TBY2K Race Entry Finishes Well on Jan. 1 - Y2K bug does not bite a 1976 Camaro!

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[Ed. Note - The driver/writer is a reasonably regular participant in the TBY2K forum and was a skeptic of breakdowns, if not a totally obnoxious polly. That's why he planned on racing on 01-01-00 instead of splitting firewood."

"The First Stock Car Race of the New Millenium"

That's how they announced this year's Snowflake Enduro - 300 laps on the 3/8ths mile, high-banked oval at South Sound Speedway in the lovely hamlet of Tenino, WA.

49 drivers braved the cold and wet and got up early on New Year's Day for this event. Since each car had to provide two scorers to sit in the stands and count laps, there were at least 98 people watching the race, plus a few pit crew and at least two spectators (two friends of mine showed up just to watch - there may have been other spectators, but I doubt it.)

I had asked for and received permission to run the designation "Y2K" on my car for this race, and this drew a bit of commentary from my fellow competitors, all positive of course. And from the officials, not entirely positive - they pointed out that they couldn't post "Y2K" on the number board in case they needed to black-flag me. I told them to post "86" - my usual number - if they wanted me. I told them if they posted "2" I'd probably never twig that they wanted me, but I'd respond immediately to 86. Luckily, they didn't need to bring me in.

I put a whole set of fresh rubber on the wheels for this race, after running through the tread and the cords and inner material and finishing the last race on a flat right front tire. As it happened, I didn't use much of these new tires during this race. There was never enough traction to really scrub any tread off.

It was beautiful in the Pac NW from the 20th of December through about the 30th. The morning of Jan. 1, however, it was pissing down rain in a frigid monsoon. Oh well, another day of sitting in a cold damp racing seat. Sometimes I really wish the Camaro had windows to roll up and a heater. At least windows to roll up so the seat doesn't fill with water during the tow to the track.

The weather could not have been worse for the actual race, because it *stopped* raining, which meant that the asphalt was infused with water, so all the spilled gas, oil, prestone, and mud on the track stayed right there on the surface, and did not wash away into the infield or soak into the pavement. There were large puddles where the track apron meets the infield, and of course some drivers insist on a line that takes them right through those puddles. I have a wiper on my car - more than some folks have - but almost no one has their windshield *washers* in operation. So I spent a good bit of the race wishing for a good solid downpour, to wash the track and my windshield so my wiper could do its job. The right (un-wiper-serviced) side of the windshield turned opaque after about 75 laps. This was a problem during the second 100 laps, because we were turning right and I couldn't see where I was headed. (Important note: redo windshield restraints and install a full wiper/washer setup for the April race!)

I had brought my water fire extinguisher, mainly to spray the radiator in case of overheating, but I wished I had planned with my crew to make a swift pit stop to have them spray the windshield while I drove by our pit. That would have been handy. But I certainly was not going to stop long enough to ask for and receive a squeegee treatment.

The sky occasionally spat a little water during the race, but only enough to smear under the wiper and bring every last bit of oil, gas, prestone, and mud to the surface and make traction an extremely rare thing.

I made one pit stop in this race - at lap 12 someone lost a bumper and it slid down the track into my path. I had nowhere to go so I just drove over it and then straight into the pits to have George check the tires and car for obvious damage (better that than having a tire let go in a corner!) - I lost at least two laps or so in this stop. But the tires were OK and I went back out for the balance of the race. A little bumping and grinding here and there, but for the most part, we were all so busy keeping our cars out of the wall and pointing the right way, we didn't have time to get into each other.

Nevertheless, whenever someone got too excited and put the hammer down a little too briskly, there would be a conflagration. I managed a few hair-raising escapes from these wrecks, and mostly kept the car under good control.

The bottom line: I completed 280 laps to the leader's 300 (the same ratio as the last couple races in the dry) and I brought in my second 16th place finish in a row. I would have liked to finish better - so I did a little analysis. 3 more laps would have put me in 15th place, doubling my winnings to $50. (Damn that bumper!)

8 more laps would have put me in tenth place. That's less than 1 second per lap, on average, over the 288 laps that it would have taken to be in tenth place. 1 second a lap on a 3/8ths mile oval is a good bit to find, but I think I can do it with a little bit of work on the car and a little bit more work on the driver.

So, no top ten finish to report just yet, but there are 6 more events left in 2000 - I'll keep you all posted on the progress.

Thanks to Gordon Jones for getting up early on New Year's Day to drive up with me, to George Van De Coevering and his friends Tim and Kevin for coming up to crew, to Marshall Mauney and Dave Franks for helping me prep the car last week, to my mom and Dave Rice for scoring the race and buying dinner for everyone afterwards, and to Stan Koslowski and his friend Wendy for coming to root for me from the stands. It's the fans that make the event.

Next Time For Sure!

JZ



-- Jeff Zurschmeide (zursch@cyberhighway.net), January 03, 2000


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