Sometimes things happen for a reason.
Lime Rock 2007, my 26th consecutive year of running this event with NECC. It's been a great run for me and with a co-driver, usually Jeff Barasch, sharing my car 16 years, you could say my car has paid 42 entree fees. I am proud of that.
I remember a year in the mid 80's when we were still running Sat. at the track followed by an awards banquet Sat. night. The track day was winding down. Norm Latulippe already secured FTD in his IT race car. That was the year Linda Latulippe drove into the paddock about mid day in their freshly restored beautiful 64 Spyder. I, being one of the newer guys, was excited to have set a new personal best. and had secured 1st in PS-2 since all of my class had run. We headed for the hotel to get cleaned up for the banquet, with only a few more cars left to run. As the awards were being announced I was very excited, but then surprised to be called up for 2nd place. Norm had decided to enter his Spyder in the Fitch award and had driven as the last car on the track. He beat me by something like 17/100ths of a second. The next year I had an internal distributor failure that cost about 4 seconds on my lap times. The year after that I did some mods that moved me into IS-2 so I think Norm still holds that class record. I can take being second to Norm Latulippe any day, but I wish I had that class record.
Over the years Jeff Barasch and I took 7-8 more seconds off our lap times as I modified the car a little more, and Jeff and I got better as drivers. I remember in the late 90's, the year of the Hoosiers, boy were they sticky. Jeff took 2-3 seconds off in one year for a new class record in the low 1:10's that still stands. I couldn't get within 1 1/2 seconds of him that year. Jeff retired a few years later, in dramatic fashion. A few years after that I did get into the 1:10's but not as low as his. I was still hunting.
But this was the year to set it all straight. Last year's clutch failure caused by fatigued diaphragm springs, had been corrected. I tuned up the front sway bar mounts and that was feeling great. Yet another exhaust system failure at Pocono this Spring had been corrected, and maybe for good this time. I had a SS flex joint installed, bolted between the crossover and and turbo inlet pipes. The turbo was running great. It was mildly modified by Jeff Van den Bulke, blown up by me in 2006 with an exploded valve seat, and rebuilt by Ray Zabinski in 2007. I'd like to call it the best turbo money can buy, but Ray rebuilt it for free. I was "Loaded for Bear."
I was an instructor for two novices this year, a young lady sharing her boyfriends EVO and a friend of mine, Dave Fanning driving a supercharged 3800 Fiero. I took each one of them out in the first session, in my car, to show them my line. It felt great. One of my LICA friends, John Sunden, started getting some times on me. The first lap he timed was a 1:10.3 Boy was I surprised. That would better the class record, and I thought I could do better than that. In the 1:09's were the people I had always been chasing. The Late Corvairs of Jeff Van den Bulke with the Weber turbo, and Mike Zanerini's Calaway intercooled turbo. And always in my headlights was the fastest Early on record driven driven to 1:09 FTD in the mid 80's by Ray Zabinski. This was going to be a good day.
I didn't finish my instructor responsibilities because I started to have some random miss-fireing and back-fireing in my car. I spent most of the rest of the day running a few bad laps and then working in the pits to try to look for the problem. It eluded me and everyone who looked in to offer help. I changed the SU carb needle in one pit stop to deliver more fuel, got a little worse. Reset the timing that was 4 degrees off, got a little worse. Changed the coil in case it was electrical, got a little worse. By now it was not taking full RPM's, and could not get it to full boost because of the backfiring. Went over everything in the distributor and changed the condenser just for good measure. When I took it out this time, it backfired so bad that it blew out the back of the muffler. Borrowed a Jeggs muffler from Norm Latulippe and did a makeshift band clamp set up just to run the timed runs.
I was one of the last cars to run. Warm up lap was only a little rough then the first timed lap it all broke up and blew the Jeggs Muffler off the exhaust pipe. I could hear the muffler occasionally hitting the ground and it was almost not staying running at all so I packed it in. In the pit Ray Zibinski stopped me at the flagging tower. He said "pull in the paddock and just pull the muffler off and get back in line for your other laps. You are not even as loud as some of these rice rockets."
So I got back in line without a muffler. Ray said that Brian O'Neill in his beautiful 06 race car, and I, would be the last 2 cars to run. When we finished our timed laps Brian would slow to let me catch him and we would come down the straight together for some pictures. That would be nice, but my car would not rev up at all. I made one lap and came in. Ray said "get back out there on Brian's final lap for some pictures. I don't care if we have to tow you back in. So I did and and I made it all the way around, and that was the end of Lime Rock for me.
We started to pack up. Changed to the tow tires and put the blown out muffler back on the car so I could start it in the neighborhood to put it in the garage. Said goodbye to a lot of good friends as they pulled out. Took long enough to pack everything else that we were the last to leave the track. Went to start the Corvair to line it up for the tow bar and there was no battery. Tightened a loose battery cable and still no electric. Jim Philips looked over my shoulder and said look at that BAT terminal wire from the voltage regulator that has backed out of the 8 wire gang plug at the fire wall. He pushed it in and we had electric. Started it to position the tow-bar and towed it home the next day. Tues evening before I drove it into the garage I decided to take it out for a drive to see if that loose wire could have been the whole problem. The car ran faster than it ever has since I bought it in 1981.
Lime Rock has been a great experience for me over these 26 years. Sometimes humbling, sometime exhilarating, but always Lime Rock. Guess I talked about it in my local club enough to have 19 LICA members and their families and guests at this years BBQ. But it has always been the people that have made it so special. Congratulations to Norm Latulippe on setting the new Corvair event record. It couldn't happen to a more deserving driver, always the "gentleman" of the event. I want to thank you all for for your friendship, encouragement, and support over the years. I have made great friends and memories for life. I'll see you all at Pocono, BeaveRun, Summit Point or where ever next year (and maybe Lime Rock too.)
Oh, did I mention the race tires. I found 40 steel wires sticking out of the inner side wall of the left rear race tire when I changed them. If I had tried to put another hour (or maybe another few laps) on that tire with the busted cord, I may have had a major failure on the one tire you put all your faith in at Lime Rock.
Sometimes things happen for a reason.
Terry Stafford