Shafted?

Last week the driveshaft. This week the transmission input shaft. More on that later.

We logged a lot of practice laps this week. Close to 40. I was getting worried that the right side tires have enough rubber left from all the practice laps I have taken this year. This made me a little tentative in really pushing the car. Qualifying times were consistent this week despite the whipped tires. 16.783 and 16.712. In the heat race I said to myself if I can get a good run I will see if I can get a heat race win. It all was up to the guy in front of me in the heat race seeing I was starting 4th in the heat race. The green flag flew and the guy didn't go. Being on the outside and not able to get anywhere in front of me or down, I started getting passed. I was pretty mad. What a waste of time and gas on these heat races. Never mind in a few laps him and the other slow guy started beating on each other. Come on guys!!! This is a heat race. $25 to win. Big deal. So I just started backing up and letting the rest of the field go. Go ahead guys. Wreck your cars. It wasn't going to change where you start in the feature. So there is a cheapracer tip in there somewhere.

For the feature I was really torn over that right rear tire being so worn. These tires have some tread on them. Most guys get rid of them when there is still plenty of tread left. I was down into the wear bars and the inner portion of the tread was almost gone. I figured with a 30 lap feature I was going to be real worried about that tire being wasted and blowing. I really wanted to get some new tires for the next few weeks that I could race if I could get by on the ones I have now. I caved in and broke out a tire I had from the 2006 season with lots of tread left. So now I felt better about having a tire lasting. The only question was, will the rubber be too hard and make the car so loose that I couldn't drive it? We got about 3 laps in and the first caution came out. Too soon to make any evaluation of how the tire was doing. Just as the green was ready to fly the input shaft of the transmission snapped and again I was done. Oh what fun racing is.

So in goes the back up transmission for now. I suspect my bellhousing is out of alignment with the block. For the mean time it will have to do. I only have about 3 races left that I can actually make. Then we will tear this thing down and find out why. Could also be that the transmission has been raced for 20 years.