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Portland Intl. Raceway with the Corvette
By Dick Pierson on 2 May 2009 | 
(1) Comments | Permalink
First let me apologize for taking so long to get this article done, I am a bit technology challenged and had to figure out how to publish the first practice video of the car. I have finally figured it out. Therefore, without further hesitation, I bring you my first practice laps in the Chevrolet Corvette at Portland Intl.Raceway in Portland Oregon.
We had a tough weekend, the car ran well but small problems kept us from being too competitive. Once we got the chance to practice a bit, we found several items on the car that were in need to tightening, etc. The biggest issue all weekend was the power steering lines leaking, big problem when they leak on to 1200 degree headers, lots of smoke fills the cockpit ! One of the two pressure lines was split and in need of a creative fix to make it through the weekend, two "O" rings work wonders with small cracked lines in pressure situations.
Last year while driving my friend Ken Osage's Porsche 928 my fastest lap in Portland was a 1:36, not good in a field of cars averaging mid 1:30's. But this year we have a whole new situation to deal with, a 1:25 was my fastest lap and that was the first time out with the car, impressive even if I do say so myself. The car is very fast. Now that I have sufficiently patted myself on the back, let me also say that the car is capable of going much faster, but the driver has to be better to make that happen. Needless to say, I was pleased with the car last weekend, even with all the small problems. The problem that finally took us out, was a broken half shaft and u-joint on the right rear of the car. Unfortunatley it broke going into the chicane, the fastest place on the track, I was sure the transmission had blown up, but it was the u-joint popping that I heard. Pretty scary the first time out, don't want to break the race car !
As I write this piece we are suppose to be racing in Bremerton, Washington, but rain has kept us away from the track this weekend. Next up is Pacific Raceways in Aurburn, Washington, where we will run with the big boys at the first SCCA National event of the year. This should be allot of fun for us as we will be competiting with cars on a National level and very experienced drivers. But, we have a good car, both Jeff Powell (my partner and other driver of the car) and I know the Pacific Raceways track very well, we should be pretty competitive. There will be more video to come now that I have mastered the video situation, we'll get some good video at Pacific Raceways, a beautiful but tough track. Enjoy watching !
Next up : Our latest project for shipping to Europe, a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, inspired by the famous Barracuda driven by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. We're making good progress building it right now, we'll have a full report coming up.
Comments
Posted by: Blacky | May 4, 2009 7:12:05 AM
wow ! sure looks like the corvette has lots of HP ! Gearing is apparently a bit too tall for the track. Great driving !
