Red Mini lives-dies-lives-dies

Team commies 'R US two had a typical Lemons weekend:

THE BACKSTORY:

Team Commies One the red E-21, had not enough drivers one month b4 the race. I signed on.
Two weeks b4, team mgr realized the invites were still out and now had too many drivers.

I had a "already have a car-what's wrong with it" says Evil Genius John about a year ago springs to mind. Note to self, car is 100% disassembled, olny barely a rolling chassis - no brake lines no nothin'.

Call back Vadym, say "I have a car"... But...

E-mail and Call race central pleading case to get "one more damned commie car in for the weekend"

Call local chums, fill out the needed one-more-team-member to make for eight of us and two cars.

On Friday a week b4 the event I get a call from Nick - now mind I am on the road to go to dinner w/GF 'cause she's going away fer the weekend - "You're in if you can get to a computer in 15 minutes and complete the form, I've opened the database especially for you and don't want any other cockroaches crawling in while it's open" (Well, not as colorfully, but you get the point). U-turn and dinner is now fast-food on the fly. Gf is OK and thinks I've maybe a lot of work ahead.

Call in the reserves, favors and caffeine and start building a car. The week goes by. I only piss off one team member enough to have him quit (Sorry Lucas, I was an obsessed Ass-hole, I gotta admit) on Friday of Tech, but...
Getting there - too tired to think what I need - throw everything I think I used all week into the variety of rigs going.

~Car "Complete" on Friday morning, maybe 10 am~

THE CAR:
   I'll be 'real here' w/o Bullshit, 'cause unless some hookah-toting caterpillar comes around (again) I'll not likely take this particular shell to Lemons  again.
'65 Mini shell bought for $250, sold the spendy flares it came with for $150. (good!)
Evil Genius full SCCA/NASA cage - $1800 (yeah, damn...) Bad, or Bad-Assed.
no subframes. No nothing.
Out to the back yard to the rolled and discarded ex-autocrosser.
Subframes, brakes and all the little bits needed to get a complete car together
~I left all the new stuff on the shelf, really~
(well, except for the spendy rear swing-arms, but the rolled car had bent its ones - and maybe the new front arms cause of ditto)
~Ok,the front bodywork probably blew the $500 all to hell, but I DID buy only shipping damaged stuff when I bought it~ (bad)
Add one Genuine Pick'N-Pull Austin America motor, freshly flushed and having successfully idled w/o overheating on an engine stand for 20 minutes. (ugly)
...add all the spendy race-stuff to comply w/safety (credit card wounded)
~averaging 20 hour days I think~
--yeah, it really is intended to become a race car, but it ain't there yet--

The Race:
1st failure:
   Motorhome towing Mini has a front tire blow just north of Williams. I pull up in the Volkswagon vanagon and brush team member #2 outta the way and say "the car is more important than this bull, you've got the tools and I trust you can deal with it, I'm getting the car to tech" (Sorry Dean, but I had no energy left to be civil/polite/anythin'... I was an ass again) Hook up Vanagon to trailer and tootle off.
   Note, Motorhome was sputtering and not running when we moved it out of the way to get hooked up. turns out he spent 'til 6:30 on the side of the road with a fueling issue beyond the tire issue.

Get there at 4:15-ish, get off the trailer, put fuel in, get rollbar padding (Thanks Clint for installing it) get the clutch adjusted to be able to Drive to tech. Good to go!

Tech:
summed up:
   "How much did you pay for it? where'd you get the rest of the parts? We like honesty now and then"... followed with "Hey Jay - whad'd'ya wanna do with the Race Car?"
Jay- "what did he say he has in it? Mmhmm, Racers are all liars, yeah. 17-1/2 laps."
~note - I bribed down to 10 laps, still trying to get them over the hump of the SCCA stickers in the rear windows that were honestly taken out of the trash of a "real" racers shop - whining not-too-loudly about the Pick'n-pull engine of dubious character.
OK, it's Lemons and we're really in! (I think were out of tech about 4:55)

Get back, master electric guy gets his turn to hook up tach, blah blah, "normal' Lemons prep Friday.

2nd failure:
   BIG oil puddle under car when we get back to camp. change out drive-shaft seal, no biggie. Up 'til done at 1am? dunno, it was dark.

Race Day!
   I can't recall, but we were finishing crap up until about 9:15, so missed pace laps. No, really, I have no idea what we were fixing, but we were fixing stuff. Oh, and someone thought it might be a good idea to get gas into it. Maybe that was it. We had no gas.

   Lap one, woohoo this car is goosey. come in. get toe reset in rear, check pressures. OK

   Lap two, not confidence inspiring, but OK, maybe I need to get the tires warm. end of two, then turn one, turn two "YES, this is A CAR"... and look down at the oil pressure.

3rd failure:
   come in remove engine, disassemble same. look at spares, none that will fit.

I look at what's what, we share drivers into the Bean Car 'cause I really feel bad and Spangler is on my side in agreement (besides two of my drivers were his #2 car drivers for the car that didn't make it here)
I drive back to sac and fill a friends truck with everything left in the garage.
Trackside at 4pm, now taking four engines apart to make one.

4th-ish failure:
   betwixt all the crap I had, Bean-car had and had taken apart, still not enough. Call Grass valley for parts. Send Dean's G/f on 5 hour trip for bearings.
   Midnight - bearings here.
   2am. no bearings to fit ANY of the combination we have...

Sleep is for sissies, but I sleep anyway.

Sunrise, build best-of-the-trash, new Main bearings, questionable rod bearings, transmission that probably doesn't have rust-from-pick'n-pull grinding paste in it. Borrowed parts.
   Engine fired at noon!

On track again, warm it up, fire off a few laps - damn I'd love some HP, but it's good!
Change drivers.
2nd driver in, hates car. Squirrely says he, but OK, mayben he's not driven a comp-setup mini b4, so blow it off a bit. ~he only took two laps~

5th failure:
   note a growing oil puddle from under where the crank main seal has blown.
   (Tech and track offiicals stop reading for two lines)
   We just brakeleen untill it looks good and stops dripping to get on track - send leaking car away with driver three, a ringer from Canada.

Laps go by, car comes in "It's hot and the brakes are funky" Look at hot, guage lies, is OK, brakeleen brakes off again and tell him about the oiled up brakes, send out again.

change to fourth driver.
laps once.
now late.
sneeks in under momentum with engine off.

Dude.
"it kinda sounds like I've lost a cyl"
--re-time, it's slipped. yeah, that's not it. Valve cover off.

6th failure:
Broken valve spring, we're done at 4pm. We have spares, but not going to put in for one last glory lap - if we did we'd not be able to pack b4 track closes there is so much crap strewn around camp.

Notes...
It was Lemons.
We got out of the penalty hole 14 laps!
The car handles like it's velcro'd to the track (albeit at 60mph)
We got all drivers on track in the car, if only for 2 laps.
I have an extensive inventory on all the core blocks that *were* in my garage.

It was Lemons.

Hey everyone there - I had a...GREAT time, I missed seeing everyone and hope you all got more socializing time than I did.

Seeya Soon,

Mini-Mike