The VSRG Rides Together Again: The 2004 SVRA Season Finale
- Charles Christ
- Steve Church
- Stefan Vapaa
- Mary Anne Fieux
- Randy Cook
- Ed Diehl
- George Vapaa
- Jon Ewing
- William Harding
- Chris Moberg
- 1960 93F
- 1973 97 Sonett III
- 1968 97 Sonett V4
- 1964 Quantum Formula SAAB
- 1967 Brand'X' Sports Racer
- Racecar Group Photos
Crews
- Tom Cox
- Chip Lamb
- Sune Nilsson
- Laura Briggs
- Don Wollum
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2006
12/28/2004
VSRG Rides Together Again
Chuck Christ and I finally got together for an event during 2004! We had both been actively racing (Chuck more so than I), but hadn’t gotten to the same track for the same event until this one. The famed SVRA ‘Blue-Gray Challenge,’ held during late September of each year, would have been another VSRG gathering, but it was cancelled because of a track (actually a ‘non-track’) problem at Summit Point.
Here, Chuck was faithfully supported by Mary Anne Fieux, and Chuck faithfully supported Peter Dunn and his Morgan 4/4. Chuck had to complete some engine modifications for Peter first thing Friday morning (EARLY Friday morning!), but he was his usual “Ace Mechanic” self and got the job done in time for Peter’s first track session. And, he was so well prepared with his own 93F that he breezed out for his first track session, as well.
“Where is Rika?” Chuck Wondered
I wasn’t quite so well prepared. What I hoped for earlier in the week -- a short workday on Thursday -- became a long workday on Thursday. That long day cut into my planned preparation and towing time, and I didn’t leave until early Friday morning. I missed my Friday morning practice session by about an hour.
My Cup Run’neth Over
All the racers in our group were pampered and spoiled by Mary Anne’s fine cooking. She wanted to get ahead of our hunger, and help us stay focused on our cars and racing, so she brought the supplies and portable stoves necessary to put together some excellent morning and mid-day meals. I can’t thank her enough for her forethought and volunteerism.
The 93F (covered), the Morgans, and the tables laid out for the feasts (photo credit Mary Anne Fieux)
Gee, I’ve Never Seen THAT Red Light Before
The Saturday morning track sessions started early for the members of our entourage, so Peter, Chuck, Mary Anne and I were out of our hotel beds by 6:00 AM.
Peter’s morning session would prove to be his last track outing of the weekend because his transmission self-destructed. He would tow away for home Sunday morning. At least the new engine that Chuck had built for him was pulling strongly!
Peter tells me about the strange sounds coming out of his transmission after the session (photo credit Mary Anne Fieux)
My fortune turned sour during the Saturday morning session, as well. I was rockin’ and rollin’, reaching the adhesion limits of my purchased used, and rapidly aging, Goodyear Bluestreak tires, when a dash light, a bright red light, caught my eye as I exited Hog Pen turn. I had installed that light, but had never before seen it glowing. It was the low oil pressure light!
Preparing to head onto the track before 'the light' comes on (photo credit Mary Anne Fieux)
I immediately looked at my oil pressure gauge. The 20 psi reading I saw meant imminent bad news for my engine, so I hit the main power kill switch to shut everything down. At least I had the good fortune to be coming up on the entrance to the pits, and I pitched the car into the exit lane to save myself the embarrassment of being stranded out on the track.
I let the car cool down an hour or so before firing it up again to begin a thorough diagnosis. Was my weekend over? Not according to my restart, when the oil pressure gauges (two of them) read 60 psi. Several more good restarts later, along with an engine bearing bleed-down test, seemed to indicate that the earlier oil pressure loss was temporary (but still unexplained). So, I prepared myself to run in the Saturday afternoon qualifying race for Sunday’s main track event.
I drove my racecar to the covered false grid (the ceremonial starting grid for races) and shut down for the eventual race start. When I restarted the car again, I was startled to see only 20 psi of oil pressure on both gauges! That meant that only 20 psi of pressure was coming out of the oil pump. Several more restarts gave the same result, so I had to stand by the car, embarrassed, while the other racers drove away for the start of the Qualifier.
My Weekend Is Over, Unless .. (or, “Never Say Die!”)
Here was the deal: the only way for the pressure coming out of the oil pump to be 20 psi (versus 60 psi) was for the pump or the pressure relief valve to be faulty. I had to ask myself, “Self, can you get to the oil pump assembly, buried in the oil pan, and repair the problem before the Sunday race? Or should you just go home now?” Getting to the oil pump would require lifting, or at least partially lifting, the engine up away from the frame cross member located below the oil pan.
I opted to go for it, insisting that I would “Never say Die!”
Starting on Saturday afternoon, disassembling until 6 PM, and then continuing from early Sunday morning into early Sunday afternoon, I did the following:
1. Drained the engine oil and coolant
2. Unbolted only the engine bay components that would interfere with lifting the engine about 4 inches (and that’s quite a few components, it turns out)
3. Jacked the engine from below, using two floor jacks, at two points near the two front engine mounts
4. Unbolted, dropped and shimmied the oil pan out of the way (but never completely out of the engine bay) to access the oil pump at the bottom of the engine block
5. Removed the oil pump and oil pick-up tube, but not ..
Not the oil pick-up strainer cup at the end of the pick-up tube. Because the cup was no longer at the end of the pick-up tube where it belonged. Rather, it was at the bottom of the oil pan. The tubular mating surface and spot welds between the pick-up tube and the strainer cup had failed along a ragged edge, probably from fatigue and a few too many impacts on the bottom of the oil pan.
What happened after the strainer cup’s departure from the pick-up tube was the root of my engine’s oil pressure anomaly. Fragments of the cup’s broken edge were lodged in the sliding surfaces of the oil pressure relief valve. Sometimes the valve would move as designed, but sometimes it jammed in an open position. An open pressure relief valve will deliver a large volume of low-pressure oil at, say, about 20 psi.
Assessing and addressing the oil pump damage (photo credit Mary Anne Fieux)
The problem was diagnosed but the problem was not yet solved. The good crew at SascoSports jumped when I asked them to jump, and together we cleaned out the oil pump. It was about noon when I had a clean oil pump in my hand and an engine re-assembly job ahead of me if I was going to make a 4 PM false grid appointment.
With Chuck helping me (after he competed in his early afternoon main event) I had the engine running again with about half an hour to spare before my event.
The Race is On, Then Not, Then On Again
I started dead last in the grid because I failed to produce a finishing time during the Qualifier (I never even started the Qualifier after seeing only 20 psi oil pressure, remember). Being in the rearmost position on the start gave me a look at the tail end of everyone else’s car, and I noticed smoke, the kind of smoke caused by oil dripping on an exhaust pipe, churning up from the underside of an ill-fated competitor near the front.
Immediately after the race start, I went about passing slower cars and moving into the middle of the pack. I put several of them behind me even before Turn 1. However, only one and a half full race laps had been completed when the safety workers throughout Turns 7/8/9/10 were warning of a hazard on the track’s surface.
A hazard, no doubt -- an oil hazard! I noticed in Turn 10 that Rika began to float along the track surface, but I never noticed a problem in the earlier turns. Several other cars find out, though, that their cars couldn’t be controlled in Turn 7 and two slid off into the grass on the next lap. Two more cars flew off the track at Turn 10 on the following lap, including the Classic Motorsports Triumph TR4 driven my Tim Suddard.
While all those interesting things were happening in the Turn 7-10 complex (driven more slowly now, per safety crew insistence), I was attacking a few challenging competitors on the other parts of the track. A Datsun 510 offered a particular challenge, but I managed to pass him, too.
Then everything went ‘black.’ The entire race was “black flagged,” that is, and we were directed to slow immediately and proceed into the pit lane.
Safety for the remaining drivers was the priority for the race officials after so many cars had fallen victim to the oily mess on the track. They did the right thing by calling the race to a halt to clean the track surface and remove the racecars littering the grassy edges of the pavement.
I was a victim of a different sort. The race officials attempted to align the remaining competitors within the pit lane according to our positions on the track when the black flag was thrown. Issues with drivers who passed under the black flag condition were resolved to some extent. I’ll don’t know how they lost track of my position within the pack, but they convinced themselves that I belonged behind the Datsun 510 and the MG Midget that I had fought hard to pass just moments earlier. It was hard for me to hold my temper, and say to myself, “This is all for fun,” after I had been wrapped up in the “heat of battle.”
I was never granted my rightful position within the re-start order, and I never regained the positions I lost during the confusion. However, the car ran like a charm during the remainder of the race, and the sun set (literally!) on a beautiful day while my eyes gazed almost constantly at the oil pressure gauges. The tires seemed to “go away” (get slippery) as the asphalt began to cool and the drivers stepped up their aggressiveness in the waning laps of the last SVRA event of the year. Many, many intense passes and attempted passes took place during those final laps of the final race. It was an exhilarating, unforgettable experience!
Steve