Most people have heard the joke about the guy who beats his hand with a hammer. When asked why, he states that "it feels so good when I stop." Sometimes I think this sounds like our racing program. I didn't realize how many different problems we had until a guy at the track mentioned that my recent articles sounded "pretty depressing." I realized that he was right. But, as some of my racer friends have pointed out, that's definitely a part of racing. The highs and lows come and go-and sometimes the lows just don't seem to want to go away.
We have spent the past four races suffering from disappointing breakdowns. Unfortunately, they've all been related to each other, and the same bugaboos keep knocking us out. We can't seem to keep belts on the car. When the power steering belt comes off, I can barely steer the car. We put a quick-ratio gearbox on the car a few years ago (what a great thing to have-what took us so long?); when there's no power steering, it's a real thrill in the turns. When that belt comes off, it usually takes the water-pump belt with it, and the car overheats.
We've shimmed the power steering pump numerous times, but we officially give up now. We're going to throw away the pump, the brackets, the pulleys, and more-and start over. The front of the engine will be reengineered. Stay tuned to see what we come up with. Here's hoping it works!