By J. Phil McDonald
The 1999 American Miniature Racing Car Association's National Championship is now another page in the history book! New York, Illinois, Ohio, California, Indiana and Florida were represented.
As with all nationals, work began months prior to the actual race start. I suppose the first thing done was the ordering of the fuel from FHS Supply Company of Clover, South Carolina back in April. Two five gallon cans of 80/20 methanol/castor oil were ordered. The first can the M.M.R.C.A. is using for club races this year and the second can was left sealed until nationals practice day on August 18th
The trophies and ribbons this year came from Blizzard Trophy Supply in Akron, Ohio. This source came to us from Guy Richard of I.M.R.C.A. fame. Blizzard is a wholesaler and so although we probably end up spending the same amount of money for trophies as we would somewhere else, we get a lot larger trophies for our dollar.
The banquet had been scheduled for Friday evening at Grandview Country Club. When it became apparent from the nationals response cards being returned that the turnout was going to be far too few to afford the room at the country club, a quick call cancelled that reservation and the banquet was moved to Linder's Restaurant on the same evening. This year's price of $12.95 provided the participants with a very good smorgasbord.
I had put off my absolute favorite job until the last possible moment:
(making the cables ).. . Oh God, how I love making cables. For those of us who make cables for our races, we know that it is akin to a blood letting! If there was any good side to the low attendance at this year's race, it was the fact that I didn't have to make cable after cable for class after class!
I had been experiencing problems with the Anderson Park Department not living up to their commitment for tables this year and so a call to them insured that we would receive the 10 tables that we had ordered delivered on Tuesday of nationals week. When I arrived at the track on Tuesday I was greeted by 10 tables ( sitting outside the pit area ) and a freshly regraded pit area. So, the park department had come through at the last moment. Something like 5 hours later and the weeds were gone from the infield and I thought we were ready!
On Wednesday, Earl Price and Ken Barthel, Phil Rich and myself practiced. I spent my time that day working on the RH-10 ( my previous car ) that I had delivered to Dave Ferguson earlier in the year. The attempts to get the car going at the earlier races this year were getting me nowhere. Several tries on Wednesday didn't prove any different but I finally did identify the problem. The piston in the Russian piston and sleeve in the engine was growing! It was extremely tight on top and building up so much heat that it blued the bottom end of the con rod. After that revelation, it was a late night Wednesday night to install a new piston and sleeve and crankshaft in hopes of getting Dave's car running on opening day, Thursday. Phil Rich had a brand new (as in never ran before) F-10 5cc car with a brand new Nelson .29. Since the majority of Nelson engines are used in speed planes, he sets his engines up extremely tight on the top end. This is OK when you can use a 12 volt starter on a plane, but when you have to hand push a race car it's a little different! Phil had the able assistance of Glen Lee to help him getting his new F10 going.
Thursday morning dawned clear and sunny but with a threat of afternoon thunder showers. Registration was held from 8:00 until 10:00 with an 11:00 race start. Each car was weighed prior to attaching to the cable each day and a couple of the 10cc cars were found to be border line. Remember guys, its 3.1 kilo (6 pounds 14 1/2 ounces, fueled with battery, ready to run ) for 10cc. A few of this year's participants delayed their arrival until late Thursday evening so Thursday's race running was real smooth with four cars in 10cc, 1 in 5cc and two cars running in "other".
Friday's start included 8-10cc cars, 4- 5cc cars and 4 "other". Joe Morris our M.M.R.C.A. resident horser arrived on Friday, much to my relief. Nick Tucci Sr.'s first run of the day proved to be enough to capture him top speed in 10cc for the meet. The rest of the 10cc field spent all day Friday and Saturday chasing him, but to no avail.
The only problem incurred on Friday was the quick realization that the infield was too high causing the cable to drag on the cars of Charles Hamill and Marshall Ziegert. So it was a little manual labor with the shovels and rakes and they were off running. These are real fun guys and really enjoy seeing the fruits of the labors in building the Super Tigre 40 powered Belly Pan car and the K & B 60 powered Coupes. They are a credit to our sport.
On Friday evening at 7:00 P.M. we gathered at Linder's Restaurant for cocktail hour followed by the smorgasbord at 8:00
Saturday, it was do or die! There were a number of memorable happenings on Saturday, Joe Morris made a banzi run with his new McCoy Invader powered by a McCoy red head 60. I was on the center post for that run and the car was screaming. On about lap number 5 the engine started over the hill and you could hear the piston starting to seize. Everyone is yelling "The Broom Joe.. ..The Broom". Well, to make the sad story short… he missed the shutoff on lap number 6 and again on lap number 7. Lap number 8 produced that unearthly silence as the piston seized and the car started its death slide to a halt with great amounts of smoke rolling out of the engine bay. Amazingly, once the engine cooled, it loosened back up again although when Joe pulled the head from the engine, it was quickly apparent that the crown on the piston had been hitting the head, not a pretty site! The next great happening of the final day was a true piped run by Bob Heywood with his FTL P60 car. Bob has been fighting this car for two years without ever getting a complete run either too lean or too rich....never just right! Bob changed the needle in the needle valve assembly Saturday morning and the car started acting like it at least had a hint of what it was there for! On the third heat Saturday the car actually ran and came on the pipe, first time in two years mind you! This guy gets the perseverance award! Well, maybe he persevered just a little bit too much. The car hit the pipe and was running nicely in the low 170's with everyone at the track screaming" Call it Bob....Call it!...." No way... "I am waiting on 200!" Well, as you can imagine, the car went over the hill and Bob's 6 lap time suffered but he still had a piped run at 122+ mph. This guy has nerves of steel!
Racing concluded at 4:30 P.M. and the awards presentation was held at track side with trophies going to the first three places in each class and everyone receiving a participant ribbon.
We all gathered at Jill and my home that evening for a cookout and brewskie bash. I flipped burgers all evening and Jill dished up the trimmings. After eating we conducted the A.M.R.C.A. annual business meeting. I can change pistons and sleeves but I had one hell of a time with the club checking account and hence the belated financial report is included herein. The most important thing to come out of the business meeting was a decision to change the way we vote on the Nationals site each year. At the business meeting each year, a straw pole will be taken to determine next year's attendance at each of the three tracks. That track getting the promise of the most attendance will get the nod for the next year's nationals. Hopefully, this will change "where you would like to go" to "where you will go".
So... that's it. The nationals are over once again. I think everyone enjoyed themselves. My heartfelt thanks to all those who helped with the racing, the race running, the score keeping, the setting up each morning and the tearing down each evening of the track equipment. Not having to lug that 25 pound center post back and forth from the car each day sure helped my back.
The next big race is the New York Grand Prix... September 17th through the 19th on Long Island. A large group of Europeans will be in attendance. The next M.M.R.C.A. race is
Sunday, September 12th . Hope to see you on the track.
1999 AMRCA Nationals Race Report
Anderson, Indiana
