DeTomaso Mailing List: May 2000, Message #42

John,

Great report!

Also, when you mentioned that Rupert passed you driving Larry Stock's Pantera 
like a bat out of hell on the 2nd lap (this was a pass for 4th place I 
believe), you failed to mention that he started LAST among the 15-or-so cars. 
 In fact, the PCNC tech crew was working frantically in the pits since Larry 
had bungled a downshift in the morning and bent six pushrods.  

Alan Foster let him borrow some replacements, Jim Kuehne and Roger Sharp made 
a parts run into town in the DeTomaso Mini, but they hadn't finished the 
repair when the rest of the cars took to the track for the pace lap.  The 
cars were halfway around the track while the fellas were still installing the 
valve covers!  They didn't have the time for such niceties as wrenches, so 
all the valve cover bolts (extended type) were tightened by hand only, then 
he was sent on his way.  (They also didn't have any replacement intake 
gaskets, so they had to resort to simply GLUING the intake to the engine with 
about a pound of RTV!!!!!!)

Rupert was at the back of the pack, still approaching the last corners but he 
started racing when the leaders took the green flag, unlike everybody else 
(who seems to think that you can't start racing until you are personally 
invited to do so by the starter!)  As a result he passed something like five 
cars before the first turn!  He continued to devastate the rest of the field 
and by the end of the second lap, he was rapidly gaining on Dennis Quella for 
the lead when Larry's Pantera conked out on the back side of the course 
midway through his third lap.

Apparently the culprit was vapor lock, or fuel starvation, because afterwards 
the car ran perfectly fine.

So how could a Pantera running an iron 351C on DOT tires (admittedly, 
race-type tires) humiliate everybody else and threaten Dennis' tube-framed 
monster?

Well, it's a very fast Pantera, no doubt (Rupert had a list of criticisms a 
mile long, and a two-mile list for the Foster/Hohnhorst Group 4 car!), but a 
professional race driver who happens to OWN the track is a very significant 
threat indeed!

Mike (who was stuck in his room with food poisoning the whole day and missed 
the whole thing, but then got to see some video!)