Sidecar racing

 Turns out everything went down hill after my win at Mid-Ohio.  Next
time out a rod bearing went after two laps of practice.  I figure the
oil pump pickup got uncovered during our off track excursion at Mid-
O.  Whatever the reason It pretty much trashed the engine.  The screen
on the oil pump got plugged with bearing material so all the other
bearings got ruined too, along with the rods and crank.

Put in a lot of hours over the next two weeks to get it ready for the
last race of our season.  The engine was running great and I was ready
to kick ass, till the front end broke off just past the apex of a
turn!  Without steering or a front brake we slid straight into a wall
at about 30 mph.  I came out of it ok but my passenger got a broken
rib.

http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq86/bruce8897/HPIM0963.jpg

Here is a pic from a while back that gives an idea of the side loads
put on the front end.

http://i436.photobucket.com/albums/qq86/bruce8897/S_RWS-287.jpg

When the ball joint snapped the wheel just folded over.  The shocks
aren't meant to take side loads so they snapped off.  Oh well, got all
winter to fix it.

Bruce

 
I get "Image not found" when I try to follow your links.

 Rob Kleinschmidt wrote:

Both worked fine here.

I really don't know what to say except Bruce is obviously ... something.

Good job for putting in the effort and for being daft enough to keep doing
it even in the face of what has to be pretty disheartening events.

 On 10/10/11 10:26 PM, Bruce Richmond wrote:

Glad you are ok.  Sidecar racers are a special type of crazy.  Monkeys
even more.

Fraser

 

Bummer.  Glad you are okay and that your passenger wasn't hurt
worse.   The good thing about racing is that there is the next race or
the next season!