This past weekend, I was signed up to do an SCCA Driver School at Hallett. The idea was to run the school sucessfully and request a waiver for the required 2nd school, in order to run the Regional race on Sunday. The waiver request was based on recent non-SCCA racing experience and demonstrating control, competitive speed, courtesy, flagging knowledge, etc., during the school. No prollum.

As noted elsewhere in this section, it was very, very hot on Saturday at Hallett, well over 100 F before the afternoon was over. The 142 was holding up well though, and I was one of the fastest lapping cars of the 14 in the school, made up mostly of other IT cars, several Spec Miata's, and a few Spec Racer Ford's.

In the 4th one-half hour session, I thought I detected some clutch slippage on 3rd to 4th shifts, but I was hoping it was a heat related issue that would go away after a 45 minute cooldown between sessions. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as the slippage got worse and worse during the 5th session. I finally had to pit about 10 minutes in, with major slippage in all gears unless you feather-footed the throttle.

Since I had been told by my instructor after the 1st or 2nd session that I was as good as signed off (waiver and all), I opted to sit out the 6th and final session after checking cable adjustment, etc.

On Sunday morning, we put the car on jackstands in the pits at 7:00 am, and by 8:30 we had replaced the clutch disk, changed out 4 tires, and completed a pre-race inspection checklist. We had missed the practice session, but were done with the swap and suited up in plenty of time for the qualifying session.

I pretty much knew before I cleared the first turn that we had not fixed the problem. I stayed out 2 laps to be sure, but alas... we apparently needed a pressure plate change, not just the disk (no pressure plate assembly amongst our spares). This particular pressure plate assembly was a custom built, all aluminum device (with the exception of what amounts to stock diaphram fingers). Apparently, the fingers have lost tension and simply won't clamp sufficiently. All slippage indications were on the pressure plate side of the disk, may have been something happening at that interface as well (chicken or the egg?). I'm not sure I want to spring (pun intended) for what it will cost to rebuild or replace it with a like item (hundreds, not dozens of bucks, I'm sure). I'll know tomorrow when I get in touch with the builder.

So, successful school, unsuccessful race. Darned shame, as the perennial Midwest Division ITB champion (and Hallett SCCA ITB lap record holder) was there with his VW Golf. I don't think there is any question, based on his lap times during the Sunday afternoon race, that we would have given him a run. If we didn't beat him, we would have most certainly kept him honest. There'll be another race on another day...

Gary L
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1971 142E ITB racer, 1973 1800ES, 2002 S60 T5