The Stickman

Ok over the weekend I did an event for Pro-Touring cars called RTTS or Run To The Shore. It started Friday when I had to load my Hauler up in the snow. We got down to the hotel unloaded and went to work still trying to straighten out my cooling issues as I hadn't had any run time on the car. Simply out of the garage and on to the truck. Ended up hard wiring the fan to run all the time. Turns out the water pump was some of my problem as the temp stayed right around 180-190 all the time. Not spiking like before. So we were promised an awesome cruise Friday night and we were not disappointed. We drove to the NJMP track where we were allowed to cruise on the track and what a drive that was. Then we went to the tracks places where we got to hang out a bit before dinner. We then went to the tracks "Officers Club" and had dinner. And what a Dinner. The food was spectacular. The deserts looked great and there were a few I knew would be really bad for me because of my migraine triggers so I picked one that would only be a little bad for me. Some strawberry cheesecake. And I think I actually should have gotten a private room to eat it because it was that good. To top it all off after such a crappy weather day we got the most beautiful sunset you could ask for. After dinner with some new and really great friends we headed back to the hotel where I put the wagon back on the hauler for the ride in the morning to the track. The hotel was great too. So we head out to the track unload and get ready for the days events. For our group that meant some AutoX. I have to say I was worried the wagon would be a pig on an AutoX track. I was dead wrong. I could slide the wagon aound at will and it was so much fun. Not sure how I could get the back around like I did becuase I haven't ever done that before. Not sure how many runs we did. But then we got to do the track portion. WOW the wagon was fun although I was driving like a rookie. I was missing alot of my marks and ended up sliding off at one corner. I realize I haven't been on the track in like 15 years but thought I would do better. The wagon was pretty good but as I was kinda rushed I had my tire pressures to high and the car was sliding around to much towards the end of the session. The wagon also wasn't shifting at the end either which turns out that the TV cable came off the carb for a bit. That would get fixed for the second session and I dropped the tire pressures. all that helped and the wagon ran great. UNTIL!!! Well until the engine started to tighten up. It lost power and slowed way down and I took it straight to the pits. You could hear the slight rod knock. We shut it off and then tried to start it again so a friend could hear and it wouldn't even with a jump. It did when we got it home after cooling but still bad. So we decided to leave the track early to beat the traffic home and for me as I knew my migrianes would catch up with me. And they have. Today has been very bad. I will probably have to deal with them for a bit this week due to the track event. But it was a price I knew I would have to pay and fully accepted much like the blown engine. So all and all I had a great time. Great new friends, great cars, great food, great track and great fun. Who could ask for anything more. The trip also made the idea of getting the hauler look like a stroke of genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8WqlsZFu2c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-JTt9ssnIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6uPFCLKs4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBcInDXal7o
And here are pics loading up for the event
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More later.

The Stickman

More vids and pics of the cars I was running with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI1egGLBedQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-2smp1OeY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKuuToHUTNo
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The Stickman

More pics
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And at home.
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w-30dreamin

Sounds like you had a great time.

Sorry to hear about the motor.

I had a case where I was having such a great time on the 1320 once,I just kept running run after run without letting my car cool down. My trans needed rebuilt by the end of the night.

Mingus

Very cool to see the wagon out playing. Great pics. Lots of familiar cars from P-T.com.
Bummer about the engine. I hope it was the $400 Ebay special, and I'll bet you got more than $400 of fun out of it though.

The Stickman

Yup it was the $400 Ebay special. And it was kinda special. It had great power and took all kinds of abuse. I don't know how many times I got it too hot. But now it's time to move onto bigger and better things. Gonna post something in the engine section soon as to my direction as I am going to need loys of advice.