04/12/2013
As promised albeit a day late, the finish of our race.
After finally giving into the weather ( did I mention t was COLD?). I decided to get a hotel for the night. Best thing I could have done. Sunday morning came and wouldn't you know it, it was COLD. 10-15 MPH winds with some sleet and snow flurries!
After some final checks the cars returned to the track and the day two of our race started. At about the one hour mark the driver of the Scirocco reported a worsening of a situation both cars seemed to develope when their fuel loads got low. The cars would cut out when exiting right hand turns. The Scirocco's condition was worsening. The decision was made to leave the car on the track and let the driver decide when it got too bad to drive. This meant potentially more fuel stops.
The cars continued to crank out laps when at around 12:00 the driver of the Rabbit radioed in " I'm dead, I've got no thottle". While some of the team scrambled to get spare parts (which were in the other hauler, 1/2 mile away) the rest waited for the car to be towed in. Once the car got to the pits it was determined that the throttle cable wasn't broken, it was bent! How it got bent would elude us this time. Shortly after getting the car back on track, driver report" thottle, busted again". RATS. Once again the car had to get towed off the track. When the car got to pit lane a small plastic gizmo was found laying on the floorboard. Turns out this gizmo was in fact the throttle pedal stop. Without this piece every time the driver floored the gas he would put a lot of strain on the linkage eventually it broke. Additional adjustments were made to the throttle and the car was sent back out.
Around 2:30 one of the competitors cars suffered a spectacular engine failure. Pieces of the engine and all of its oil were strewn in an area of the track where the heaviest braking routinely occurred. The track had to be shut down for about 1/2 hr while it got cleaned up. While we were waiting in the dustiest gravel parking lot known to mankind we decided to switch the drivers in the Rabbit, jam it full of fuel and try to make it to the end. This would put our fuel run right at about two hours which was stretching it a bit. Problem was our car was in a line of cars about twenty deep. The crew rallied once again and literally picked up the rear of the Rabbit, spun it around on the front tires and pushed the car back to the fueling area. The crowd was in awe!
It would have been nice if the rest of the race was uneventful but it wasn't. Both cars suffered additional collisions by getting hit in the rear. The Scirocco lost its bumper cover and the Rabbit sustained some additional sheet metal damage. Both cars soldiered on. Just as the Rabbit was beginning to run out of fuel, the checkered flag flew! WE DID IT, WE DID IT. both cars running at the end and capable of driving themselves onto their trailers. Quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself.
122 cars started the event. I don't know how many we're still running at the end. LeMons still has not posted the final results but at last count the Rabbit finished 32 with the Scirocco in 49. Only 6 laps separated the two cars. Once again I don't know the final lap count but both cars were well over 300 laps. As soon as LeMons posts the official numbers I'll post it here.
It was a great weekend for Rabbit Pellets Racing. We had our problems but the team persevered, determined to finish the race. Already we are looking forward to our next event, August 10-11 at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Thanks to all for your continued support!!!
