racing, right there with the race last Fall where Stephen and I exchanged the lead 13 times in 11 laps. Evan and I recorded personal best lap times, both in the 1:39s, which is solid for a Spridget at Pacific Raceways.
In other great news, the Arnold car ran well all weekend and Ehab drove it exceptionally, routinely catching and passing much faster cars in the corners with a mild 1098. Ehab has purchased a built race car and we expect to see him racing it in August at Mission. The 12 car will, hopefully, be back in at Mission for the British Columbia Historic Motor Races in August, and it and the Arnold car should be at the Columbia River Classic at Portland over Labor Day weekend.
Okay, videos!
I make it out for a shortened race Saturday morning:
Battle of the Brits 2 (with Evan’s front-camera footage):
Rod races the 12 car Saturday afternoon:
Ehab rocks it in the Arnold car Sunday morning: