Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD
After the cars were qualified, I tore the engines down to freshen them up for the 500, and both needed new pistons, but I only had one set. This was quite a dilemma, I couldn’t find another set, so the decision was made to put the new ones in Krisiloff’s engine, and hope for the best regarding Dickson’s. I did something that I often did, and plugged off the oil pressure guages. Many times I had taped guages over, only to discover later that the driver had peeled the tape off during a race, to sneak a look. There was a rule that oil could not be added during a race, so there wasn’t anything that could be done if a car pulled in for an oil pressure problem anyway, and besides that by the time the driver noticed that he had lost oil pressure, it was too late, at 8 or 10 thousand RPM the engine was done for already. I had several drivers over the years that would pull in and say, “ they heard the engine going away, but they shut it off before it blew up”, and then upon looking it over, there would be connecting rods hanging out of holes in the oil pan. An old timer mechanic, Bill Findley, told me that before a race at Indy, he would tell his driver, “If you have an engine problem, don’t come in, because I can’t help you.” That was probably true in most cases.
After the engines were put back in the cars, I had to catch an airplane back to Indy to finish freshening up the Chevy for the Dirt car, so I wasn’t there for the race. As the race went on, I would get phone calls telling me how the cars were doing pretty often, and during one call, I was told that Dickson had pulled in with no oil pressure, and I could not believe what I was hearing. He was sent back out, but had lost a few laps. Towards the end of the race I got a call saying that Krisiloff was running first, and that really got me fired up. Shortly, I got another call saying that Krisiloff had pulled in with a turbo failure, but Grant and the guys put another one on, and he was back running. Joe Leonard won the race followed by Art Pollard, and Krisiloff had finished 5th, despite the turbo change, only four laps down, and Dickson finished 13th, still with “no oil pressure”. All in all, not a bad day, and I was surprised that the pistons in Dickson’s car lasted through the day. Only 14 cars were running at the end of the race, out of 33 starters. Two of the three “Granitelli” STP cars finished, Andretti dropped out on lap one, so Andy’s decision to do the deal with Grant payed off.
Next, we go to New Jersey, for the Trenton 300, on October 3rd.
Larry
After the cars were qualified, I tore the engines down to freshen them up for the 500, and both needed new pistons, but I only had one set. This was quite a dilemma, I couldn’t find another set, so the decision was made to put the new ones in Krisiloff’s engine, and hope for the best regarding Dickson’s. I did something that I often did, and plugged off the oil pressure guages. Many times I had taped guages over, only to discover later that the driver had peeled the tape off during a race, to sneak a look. There was a rule that oil could not be added during a race, so there wasn’t anything that could be done if a car pulled in for an oil pressure problem anyway, and besides that by the time the driver noticed that he had lost oil pressure, it was too late, at 8 or 10 thousand RPM the engine was done for already. I had several drivers over the years that would pull in and say, “ they heard the engine going away, but they shut it off before it blew up”, and then upon looking it over, there would be connecting rods hanging out of holes in the oil pan. An old timer mechanic, Bill Findley, told me that before a race at Indy, he would tell his driver, “If you have an engine problem, don’t come in, because I can’t help you.” That was probably true in most cases.
After the engines were put back in the cars, I had to catch an airplane back to Indy to finish freshening up the Chevy for the Dirt car, so I wasn’t there for the race. As the race went on, I would get phone calls telling me how the cars were doing pretty often, and during one call, I was told that Dickson had pulled in with no oil pressure, and I could not believe what I was hearing. He was sent back out, but had lost a few laps. Towards the end of the race I got a call saying that Krisiloff was running first, and that really got me fired up. Shortly, I got another call saying that Krisiloff had pulled in with a turbo failure, but Grant and the guys put another one on, and he was back running. Joe Leonard won the race followed by Art Pollard, and Krisiloff had finished 5th, despite the turbo change, only four laps down, and Dickson finished 13th, still with “no oil pressure”. All in all, not a bad day, and I was surprised that the pistons in Dickson’s car lasted through the day. Only 14 cars were running at the end of the race, out of 33 starters. Two of the three “Granitelli” STP cars finished, Andretti dropped out on lap one, so Andy’s decision to do the deal with Grant payed off.
Next, we go to New Jersey, for the Trenton 300, on October 3rd.
Larry
bench racing.
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