by Alan Lees

      Seven tracks in seven days for $2000 was what I heard at the Northern Alberta Sports Car club in January 2002 from fellow member Jack Ondrack. Although he was mounting a serious challenge with a turbo-charged Porsche 914-6, it set me thinking that it might be fun for my son Ben and me to take the 1963 MGB roadster for some sunshine in Nevada and California in May. This was not the most suitable car for this event, but I had encouraging emails from the organizers and we put our hats into the ring. Our objectives were getting as much track time as we could and enjoying open-air motoring after a prairie winter.

      The concept of Open Track Challenge is to provide a time trial event similar in format to F1 qualifying featuring western US tracks. It would offer more track time than One Lap of America and less distance to travel (only 1400 miles!) The event took place immediately after One Lap of America and we met some competitors who did both events.

      The car was bought in 1996 as an ex-race car lacking motor, transmission and rear axle. It has a CASC plaque on the transmission tunnel with the numbers 2-061 but attempts to find out where it raced have been fruitless. The concept developed by buying the remains of a 1970 MGB which provided transmission and engine and rear axle. The differential in the latter was welded solid and the axle given lowered springs, traction bars and a Panhard rod. The front axle was lowered on 550lb/in. springs and given negative camber (about 2 degrees). The body was altered to take the all-synchromesh transmission. The motor was 3/4 race and bored out to 1950ccs. The head was Moss stage three, the camshaft Kent 718. An aluminum flywheel and single plate AP racing clutch were added in the interests of lowering rotating mass. Carbon fibre pushrods were fitted for the same reason of lowering reciprocating weight. A Vernier cam pulley was used to simplify static timing. Breathing was through Dellorto DHLA 45 carburettor and a three branch header.

      The motor had been rebuilt for the third time at the end of 2001 and had been handed to professionals. There had been main bearing problems and overheating. A new set of pistons and a crank regrind were required. This was the time that I had been toying with the idea of putting in an Accusump but decided against it. One problem with this rebuild was that the cooling fan was very close to the radiator, which was to prove the Achilles heel in California. I am still not sure how this came about but with careful spacing and packing around the radiator there was about 3/8” clearance. A shroud was fitted and the gaps around the radiator carefully sealed. If necessary we could raise the rear of the hood by adding spacers to the hinges. At the first start-up after the rebuild coolant was found seeping out of a crack between cylinders 2 and 3 so the head had to be retuned to have crack stitched up. The engine then ran satisfactorily in the garage and car ran up and down the alley but we were not able to get the car on the track before leaving due to the unusually late spring causing our test-and-tune to be cancelled. A spare cylinder head was taken along!

      The tow vehicle was a 1986 Dodge 250 Ram van. It was carefully overhauled before leaving but this did not amount to bodywork or rust repair so it looked a bit shabby, especially in contrast to some of the expensive motor-homes we found at the event. The flat decked trailer was serviced and painted and looked quite spruce. It had been used for hauling an ice racing Datsun 260Z for many seasons.

      We headed south on May 9th. We didn’t know how the rig would tow or whether we would be allowed in at the border. We need not have worried and by night-fall we were in Rocker, Montana about 630 miles from Edmonton. We woke up to snow in the morning but this quickly cleared and we reached St. George, Utah for a welcome bed. Our destination was Pahrump, Nevada and we signed in at the Golden Nugget after lunch on Saturday. We were able to fill the race car and jerry-cans with 100 octane gas at a local service station and went to case the first track, Spring Mountain Motorsports Park run by expat. Canuck Rupert Bragg-Smith, a few miles out of town. He runs a racing school on a track that is reclaimed desert. The car was prepared for the track after its long tow. The windshield was removed and a minimal Lexan screen sibstituted. The street rims were removed and 5.5x14 alloy wheels with B F Goodrich R1s fitted. We rented an AMB transponder.

      Brake fluid dripped from the master cylinder causing concern that scrutineering would be failed. However, as had happened before, this dried up after the car was driven and the brakes were used. I have pursued this leaky habit with replacement master cylinders and rebuild kits with out coming up with a solution for it.

      The event was for cars that came on their street tires (limited) and those that were on race tires (unlimited) and were trailered from track to track. There were several categories in each group according to engine capacity.

      We were in unlimited group 4 (under 2 litres) which included a couple of Lotus Elises and a turbocharged Beetle as well as an Acura Integra, and several Miatas. We ran on the track with Datsun 240zs, Porsche 911s and a Subaru WRX (professionally prepared and driven). A number of cars had been specially prepared for the event and were used to demonstrate tuning modifications. Clearly, watching rear view mirrors was going to be important!

      The fastest three laps of each track per car counted towards the overall score. There were four 20 minute sessions per track per day. Most cars had two drivers, some had three. The most effective strategy was debatable and several approaches used. The early morning would be conducive to fast times in the cool air but the tracks needed learning. If you got a fast time could you leave early and get on the road to the next track? The distances were up to 350 miles after a lot of fast driving. Some of the driving was on I15 on Sunday night and on Friday night sharing the road with the commuters from LA and Las Vegas. There are some steep grades on these California highways. Some competitors were surprised by fast times recorded by rivals on the last session of the day. It seemed sensible for the first session to take a co-driver to take notes. We only had one seat and had to rely on verbal instructions. Most of the tracks had print-outs of how to drive the course but there is nothing like the real thing to sharpen up the reflexes. The first day was used to get familiar with the car and other drivers. A 300hp turbocharged Miata tried the wrong side of the MG but we didn’t touch. The speed differential took some adjusting to. As the engine was fresh we kept the revs to 5000 for the first day, put in as many miles as we could and tried to keep out everyone’s way. This is a very technical track which would take months to learn.

      We had to get on and drove over the hills, close to Death Valley, and into California. It was getting dark when we got to Lancaster so finding the hotel was puzzle particularly as it had changed name since I booked the room.

      Day 2 saw us at Willow Springs: the Fastest Track in the West. The weather was getting hot and the shade from our canopy was welcome. The revs were allowed up 6500 by the end of the day. This is a very fast track but we were not fast enough to get into trouble. Day 3 saw us across the fence in Streets of Willow Springs. This is another technical track and difficult to learn. This was fun driving though we were slow.

      Day 4 was at Buttonwillow clockwise. The track was dusty and had a couple of blind hills. Debris got on the track so it was sometimes difficult to see the route through blowing dust from cars ahead. Ben went out first and found corner 10 tricky as did many others and came along the first part of the straight in the rough. At a planned refuelling stop at the track gas pump (unfamiliar to us prairie boys) coolant was collecting in green puddle under the car. We did our best to clean up the mess and retreated to our pit. We found a hole in two of the radiator tubes at the junction with the lower tank and some ragged fan blades. The services at the track, although impressive did not include soldering radiators. The manager telephoned to Bakersfield about thirty miles away and off we set. The repair was done inexpensively while we waited. There was some concern about the soundness of the fan so we tried without it and drove the last session. This was not a success as there was vibration from the wheels, likely due to bald spots on the R1s from the off track excursion of the morning. It was dark before we got to our next stopover in Willow, California for Thunderhill race track. We drove through a swarm of flies so thick that it blacked out the windshield and we just made it into a gas station before all vision was obliterated.

      We thought that we were doing well at Thunderhill coping with blind bends, off camber bends and blind hills but overheating was our undoing. Oil and water temperatures were 100-105 Celsius and oil pressure a bit low at 50lbs/sq.in. On the final session the engine went on two cylinders and died. Back to the pits on the hook! The tow truck driver got us onto the trailer and we headed back 350 miles to Buttonwillow.

      Day 6. A hot Friday. We were at the track early to investigate and found that the cylinder head gasket had burnt away between cylinders 3 and 4. We fitted a replacement gasket making good time. However one of the nuts holding the rocker shaft pulled its threads and a tap and die set had to be found so the stud threads could be cleaned up. As coolant was being added it was noted to be flowing out of the temperature sending connection at the front of the cylinder head. The female thread on the brass connector had been damaged. This was a new fitting and not the standard one that screws directly into the head which was fortunate as we constructed a plug using a bit of hose clamped to threads protruding from the connector in the head with a US pipe threaded plug on the outside. We had no water temperature readings from then on but we added an electric fan.

      By late in the morning we joined the party at session three going anti clockwise. All went well. Ben did the last session and after about 5 laps did not appear as scheduled. I could see the car way out in the weeds but no smoke or sign of an accident. It was his turn to come in on the hook and we were very relieved to find that the throttle cable had slipped.

      We set off for Las Vegas over the hills with windmills to Mojave and the mothballed aircraft parked in the desert. We joined I15 at Barstow and shared the road with innumerable others hell-bent on getting Las Vegas. We got to the Rio hotel about 9-30pm.

      Day 7. We were at Las Vegas International Speedway by 7-30am for a driver’s meeting at 8am. Our group was in the in-field on a rather dull track just over a mile long. We got our best times in the first sessions and were not able better them as the day got hotter. The Nascar cars practicing droned round on our periphery all day and were still going at night when we came back for the banquet in a Nascar Garage.

      There was more drama as it was known that our fellow club member Jack Ondrack, ably supported by car owner Drew Salter from Phoenix and crew Keith Christensen and Gary Hunt from Edmonton could win the event. We had really not seen much of them as they were dealing with major problems with their car for most of the week. Jack was able to put in some quick laps and secure the win against Vipers, Corvettes, Racing NSXs and a Ferrari F40. We finished at the bottom of the heap (58/61) but only a little way behind the Turbocharged Beetle, who had also had problems.

      The drive back was tempered with excursions into Utah’s Zion and Bryce Canyon parks and we arrived back in Edmonton just ahead of a major storm. After getting back, we got the engine overhauled to try and track down the cause of the gasket problem but didn’t find anything obvious. The piston rings were replaced as precautionary measure. The same thing happened again later in the season this time burning a carbon fibre pushrod. This time, the fan was in place and no overheating noticed. The replacement gasket was the copper asbestos hand made variety. We were able tune the carburettor and fit a megaphone exhaust a la Hufnager and on September 21 we saw 7500rpm in second gear and times at Calgary had got to the target of 1min 38sec. Time for a rev. limiter. We found that the engine ran better after we fitted a modern tachometer and bypassed the original which necessitated junctions in the wire from ignition to coil.

      There is an excellent web-site at www.opentrackchallenge.com. We thoroughly enjoyed our adventure but don’t think that this is a suitable event for a vintage racer. An MGB V8 might be a better car to run in this event but it would run with the big boys. Vintage racing tuning philosophy precludes the kind of modifications that would produce competitive lap times. It is up to the individual to decide what they want to do. This is an excellent way of seeing some of the west and a number of varied tracks.