Hot Laps:  “Mr. Dull” drew an early number, which should have been good for qualifying, but when I went out for the first session, the HANS device just did not feel right.  I had “sponsored” it to former midget racer/current Silver Crown wanna-be Mike Stroehle.  Unfortunately, I figure out that he had lengthened the teathers that attach the restraint to the helmet.  Considering that we kind of wanted to run the second session anyway, I pulled off before the first group got the green.  Andy Jones of JJ Precision Grinding and I tightened it up and we managed to make it up to the line just in time for the second session.  The track was still pretty greasy, but the car felt a lot better than it has for sometime.  We did have a new LR on, but the biggest thing had to be the RR shock.  My laps may have not looked that good, but it really felt a lot better than it had the last couple races.

Qualifying:  I struggled getting into and through one and two, but drove three and four about as good as I could.  The new tires were hooking up good, and I managed a 15.9 the first lap.  The second lap, coming out of three (after the mentioned run through it), the car over-reved and appeared to me that the engine blew up.  Upon inspection, we realized (thanks to the enthusiasm of Andy & Dwight Steffan) that the rear-end gears had stripped!  Andy and I acquired a new cover (as the one on the car was damaged), and we all ran as much fluid through the hosing as we good to clean the rear-end out before the heat.  I borrowed a set of gears from Rick Imhoff and we made it out just in time.

Heat:  The track was a lot different than it was in hot laps and qualifying, but - other than tires - we did not spend a lot of time on the chassis with the problems on the rear-end and all.  Outside starter David Budress got a jump on the outside (of coarse the flagman let it go…if it would have been me, I’m sure they would have gone green) and I fell to the back one-by-one.  Only had Mike Hess, Brad Loyet, Davey Ray, etc. in my heat.  Would have been nice to at least ran fourth, but I had nothing for Budress or Brian Walters and just ran in the back.  Again though, the car felt much better than it has, but I basically just wasted good tires.  With the “qualifying” race between the third heat and the B-main, we did the regular prep and discussion. 

B-main:  It was only a 12 lap race, and I should have at least ran second (if not won it), but ran 4^th.  It still felt like the thing was winding too high (tach said 8800).  And the race really meant nothing anyway.  Tom and Andy were going to put in less gear, while Dwight and I went out to check out the track and figure out a set up.  Before we got too far, Andy came out to find us.  He had bad news!  There was more problems with the rear-end.  He did not think we would be able to do more than just start the A-main.  The other rear-end I had did not have an axle I trusted (in the car when I flipped at Beaver Dam), cracked side cover, etc., but I new I could at least run the whole race on the bottom with that one.  We ran into action on swapping them out.  With just about 20 minutes time, we managed to get the spare rear in into the car (thanks to everyone on the crew, including those not mentioned...

After numerous problems with the rear-end last Sunday, and then other thoughts and plans for the car this week, I almost did not even do many checks on the engine this week (since the leak-down, etc. results had been so good).  After a less than productive Monday (due to the Holiday events, rain, Cup race, fatigue, issues with the pressure washer, etc.) and an attempt at an apprentice job type situation with my uncle (although after the on-the-job training session, we took some laps at a go-kart track by the office in Ottawa), Tuesday night left me with some time for maintenance/inspection.  Andy Jones of JJ Precision Grinding stopped by for his weekly contribution to clean the fuel system and assisted Felisha and I with the engine checks.

Our findings were not very good!  Working our way down the cylinder bank, it became apparent the results were not like they were before.  Number one was ok, but cylinder number two showed signs that the compression was starting to go away.  The third cylinder revealed very much less than satisfactory findings.  It sounded like there was leakage between the third cylinder and the second though.  Before pulling off the head though, I also found that the number four exhaust valve seemed to have a problem, as I could not get any lash.  While I still had it in my thoughts to go ahead with some other projects I intended (including a weld job and then IRS preparations), I ended up pulling the cylinder head off in the Mighty Mig Welding shop before taking it to JAMR.

Jerry found time to slide the job in among all the stock car and V-8 stuff he had in there.  He discovered issues with some of the exhaust valves (most likely due to the over-revving after the rear-end issues) and seats.  We also decided it was time to replace the springs.  Unfortunately, the way the parts had to be ordered after I waited until Wednesday night to bring the head in for his inspection on the short work week, was for me to spend more of the little bit of money I had than could have.  Although I am now actually in debt, Jerry proceeded on the head and I continued work on the car.