A Big Thank You from Fraidy Cat Racing

Arse Sweat was our first Lemons race and for most of us our first race all together.  We were three Lemons virgins with one experienced arrive-and-drive.  We were piloting the black, green and white Jaguar XJ12 #33. 

For cliff notes go to the bottom. 

I want to thank Jay and the organizers for putting on such a great weekend. 
I want to apologize to all of the corner workers for making them constantly wave the blue and yellow flag whenever I was on the track. 
I want to thank the tow truck crew for coming and getting me when our second distributor cap crapped out on turn 3. 
I want to thank all of the other racers for being tolerant of the vastly different speeds that our car ran over the course of the weekend. 
And of course I want to thank Evil Genius for building us a top notch cage that we thankfully didn't need (although we came close when one of the white Miatas, I think it was #888, spun out behind me while I was being towed and I am told missed rear ending me by ~8") 

I believe that we had the full Lemons experience. 

The car tested well Friday morning and we started preping it for tech and BS about 10:30.  At 11:00 when we went to start it to drive it to tech it wouldn't start.  Several hours of diagnostics later we decide to just push it through tech and BS. 

While the car is in Tech I call a Jag dealership in Sacramento and the head guy at the service counter tells us to check the distributor cap.  Turns out it had a great many cracks running through it.  It takes us about the next two hours to find someone with a distributor cap in stock.  The only Jag dealership in the US with one sitting on the shelf was in Illinois. 

I return with our new distributor cap (made in Italy) around 6:00.  In the mean time our team members that stayed behind have moved on to test their hunch that it was the front crank sensor.  Just in case anyone is wondering, an ABS sensor from an M3 will not function as a crank sensor for a 94 XJ12.  We continue to test continuity and dissemble and inspect ECUs until, burned out, we turn in at 10:00PM.  The car had not run for 11 hours.  I want to thank the team pitted next to us for all of their help.  They had their own problems with a BMW head gasket but were willing to help us brainstorm and loan us tools.  Sadly I don't remember your team name, but you guys know who you are and we owe you some beers next time. 

At 7:00AM Saturday morning we renew our efforts.  Come around 9:30 our hot shoe driver Ben was testing the old crank sensor and found it to still be functional.  Of course at that point we realized that we had never tried the old sensor and new distributor cap.  The car fires right up and with a quick run through the penalty area for them to tech the kills switch we are on the track at 10:30. 

The car ran well until on my second stint out, our new distributor crapped out and killed the car on turn 3.  It took us about an hour to diagnose the problem as the 3-4 hour old cap and another hour to get it out, patched with liquid electrical tape and back it.  We finished the day trying to keep the RPMs under 3500 to save the cap. 

Sunday morning found us running the Jag pretty quick again.  The car was near overheating when I got in it for my first stint.  I don't think I or anyone else who was on the track at that time will forget it.  In the first few laps I got lapped by the purple Caddy.  I kept the car under 40MPH until the temps started to come down.  Even after that the laps were slow, but at least I didn't see that damn Cadillac again.  Our next driver out for the day did all he could to keep the car cool, but it was too far gone.  He brought the car into the pits and we traced the problem to a failed drivers side thermostat.  With that removed the car wen back out for some fast laps with our fourth driver of the day. 

When he came in for a driver change and fuel around 2:50 we were sitting pretty at 6th in class and low to mid 60th overall, but most importantly, several laps ahead of team Tiny Vette.  Our driver who had done the third stint in the car got back in and did a few fast laps before the call came in that he had been black flagged for smoke from the rear.  We ran out to meet him as he drove the the penalty area and found the windshield solidly coated with tranny fluid.  When the hood was popped in the penalty box the outlook was dim.  The entire engine was coated with tranny fluid.  It was impressive. 

We towed the car back to our pits and started working on it about 3:30, but were unable to even discern the source of the leak before the end of the race.  Tiny Vette beat us by 7 laps. 

Cliff:  The Jag was fast with our hot shoe driver and slow with me in it when it was overheating.  As expected it went boom right before the end of the race and we failed to take the checkered flag.  We still had a great time and you will probably see us again.  Five stars, would recommend to a friend.