<VV> VIR, We came, we tried, we live to fight another day.

[Rick Norris]

We broke camp and left VIR for home about 12:30, arrived back at Corvair Alley 5:30ish.

Well, it certainly could have been better for the Corvairs.
David Clemens has to be the real marathon man here. After breaking his Crank shaft which broke other things he and his crew made the decision to remove the drive train, run back to Roanoke, fix it all and drive back to VIR, bolt it all back in the car and make the grid at 10:00. Alas, it was not to have a happy ending as the engine lost oil pressure but, I will let him tell the tale.

Michael LeVeque finally got on track for some laps after fixing the carb and starter issues but, he went up in smoke. Janet has the photos! Michael thinks it was a broken crank, Warren thinks its another thrown rod.
They are probably somewhere on the road back home about now.

As for me, I managed to make some laps after fixing the accel rod pivot on the tranny with a bolt from David Clemens. We began our race at about 8:30. It was sunny but around 45 degrees with a damp cold track and racing tires. I was gridded last as expected but that was good as I could concentrate on learning the track and trying to get some heat in the tires. It was like ice! As I got a bit more comfortable I began running a bit faster. As I was trying to wind it out in second gear it would not go more than 5 grand! Damn, whets wrong? I kept trying to get more out of the motor in the other gears but on the down hill coming on to the front straight I heard it pinging. I had suspected the timing was too far advanced which turns out it  was. I decided to come in before I holed one of those nice pop up pistons and call it a day. 
I don't know if I completed enough laps to have a complete or a DNF or not but, I think I had the most laps complete for the Corvairs! GGG!

As mentioned earlier Bob Coffin was with us but, running his VW in H Prod which, he won. Congrats to Bob as this was the first race for points of 2012 for the SARRC series he runs in.

This was also my first ProdFest which, is an event for production cars put on by Mark Coffin and his wife Barrie. Saturday evening they had a big cook out in the paddock and gave out door prizes and awards. Janet and I left early after we ate but, I won some stuff! I was voted the Hard Luck prize.
Before you say what about David, he and Michael were not participants in the Prod Fest as they both ran in SPU. My prize was a nice bottle of Crown Royal with two nice tumblers for drinking it in. also for a door prize I won a bottle of private Label red wine and a couple of gift cards from Sheetz Stores, a gas and go franchise of which we have several in our area. So, I made out like a bandit! I highly recommend the ProdFest next year.

The trip home was actually very nice. It was another gorgeous fall day and we enjoyed the rural sights along US 28 through the Virginia hills.

We are tired but feeling rather good about it all. Next event, the Performance Workshop!

Work tomorrow....

Rick Norris
#36 Sunoco Corvair
www.corvairalley.com