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4th place "Pro-Class" finish!
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One more race left in the summer 2005 season.. held in Acton, near Billings, with some prize money up for grabs.
We convoyed over with Blair and Jason, then imposed on fellow IH-er Robert "JetFxr" outside Billings for a night's rest and good company before heading to the race Sunday morning.The drive over to Acton from Robert's place in Huntley was fun - what's usually a good condition packed dirt/gravel road was a bit soft from the constant rain the day before.
Robert got along fine in his short-box step-side Travelette, but my 2wd long-box tonner with the trailer hooked up was having a hard go of it - throttling up hills with wheel spin to reach the top, and once I got going fast enough, the soft surface started making the truck n' trailer whip about a bit, making me slow down, and back to spinning in the mud.
It was even bad enough at one point that I had to call Robert for the strap, and we weren't sure if we were going to make it up the hill without offloading the racer even at that!
..but ultimately we pulled in, unloaded, suited up, teched in, and got ready to race.
Because I was 4x4, I wound up racing in the "Pro" class with the "Pro Trucks" and anything 4x4 or Big-block, which was fine by me.
I did OK in the first heat, just taking it easy, but launching the Scout harder n' harder each time.
The stock automatic valve body was very irritating to me, along with the engine not really wanting to pull in anything but 1st (whether I was getting 2nd or going straight to 3rd, I'm not sure yet) in high-range.
I still managed to keep ahead of Heather Jongeling and a few trucks that broke, though! Took on some body damage when someone pulled in front of me, then swung about a bit and the passenger quarter got leaned over a bit, but at least it wasn't all wadded up like Memorial Day.
A few things came out of that first heat.
I like the Bilstein 7100s. Landings were not as painful as before with the shocks correctly dissipating a lot of the energy, and the reservoir shocks held up for the 8 laps (or was it 6?). OTOH, the lowered bump stops didn't stop the driveshaft from hitting the transmission pan again - not a lot, but enough to make it leak.
I also still don't have enough suspension for the big jumps - it would land flat and OK, but slam the stops and then rebound back off the ground. That can't be good. :D
I pouned the pan out flat again, gooped it up, and dumped more fluid in before the main event.
Pulled out for the main, and as I was pulling up to the start line, my brakes failed - NOTHING - and I rear-ended Mike Jongeling.. fortunately, his bumper and my radiator absorbed the worst of it.. the radiator being bent in half horizontally, tagging both fenders, and pushing the electric fan over the water pump.
This meant by the time we were ready to race, I was already out of coolant and looking at the 240-250 mark on the temp gauge, but I was stuck in the middle of the pack and couldn't get out - so I ran one lap and pulled off.
Good enough for 4th place and a $150 payback. I did jump it again enough to hit the pan and make it leak some more.
Upon loading it on the trailer I also found the engine was trying to leaf - tearing the frame side motor mounts from the frame.
So now Devil sits outside, waiting for a few other projects to get taken care of before I pull it in for the winter overhaul, that includes freshening up the engine and fixing the various frame failures..