PDLJMPR Web Magazine, July 1, 1996
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As our first major outing in "Puddles", Nancy and I chose a 900-mile round trip to the Fourth Annual Blackhawk Vintage Classic in Rockton, Illinois. Remember last month's Fast Times with Fast Sprites? - well, Gary Speckman (#55 above) invited me to come to his car's debut race and hang out in the pits with him and the rest of the Team Thicko gang. He even promised me a ride in his Sprite if I did! It sounded like a heck of an opportunity for someone who had never even seen a vintage race before. The car was prepared, the road trip was planned, and the hotel reservations were made.
June 14 - I spent the late morning and early afternoon installing the new steering wheel I received from Alan Fisher (thanks Alan!). Once it was installed, we were ready to go. We loaded up the car, I pushed it out of the garage, and we got in - it wouldn't start and the fuel pump refused to make its normal clicking noises! I reached under the car with the wood end of a hammer and tapped on the fuel pump - it clicked a few times but then stopped again so I hit it a little harder and it clicked a few more times. Oh well, - the fuel pump came off and it worked fine when I hooked it directly to a battery. I then put it back on and it made a few clicks before quitting yet again. This time I really whacked it several good ones and it started working fine but the last whack created a leak at the seal between the plastic outlet fitting and the pump body. Off came the fuel pump again. I took the leaky fitting off the pump, cleaned the sealing surface, put the pump back on, and after a shower and change of clothes, down the road we went! After about 150 miles, I noticed that the fuel pump had started dripping a little (again) - we hoped we could get some parts Saturday morning in Davenport, Iowa.
June 15 - There were two shops in Davenport listed in the phonebook that may
have had the parts we needed, but neither was open on Saturday. We dripped our
way on to Rockford. About 10 miles from our destination, on a beautiful stretch
of highway along-side a river, Puddles died and the fuel pump refused to click,
no matter how many times I tapped on it. Off came the fuel pump, yet again.
This time I took it out of its bracket and inspected the points, which looked
fine. Click for photo of me working on the pump!
Hooking it up to the battery made it work again, but it refused to work when
hooked up to the lead in the rear of the car. Since I brought everything I
needed but a test light, it was necessary to improvise with a tail light
socket/bulb (yes, I snipped it out of the wiring harness with a cringe). The
real problem all along was found to be a wire that had grounded in a body clip
and eventually broke in two. Click for photo of the
real problem. I wired it back together and attempted to start the car - the
fuel pump clicked merrily away but the car still would not start. After finding
that my cell phone didn't have enough power to work in this area (next to the
river), a gentleman stopped and offered to take me into town where his son
worked for a towing service. Sounded like a great deal to me, so off we went.
About 2 miles down the road, I realized why the car probably wouldn't start.
When I took the pump out of it's bracket, I couldn't remember which orentation I
had re-installed it and I thought it highly likely I had the inlet/outlet ports
hooked up to the wrong lines, trying to pump into the tank. Still I was not
sure, and I wasn't about to give up my ride so I had Puddles flat-bedded the
last 10 miles to the hotel where I verified my theory was correct. After
spinning the pump in its bracket, and hooking up the lines to the right ports,
we finally arrived at Blackhawk Farms Raceway around 5 pm.
Many kudos
to Rich Schinderling of Schinderling Automotive & Towing for the tow and
directions to the track. He owns a Midget (wife's car) and vowed to help me on
Sunday if I didn't get Puddles running. He only charged me $50.00 for a 10-mile
flat bed tow and did the tow when he was trying to get a few cars ready for a "train
race" at another track in a few hours. (He explained that in a train race,
you have three cars chained together. The first car pulls, the other two have
no engines but there are brakes in the caboose car, with a second driver in it.
The trains of cars race around a figure-8 track - sounds absolutely wild!) In
any case, if you ever need a tow or help in Rockford, Illinois, look him up.
His phone number is 229-6444 and his pager number is 967-2717. If you are in
the area, give him a call and tell him how you got his number.
At
Blackhawk Farms, you can't get in without driving across the race track so we
had to wait at turn 6 until the Enduro II race was completed. An extremely fast
Sprite was observed in this race - it was painted yellow/green and absolutely
screamed in comparison to all other cars on the track (no other Sprites were
observed racing this late on Saturday). I have no photos of this car, but later
found out it is brand new and belongs to a doctor who spared no expense on it.
We entered the paddock area and found Bill Thompson of Team Thicko (April Fast
Times) working on his car (cooling problem), but Gary Speckman was not at the
track even though his car was sitting there. We left a message for Gary with
Bill's lovely wife that we had finally arrived and proceeded to enjoy the "beer
'n brauts" dinner put on at the track during the evening. We met many avid
as well as friendly vintage racers/fans during the course of the evening and
drank a lot of beer - a genuinely good time was had by all!
June 16 - We arrived back at the track around 8 am on Sunday morning. No
one in the Team Thicko paddock area had seen Gary since the previous evening but
Gary arrived shortly to prepare his car for the morning's "handicap races"
which started the cars according to their qualifying times. After some quick
carb and ignition adjustments (photo, photo) he was ready to go (photo).
Gary was doing quite well, but unfortunately, a plug wire removed itself and
caused him to drop from the race.
After Gary's handicap race, I had a
chance to shoot some photos of cars in the other handicap races as well as some
photos in the Team Thicko paddock area. Here they are:
During the late morning, Gary bolted a passenger seat/harness into his Sprite and was ready to give me a ride around the track at noon. It is definitely a different perspective from in the car (photo). Although the session was called "touring", Gary was able to play a little with the corners and I can attest that his vintage bugeye corners very well and has amazing power for a 948cc motor. Bill Thompson kidded me that now I would have the "vintage racing bug" and also reminded me that we weren't going even close to a racing speed. Bill claimed that people who take rides at even 3/4 race speed tend to come back with their sphincters a little on the tight side! Bill, I'm sure you are right about that! - still an enjoyable and thrilling experience for me. Thanks, Gary.
The afternoon Group II race started right after lunch and the following Sprite photos were taken from either the start/finish line or at turn 1. Gary finished well, but Bill had to drop out due to cooling problems. Gary has kindly provided a commentary on his experiences at Blackhawk, which I have included at the end of this page.
We said our goodbyes right after the group VIII race and Gary offered me the
loan of a fuel pump (just in case) and we headed home. The dripping fuel pump
started leaking more after 30 or 40 miles, so I stopped and switched the pump.
We then drove straight through to Lincoln, Nebraska at 65 mph and a torrential
downpour at Des Moines, Iowa certainly convinced me that I still needed to do
something about that bad seal between the front of the convertible top and the
windscreen. It also convinced me that I need to fill an open 3/8" round
hole in the driver's floor and fix the blower motor. However, without the fuel
pump leak we got 42 mpg and Puddles used only 1/2 quart of oil on the whole
trip. I was quite pleased with the adventure - it only cost me $50.00 more than
I expected and I certainly will remember it for a long time to come. It ranks
right up there with the motorcycle trip I took to Colorado when I ran out of gas
on the Interstate and also forgot to bring my jacket. 350 Miles of 50°
riding at 70 mph on the way back......but that's another story!
Les Myer
Here's Gary Speckman's comments on the races:
A brief recap, (Oh, and I am not sure who all the owners of the other
Sprites you mentioned are, I did not get an entry list for some reason) Car #78
the red white and blue square body Sprite that was pitted next to us belongs to
Jim Donato. He was classed in Group II class D along with the other "small
bore" sprites but was running a 1275 engine...(He says he "forgot"
to tell the officials!) anyway, the other Sprites I do not have any information
on. On Saturday morning, we had a practice session and everything worked well
on the car..no problems, etc. The qualifying session on Saturday afternoon went
fine except that I did a double 360 at turn 6. I was trying to pass an Alfa and
a Triumph going into the turn but got in way too hot and had to put the binders
on big time...this upset the balance of the car which was going way to fast
already and resulted in a spin...I got the car fired up again and took off, but
it was missing badly, so I pulled into the pits. (fouled plug) I did have
enough laps in that session to qualify first in my class. (ahead of that 1275!)
Sunday morning, we had a "handicap" race. I was doing pretty good til
the car started missing again. Pulled into the pits, and as you remember, it
was only a loose spark plug wire! It was too late to go back out, so I
spectated the rest of that race. The race on Sunday afternoon started out well.
I passed a few cars and then was running pretty much all by myself. Jim Donato,
caught me and we had some fun for a few laps, but his more powerful engine was
too much for me and he got by me and kept on going....I was able to keep him in
sight, but not close enough to challenge him....Then Bill Thompson, who had had
overheating problems all weekend (all year actually) passed me and went after
Jim...Well that was fun to watch! But eventually Bill had to drop out due to
overheating. As I said, I don't have the official results yet, but I beleive I
was second in Class behind Jim Donato's Sprite. The entire weekend was a blast
for me. The weather was great for all of our events, however, as you know,
shortly after our race on Sunday, It started to rain, very hard! I was glad I
was done for the weekend! I was very pleased with the cars performance. After
all, it is racing basically as it had raced back in the early 70's. The engine
is very strong, and really "comes on" between 6500 and 8500 rpm...On
the long front straight at Blackhawk I am pulling over 8500 rpm before the Brake
point. Running a 4:87 rear diff ratio, this computes to over 100mph. Even at
8500 rpm, that little motor wants to keep on going! I know I can get more speed
out of the car, and I think the driver is capable of more speed too! It seems
that each lap, I get one corner "just right". I have to work on
getting them all "just right" and then I will be happy! Well, I
better get back to work here. Next race is either the Sprite/Mini Challenge at
Mid Ohio race track, or the Augrattan Michigan event in august. The Michigan
race is a for sure thing, the Mid Ohio one is "iffy" at this point.
Gary Speckman
