I had mentioned the Winter Baja to John and Pansy Comer of Gryphin Racing and they seemed pretty interested in trying out one of our "Baja" races, and February was a slow racing month for them.. so they decided to make the nearly 900 mile drive to come racing.
I came home from work Friday around 5:30 to find John and Pansy waiting for me, along with Mark and Kathy Korsten, and David Nueneke. This was their first visit to my home, so they received the tour. ;-)
We moved into the house to watch some racing vidoes and relax a bit for the evening. While we were visitng, Blair Howze arrived from Bozeman.
Early the next morning we set to work on some preparations for Little Devil - mounting the passenger seat and 4-point racing belts that Blair brought, changing out the carb, reattaching the front driveshaft and a number of other things that needed done.. we finished our work just after Mike Jongeling from Bozeman pulled up with his new crew-cab Ford and gooseneck flatbed. I drove Little Devil onto the flatbed behind Mike's Early Bronco, and we were underway to the race site in Cascade, 60 miles away.
Michelle and I rode with the Korstens and stopped at McDonald's to get everyone breakfast. My mother and our black Labrador, "Ebony" had the pleasure of making the trip in Blair's Early Bronco.
Somehow, thanks to Mark Korsten's heavy right foot, we managed to pass the Comers (in "Argus" towing their race truck "Banshee" no less) on our way to the race site. Just as we turned around to head back and find the Comers and Jongelings (who had all of the race vehicles) we spotted them coming up the road. Comers had missed the first Cascade exit and had entered town from the opposite direction, running into Jongelings who had stopped at the grocery store.
Once everyone had finally arrived, we unloaded Little Devil and Jongeling's EB from the gooseneck and warmed 'em up. Meanwhile Banshee was being cranky and refused to run, which ultimately turned out to be a frozen mechanical fuel pump that was fixed with a length of fuel hose bypassing the mechanical pump.
It was cold in Cascade. As we started getting the race rigs ready, the wind began to blow and it began to snow. Carhart Coveralls were the "in-style" that day. It seemed everyone had a pair on, and those that didn't were wishing they did.
Blair and I strapped into my race Scout, with my mom, the dog, and my girlfriend, Michelle, in the back (might have been a few others, I can't remember if David rode along for that or not). We started on the parade lap, but stopped when we found John Comer trying to get Banshee's front clip to stay up - the welds holding the under-side framework of the tilt front clip to the sheet metal had broken. We loaned him some of the bungee cords we had handy, and then continued to finish the parade lap - Little Devil's 304 didn't feel very strong for even the parade lap.
| Parade Lap - 128Kbps MPEG - 454kb | Parade Lap - 384Kbps MPEG - 1.3MB |
We stopped at the pits long enough for Blair to get his neck warmer and associated cold-weather gear and then headed to the starting line.
I made ONE lap.
| One Lap - 128K - 2.9MB | One Lap - 384K - 8.67MB |
| 128K - 518kb | 384Kbps - 1.49MB |
As I came down the backstretch straightaway towards the "pits" I glanced over at the oil pressure gauge and noted - 40psi. The motor still didn't feel like it was running very strong, but I had my foot in it as far as it would go.
Just before coming by the pits, we crested a hile and found Mike Jongeling throwing the front clip of his EB off to the side of the course - it had broken off.
Here, as I pass the pits, you might notice Blair pointing at the oil pressure gauge..
I noticed the oil pressure gauge indicated 0 as well, so I slowed up a moment and blipped the throttle and heard a rattle or something, so right after crossing the start/finish line Blair and I pulled over. The motor sounded sick, and I shut it off. We quickly found the culprit - the plastic oil pressure line for the mechanical oil pressure guage had broken, allowing the engine to leak all of the engine oil out.
We removed the fitting from the block and inserted a piece of black electrical tape into the fitting before re-threading it into the block. We then needed more oil, so we ran back to the pits for help in the from of Tyler Gordon who had just shown up to watch. Tyler kindly drove us back to the racer with some oil and a set of jumper cables. We filled the crankcase with oil, and fired the motor back up just in time to hear that the race was over. We started back towards the pits as the motor started making ungodly noises - first a squeaking or scratching noise which then got worse and worse - we weren't sure we would make it up the hill back to the pits, it was that bad. As I limped it back to the IH Pit area, my friends all had Very Bad looks on their faces. They knew just as well as I did - I'd just killed engine #2 in 3 races. I'm pretty sure the sound of the connecting rods flopping around was a dead giveaway - either that, or I had swapped in a Diesel while out on the track.
I pulled into the pits just in time to see John Comer in Banshee head towards the starting line, as Mike Jongeling and his co-driver (and engine owner) Tim Kleppen were trying to get the orange EB ready to race again - they'd broken a heater or radiator hose during the first race.
Mike was looking for coolant or water to put into the EB's radiator and ran up to me - "Say, you're not going to need any of the coolant in your racer, will you, Tom?" "Uh.. no, I guess not.. have at it, Mike!"
Mike fixed the EB and went racing to the starting line for the second race.
For the most part, I've only pulled out a few action photos and MPEGs from the second race. John Comer did pretty well for his first time out in the Baja even though Banshee suffered some expected damage - a broken passenger side header from the front differential hitting it - and some unexpected damage - the front clip breaking off, and later in the race, breaking the engine mounts.
Some Jumping Videos:
| 1 - 128k - 110Kb | 1 - 384k - 312Kb |
| 2 - 128k - 454Kb | 2 - 384k - 1.3Mb |
| 3 - 128k - 194Kb | 3 - 384k - 566Kb |
Partway through the race, after refueling, Banshee quit at the track point farthest from the pits. We had no idea what the problem was - later we found out it was a loose ignition wire that Mr.C fixed himself.
Video Clip - MrC Stranded - 128k - 376Kb
Not long after that, Mike Jongeling discovered that a 302 will only run 20 minutes or so without any coolant. Later he said he'd turned to his co-pilot and engine owner and said, "It's at 220 - what do you want to do?" to which Tim replied, "FLOOR IT!" and they did. The EB was in the running for the first place until the end, when the Bronco seemed to start going a little slower.. then a little slower and then.. this sad scene. The EB getting towed off the course by a Jeep!
Jongeling getting towed off - 128k - 502Kb
Jongeling getting towed off - 384k - 1.44Mb
The race continued on a little longer until John Comer hit a bump on the back straight and watched as the air filter on the 406cid smallblock rose up out of the engine bay and then settled back down where it belonged. Once he'd realized the motor mounts had been broken, the race was over, and John pitted, leaving a white Jeep as the winner.
I ran into Jongeling on my way back to pick up the remains of my broken Scout -
"Well, Tom, my motor's broke too! We run 'er 'till she quit! And we had a fire."
We run 'er till she quit - 128k - 202Kb
We run 'er till she quit - 384k - 582Kb
After using a tow-strap to help the Bronco onto the gooseneck, I fired up Little Devil for the last time and limped it's rod-clattering self back onto the flatbed and chained it down for the ride back to Helena. Comers packed up their toys, and we all made our way to the Driftwood in Cascade for a "Potato Feed" and the awards ceremony.
After eating our fill, Jongelings headed to Great Falls to spend the night (we had our M4x4A quarterly meeting the next day in Great Falls) while Blair, Korstens, Comers, and the rest of our group returned to my house in Helena for some Pansy & mom made stew and more bench-racing.
The next morning I had breakfast with the Comers and Korstens and then they were off towards Denver. Blair and I headed North to Great Falls for the quarterly meeting.
After the quarterly meeting, we all returned to Helena, and Mike Jongeling dropped off my racer - this time it wouldn't start, so we just rolled it backwards. Jongelings and Blair stayed for left-over stew and then headed off for Bozeman, and I headed for some rest. :-)
The morning after..
-Tom Mandera
Little Devil
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