Another hurt engine and a lesson in southern hospitality

[79CamaroDiva]

No cliffs.. its a good story.

This weekend I was supposed to go to the final Bill Mitchell series race at atco, but because of the hurricane coming up the coast, dad and I decided to skip it and go somewhere else. We found two different money races within 1000 miles of NYC, one in ohio, and one in alabama. So, we decided to try the 1/8th mile track in alabama because I really enjoy 1/8th mile racing..

So, we make the 900 mile trip down there overnight, after having some complications with our motorhome right from the get go (trans cooler line blew at 5pm, when all shops close but a guy down the street stayed late at work, and made sure we knew it).

Got to the track around 6pm CST in time for their Friday night test and tune. Get through the gate, ask where tech is and they say they don't tech cars in, just bring the card to the tower. From 6-11 pm I made a total of 3 runs, I think there was more breakage in that one night than I've seen in an entire season of racing at all of the tracks up here. The track was all kinds of loose and I actually had to steer the car instead of just pointing it, that was fun, but I made 3 relatively good runs. 2 5.14s in the left lane, an a 5.16 in the right, all .00 lights so we were pretty happy.

Saturday came, and 2nd round the car fell on its face, sounded horrible, but I looked at my oil pres. guage and it was still high so i figured I was ok to limp it off the track (I was honestly scared that if i stopped in the shut down they would send another pair down). Stop it off in the grass, and some one from the pair behind me stopped and asked if i was expecting a tow, i said probably, but to tell the timeslip booth to make an announcement that car 1151 needed a tow. Apparently they announced that Melissa DeMarcky, the Jersey Girl (as they came to know me by) needed a tow back. Dad came down, towed me back to the trailer and we had to figure out wtf was wrong.

Start the car up, it runs, but i can hear a leak somewhere that he couldn't, he said it sounded fine to him. I said no, there's a leak on the right side. So he does a leakdown on it, cyl 4 leaked down to 0%. big problem. a guy that was parked across from us came over to help, and said it was either a blown head gasket or a hole in the piston. Dad says either way we're screwed, cause we'll never be able to find a head gasket for a chrysler 4.5" bore motor, the guy goes over to his trailer and gets one.. Apparently there's a lot of mopar guys down there. So we take the whole thing apart, tear the head off and sure enough the head gasket is ripped between cyl's 4 and 6. We think we're in the clear. Then I see that the ring on 6 is missing, we turn the head over and its stuck in a valve, and it carved a half moon shape in the head. Again, we think we're screwed, because where the hell are we gonna get a head fixed on a saturday night 900 miles from home. The same guy comes over again and sees it and says hold on, he'll make a call and can get it fixed. The guy he called wasnt around, so my dad went up to the tower to see if he could announce that we need an aluminum welder on the off chance that there was one around. Turns out, some people from Huntsville Performance, which is a HUGE shop down there, were racing. My dad brings the guy the head and he said he could get it fixed that night.

Dad goes with him to his shop, which apparently was gigantic and was like walking into a Summit catalog, and the guy welded and milled the head, along with tearing it apart and re facing two valves, gave us a head gasket and some aluminum silicone and did it all for $138 bucks. My dad gave him $150 and said keep it. Then it turns out the guy was entered into the night race and completely missed the race. We offered to pay his entry for it and he said don't worry about it.

So we pull an all nighter, get it fixed, and people kept coming over offering us tools and help. The guy next to us said he was going to bed but would leave his trailer unlocked so we could help ourselves to any tools we would need. The guy across from us said he was going to bed, but if we needed anything, just tap on the back right window of his camper and he'd come out and help.. meanwhile his wife and infant daughter were sleeping there.

We couldn't fire it up til Sunday morning, and when it ran we're all relieved, but have no idea what the car is going to run now that the head is milled .015" more. We find the track operator and offer to pay an extra entry fee to make a time shot because they weren't allowing timeshots in the morning unless you are a new entry to the weekend. The track operator says he can't let us do that, but he will let us make a free shot when they run them out.

So, I do that, the car picks up a little bit, and we're good to go. I won 1st and 2nd round, and ended up going up against the guys partner from the shop 3rd round. I lost by .004

I have to give all these people props. Had this happened up at a northern track we would have been SOL. No one would have opened up a machine shop on a saturday night, let alone miss out on a race where there are no refunds and do it overnight. If we weren't down there I would have been without an engine for about a month.

[Ian]

Thats the main reason I like it better down south. that and the weather is nicer.

[Savage_Messiah]

souther hospitality is definately FTW, I learned that in 2 days in virginia... good ****

[Tsar]

Originally Posted by Ian

Thats the main reason I like it better down south. that and the weather is nicer.

women are better looking too.

[V]

i didnt read it... ADD FTW... seems u did good ...i think...lol


edit: ok so melissa made me read it....dahm thats amazing...

may the queen reign forever

[lastcall190]

I love the south... good story btw.

-J

[PBodyGT87]

South FTW. That was a great story. Makes me wanna be nice to everyone.

[Tru2Chevy]

Wow. Not the best way to spend a weekend, but considering the circumstances, I would say it turned out well. That was really cool of those people to help you like that.

BTW, got any pics of the destruction, or were you too busy trying to fix it?

Southerners are just generally good people. Ever notice how you really can't help but walk around with a smile and say hi to random people when you are down there?

- Justin

[BonzoHansen]

Wow, neat. Sometimes it is easy to forget that some people don't suck.

[Bandit]

Good story, racers in general will help each other out. Glad you got it back up and going.

[Tsar]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Southerners are just generally good people. Ever notice how you really can't help but walk around with a smile and say hi to random people when you are down there?

- Justin

false.

[Tru2Chevy]

Originally Posted by Tsar

false.

Florida doesn't count, just because you lived there.

- Justin

[Tsar]

Originally Posted by Tru2Chevy

Florida doesn't count, just because you lived there.

- Justin

florida is south, isnt it?

[BonzoHansen]

But FLA is filled with vagabonds, carpetbaggers & snow birds.

[79CamaroDiva]

Originally Posted by Bandit

Good story, racers in general will help each other out. Glad you got it back up and going.

yeah, racers in general help each other out, but only if they have the parts in their trailer. No one at a northern track will leave the track property during a race to go and get something unless its for a really good friend. Actually, most of the time they will only help out if they know the person that needs the help. If you've been a long time racer at the track, you're usually set cause everyone knows you, if you're a relative newbie.. forget it.

[BigAls87Z28]

Meh, when I was 17 years old, I went to Etown to race some assclown I went to school with. My car kept dying on me, stalling out and ****. I was very pissed. Car wouldnt start, kept getting a jump all the way through the pits. It finally didnt start anymore, and my ex gf went with my friend to go get a new battery from where ever, and came back. We dropped it in the car, I then decided to rev the engine at 1500-2k rpm to keep the alt charging as we all belived thats what it iwas. Well, sitting in the staging lanes int he middle of May, at about 80* that night, spinning the engine at 2k rpm, not moving foward...things tend to overheat.
Radiator blew and I spilled alllllll the coolant allllll over the staging lanes. I felt like a dickhead.
3 guys came over to me, one said he had a twin-fan radiator from his IROC at his house 10 mins away, and the other 2 are mechanics, and they got the radiator out in 5 mins. I got the new radiator, gallon of water and coolant, and was back at the track before closing. I thanked them for helping me out of a bind, and they disappeared into the night.
If I ever meet any of those 3 guys again, I owe them a few rounds at the bar.

[baddest434]

everytime i've been down to S.C. or N.C. it seems like everyone has this big grin on their face and says hello. far cry from the a-holes around here in the north. cool that they helped you and dad out that never would happen around this neck of the woods. if it did you'd pay dearly for it.

[NJSPEEDER]

i have always had pretty good luck finding help, tools, and parts at teh track. never ran into anyone that i think would go to those lengths for a fellow racer though.
sounds like you had an interesting way to spend the weekend.

[Tsar]

you peeps should try to venture a little further then a race track. go to a place where they still fly confederate flags and look at you funny when they find out u that u came from north. i guess they're still bitter about the war

[BigAls87Z28]

Was it like that in Russia with the Commies, Vitals? Im asking a seroius question, I dont know how old you were when you came to the US.

Anyway, stop breaking engines, you wont have to worry about this crap.

[Brando56894]

Originally Posted by Ian

Thats the main reason I like it better down south. that and the weather is nicer.

ive been down to new orleans multiple times, SC once and VA 2x. the last two for a week each and i loved it. i wanted to go to college down there but money/friends/being madd far away from home held me back...

[Firebird67dude]

Wow. sounds like u have an awesome time. Atleast there are some nice ppl. out there. Southern states FTW!!

[angin52]

north or south real racers every where will help out when the chips are down. we are all bros

[johnjzjz]

hahahaha no tech island is the best when it comes to tech they dont let anything race -- thats not correct -- now think about it how much stuff over the years has happened at island --- one can only guess what goes on at that track -- glad you got it fixed tho -- jz