----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 11:10
PM
Subject: RE: IML: Great Race Report 13-
Imperial Expeditionary Force (61)
Friends, we are DONE! We have arrived safely in San
Rafael, had one heck of a welcome and one even hecker of a party
afterward! WE goit out 4th ace today and about 40 seconds overall.
FInal slot #50 of 95 overall, #10 in rookies. The sticky brake at the
left front was workable, once heated up (Weird, isn't it?), and nothing else
broke, though the idle continues to deteriorate (carb or plug foul?) and the
knocking stayed with us today.
I need to sleep and get up
tomorrow to put the car on a truck and us on planes, so I'll write in flight
(and maybe restructure to speed loading). Don't miss it! What a
blast it's been! One other racer, who's flown every kind of sport plane,
climbed Kilimanjaro, co-founded PizzaHut and made and sold a few other
businesses said tonight, "this is the most fun 2 weeks I ever had!" I
think I might agree. More tomorrow, jc
-----Original
Message-----
From: John Corey
Sent: Sat 7/8/2006 3:40 AM
To: John
Corey; mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: mbenza@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE:
Great Race Report 13- Imperial Expeditionary Force (61)
FOr those
without access to the blog with pictures:
Day 16: Stage
13
Sacramento to San Rafael (just barely)
Today, no new pictures
here. This was REAL rally driving! We were up at 5 AM and left our
hotel in Sacramento before 7. Out into the Central Valley for a super
challenging run through the almond and walnut orchards. Major kudos to
Rallymaster John Classen who found and laid out this incredible course.
We were given 47 pages of instructions for the day! Turns, loops and
crossovers, speed changes, and faded, tiny road markers in the fields!
We did pretty well, overall, with a minute 39 seconds for this 9-stage
day. That was good enough for 10th in rookie and 49 overall today,
moving us to 48th overall and 9th in rookie for the whole race so far
I
was a little worried in the beginning. When I tried to pull the car out
from its hotel slot, that sticky left front brake was locked on like the car
was up against a curb. I gave it some gas and then some more, and it
popped free with a loud snap. The next application of pedal showed this
problem is worsening. It stuck on again, though not so hard as
before. I reversed and it freed ? that?s a clue, it's the
self-energizing shoe that?s hanging. I went back and forward a few times
and the degree of drag diminished to where I thought it could be driven
safely. But could it run a rally full of stops, starts, and speed
changes? Dave and I agreed to go, but no heroism. One of the other
rookie teams, the Johnstons in a 56 Chevy Belair also had brake problems
yesterday, and this morning, we heard their master had died and they were
dropping out. I think there were 8 DNF?s yesterday. Tough
running!
Reliability has been our secret weapon. So far,
with almost 4,000 miles of hard running, 13 cars (of 94 official competing
starters) have had to drop out from mechanical failure - or crashing.
I?ve only had the screwdriver out twice: once to turn up the idle speed at
high altitude, and once to bring it back. We?ve added about 3 quarts of
oil (and about 300 gallons of gas!). We did adjust spark timing a bit,
and we tightened those exhaust bolts that were never tightened to begin
with. Otherwise, our equipment problems have been limited to electrical
glitches with the secondary and convenience systems (window lifts, horn) ? and
that brake problem. Still, we have lost no runtime and no sleep on
mechanical or electrical problems. Few of these cars, even the very
expensive big-team cars can say they have given their owners or drivers
that! We have helped out two other racers in need on the road: the
Caldwell?s 57 DeSoto with a flat, and Jeff Stumb?s 1916 Hudson, with 3
quarts of motor oil (his main seal is leaking badly!). I will really
miss these good people when we're done!
Today, we hit the course and
blew the very first checkpoint, which was placed right after two sharp
turns. When we saw the check, we were at 12 seconds late (from slowing
to make the turns). I hit the gas and blew through the checkpoint at
nearly 70 mph! The reserve power of an Imperial helped there, as I
bought back some of those 12 seconds in a few hundred feet! From
there, we did OK. We seemed to have a more relaxed attitude through the
day. I know I kept a wider tolerance on speed, and Dave remarked several
times that we weren?t so wound up about our racing. I don't know that it
was a net loss, though, as we made several very un-panicked corrections to
problems (traffic delays and accel errors by yours truly).
It was SO
hot. Our John ?Duke? Wayne memorial thermometer (from Frontier Movietown
stop two days ago) ran well over 95, and that Valley sun was intense.
Dave?s window motor failed and his vent window has never opened, so he had no
access to fresh air, except the faint zephyr from under dash vents ? unless we
ran top-down. We did that through the morning, but the sun can really
melt a brain, so he elected top-up for the afternoon. We unzipped the
back window and lowered the other three lites. It worked OK at speed,
but we had some links at 15, 20, and 25 mph that got a wee bit toasty.
Another 3-litre day of water consumption for each of us.
As we
completed the first part of the afternoon run, we were getting dangerously low
on gas, so we stopped at the first open station in a town with no name.
So did several other Racers, and we ended up blocked in, unable to get to a
pump or to move on. In the end, we missed our restart time call and had
to put in for a 3-minute delay claim. It was allowed, so our score for
that afternoon leg was 15 seconds. Close enough!
We had a tasty
lunch in Colusa, CA, then a quick pit stop in Winters, CA, where we were
greeted by Richard & Janet Hardy, from the IML and Southern California
Imperial Club (they have a ?new? 62 Crown Southampton ?
NICE!).
We finished at Vallejo, CA, to a good crowd and a
wonderful dinner party at the newly opened personal museum of Buck Kamphausen,
the owner of RM Auctions (he?s running a 38 Ambulance, as well as one of the
National Guard cars and a car for the Philadelphia high school teams. We
had a beautiful, delicious dinner for several hundred people, live music, and
an open house, including his back shop. I LOVE that kind of stuff and
what other chance might we to get to experience a place like that from the
inside? After we closed for the evening, we took some of the local kids
(& moms) for a top-down cruise around the neighborhood. It is a
classic California summer night, cool and clear over the sun-warmed
Earth. It doesn't get much better than that! We cruised over to
San Rafael for the night?s rest.
It?s almost over! Tomorrow is
the end of the Championship Run ? that?s these last three days of the Great
Race, when no bad days can be dropped and any DNF is fatal. I am
beginning to think we may FINISH! Then it?s time for a big party and
back home to work.
Til tomorrow,
jc
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