July 26
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You know it's going to be a good story when it starts out "your
not going to believe this one".
After 3 weeks off we were ready to get back racing. Dick and I
talked about some changes for the car to fix the tight in the middle
condition we've been having. We got to the track early enough to
make sure we got enough practice to try the changes we planned. That’s
where the plan ended as we went out the first practice and the oil
pressure light came on after 3 laps. So I came in and we checked
the oil level. It was over full which got all of us wondering what
was going on so we checked the oil screen which lets about 1qt.of oil
out, nothing was in it. Got the oil level right and went back out
and the same thing happened. Came back in and checked the oil
filter to make sure it didn’t come apart or if there was something in
it which would be par for the course this year. Decided to
qualify, qualified 4th; the best we've done in a while. Decided to
change the oil as a last resort and run the trophy dash and see what
happens. Same thing, which we pretty much figured anyway. We
decided to line up and run 3 laps and pull off. I was supposed to
start 4th but pulled to the rear and avoid the wrecks (good thing
too). On the 2nd lap 3 cars wrecked coming out of turn 4 and I
picked up 3 spots. Another 2 laps and 2 more cars wrecked, 2 more
laps 2 more cars and 3 laps later 2 more cars. We call this
buzzard racing (just picking off the dead).
We are just laughing on the radio, I'm running 9th and haven't passed a
car. The car was running pretty good even though I was lifting off
the gas just past the starting line and watching the oil pressure gauge
through the turn. It was only going down to 30lbs and then I would
get back on the gas and the cars in front of me weren't getting too far
away. The crew kept asking me if the oil light was coming on and I
said no. We just cruised around for a few laps and still no light
so I pushed it hard for a couple of laps still no light came on. Dick
asked me if the light had come on and I said no, he said drive it
then. That was around lap 18. Started passing cars and
moving forward. Now the only people with a radio was my spotter
Darren and Dan so the rest of the crew was in the dark on what was
happening. We also had put on old tires because we didn’t want
to put any heat cycles on my new ones, they were the right sizes just
old tires we had in the truck. I Had moved up to 4th with 6
laps left when a car lost their motor coming out of turn 2, taking the
3rd place car into the wall and causing a red flag. By this time
most of the crew went and got a radio. Fred asked me if the light
was even working because he had taken the gauges apart when we were
trying to find the problem earlier. So I turned the ignition on
and no light came on, thought about it for a second and realized the tach
and gauge light switch was off because I turned it off in line up,
turned it on and the light came on (big oops). Now I feel pretty
stupid and I tell them what I did and Dick came back and said leave the
switch off. I told him I never run the main with the gauge lights
on because the track lights are good enough and I can see them just
fine. So now I'm wondering how long I've been running with this
oil pressure problem. Re-started with 6 laps to go, now my tires
are really old and the track has oil clean up all over it and I knew it
was going to be slick. Almost spun out coming into turn 3 and
coming off turn 2 I lost 3rd but got it back with 2 to go to, finishing
third. I hope this wasn’t too long of a story for you to read
but it just goes with the rest of the year. Overall I'm really happy
with the finish and the car, the changes we made worked and the car
rotated in the center the best it's ever had in a long time. Took
the motor apart on Monday, the oil pump pick up had broken off and was
laying in the bottom of the pan. Checked the bearings, they looked
brand new so we might be having bad luck on the track but good luck off
the track.
