Paul Simon's classic song pretty much sums up the last race...
Slip Slidin Away
Slip Slidin Away
You know the nearer your destination
The more you're Slip Slidin Away...
This is a racing clutch
Now, as many of you are probably aware, when your clutch starts going out, it makes it extremely difficult to get your car going. This is what happened to us on Saturday night... A burned up clutch ended our night before it really got a chance to get started.
The car was a handful from the moment we unloaded it from the trailer. We spent the majority of the day trying to get the car to handle properly, with limited success. By the time the main rolled around, I had pretty much just thrown caution to the wind and made 4 or 5 adjustments and told Scott to drive it like he stole it and see what happens. Everything seemed normal on the pace laps, but when the green dropped, I knew right away that something was wrong. We got absolutely left in the dust of the field... the yellow flag flew indicating a full restart and a few seconds later I heard the words over the radio I knew were coming... "There is something wrong with the car... I think we lost the clutch or the rear end..."
Our assesment was confirmed on the 2nd restart as we struggled to get up to speed. I watched for smoke coming from the rear end, which I did not see as Scott played with the throttle a little to try to get the car to go. We pedaled around for about 23 laps, hoping to at least finish the race, staying out of the way as much as possible, but the officials finally asked us to pull off, which we did without question. It was a fitting end to a terrible day of racing for us. Fortunately, the guys in the positions in front and behind us in the season points race also had off nights and we were able to keep 7th place in sight and 9th place behind us.
Last night, we pulled the clutch and confirmed our suspicions... the friction plates were toast. I suppose its a blessing in disguise as while clutch plates are not exactly cheap, Transmissions and Rear ends are much more so! I had been thinking about that clutch for the past few weeks and been impressed with its durability, as it had at least a full season on it between Roger and Scott. Couple that with the fact that with our 2 speed, Scott regularly has to slip the clutch a little to get the car going, I guess it was high time for it to surrender...
It should also be noted that we suffered (3), yes boys and girls, 3 flat tires Saturday. I will take this opportunity to thank the track for doing such a stellar job of cleaning up after the monster truck show the night before... we hadnt suffered from 3 flats for the entire season to this point. Oh well... it's only 140 bucks a tire, right? But I digress... There was a bright spot to the day... it came in the form of Golden ears of corn, cooked to perfection and drenched in melted butter... yes, we got to have fair food! I tried my first deep fried Twinkie... It was ok I guess, but at least I can say I tried it.
Next up, the WiredX Energy Drink double feature night featuring twin 50 lap super stock races, bombers, minis and stinger 8's. The points battle between the 00 of Naima Lang and the 51 of John Zaretzke is really heating up and this weekend has the makings of an epic stretch run to the Championship... dont miss it!
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