Keep The Shiny Side Up!
Saturday morning was a 7:00 start too but with having checked in on Friday it was only a matter of showing your garage pass and go to work. Uncover the car and closely check beneath the car for that tell tale drip before doing anything else.
Hopefully you wouldn't find any sign of a fluid leak and it was time to get ready for Saturday's first round of practice. If Roger had figured he could beat all of those requalifying we would be running the second round of time trials. That meant running through inspection again and pushing the car out to requalify after the first round of practice. When second round qualifying finished up there was usually one more round of practice before shutting down for lunch.
Following lunch it was time for the Saturday BGN race. This was interview time and relaxing time for the drivers. If we had a major change to do, like a rear end or all the shocks we would do that and then take the time off to watch the BGN race. I tried to use this time to talk to drivers, get autographs or just watch the race.
When our rest period was over it was time for happy hour. For those of you who have only heard of, but not seen, happy hour it is an hour to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the length of the BGN race) of try everything or nothing and just run a gas run. If you were happy with your setup you would go out after topping your gas tank and run a long distance, counting laps before returning to top off your gas tank again so you could figure out the mileage to expect the next day.
If you were still working on the setup it was run a few, change the rear, run a few, change the shocks, run a few, change the stagger, run a few.... We were very rarely satisfied so it was hectic as heck for that last chance to be ready for race day. Not many of the mechanics call it "happy hour". When Dick Beaty (Gary Nelson now a days) came around at either 4:30 or 5:00 and told you to shut down it was cover the car up and call it a day.
Race day finally! 7:00 start, wax the car again. While the chief mechanic worked over his check list we would start setting up the pits. This was in the days before the "war wagons" of now. We used a 2' X 4' flat cart to pull all the pit equipment and tires out to the pit stall. It usually meant at least 4-6 trips, more if Roger had a few extra sets of tires that week. As you passed the Union 76 pumps on one of the trips you would drop the fuel cans at the pumps. Each of the three cans would have a new 76 label put on it stating the race and the car #. The cans would remain there until the green flag was dropped.
By the time we were done hauling equipment out to the track it was time to push the car through NASCAR inspection for race day. Inspection included: measure the spoiler in size and degree of tilt, pop the trunk open, measure the size of the fuel tank and length of filler hose, visually check trunk area for all safety bars, hose fittings, oil reservoir, etc, close the trunk and check template across deck lid. Meanwhile two inspectors are visually checking under the car, measuring wheel base, header clearance, drive shaft safety holder, etc and tapping a small magnet randomly to make sure everything is steel. They then check visually inside the cockpit for all safety equipment and to make sure there are no "foreign bodies" (illegal weights) inside.
Meanwhile the chief mechanic and an inspector are checking under the hood. The carburetor is pulled and checked for opening size and no extra openings, and the whole engine compartment visually checked. When these checks were all finished you pushed it under a bar that was used to check heighths and then all the templates were tried to make sure the body hadn't been "tweaked". From there onto the scale where the whole car was weighed and then only the right side of the car. If you passed inspection, and by now you better have, it was time to push the car out on pit road and into your position in the starting line up.
Next it was sit down with "my" tires and start gluing lug nuts on the wheels! Five lug nuts, a thin line of weather strip glue around the base of each, place them in the recessed hole for each lug and place a piece of 3/16 inch steel on them to hold them flat a few minutes while the glue stiffened up some. Next tire, repeat the procedure with 5 more lug nuts then transfer the weight to these tires. And so on until every tire has a complete set of lug nuts.
Recheck air pressures one more time then sit back on the wall and wait for the start.
Wednesday, part 3, "The Race" of my Weekend Warrior Saga. Sorry I've been a little slow updating lately. The flu and company have kept me busy. I will be posting pics all week to catch up on my "Tiny's Scrapbook" backlog. Also, easier question this week on the Tshirt contest. I only got three guesses with 1 right answer! So stop Wednesday and enter! Until then: :
Keep The Shiny Side Up!