More Racing

[Tom Mandera <tsm1@domain.elided>]

A few humorous moments from this weekend..

Friday night, Tuff Truck, first pass.  Erik was driving, I was riding 
shotgun (smart thing to do, in a TuffTruck! Hah!).  We motored around the 
course pretty well, then came the Banzai jump.  Erik had mentioned not 
trashing the Scout, and taking it easy.. but as we approached the jump, 
Erik *really* took his foot out of it... and we coasted over the jump, to 
the crowd's loud boo-ing.  I was thinking, "Man, he *really* took that 
easy" as we coasted to a halt.. the Scout was dead!  In the middle of the 
arena, with everyone booing!

A quick check to confirm no headlights.. pop the hood, and the battery 
cable'd fallen off.. Erik had swapped the battery in the day before, and 
hadn't tightened the post down enough.. 

Another fun moment came today, in line for the obstacle course race.  
Since the fuel gauge is non-functional, we had no idea how much fuel was 
in the tank, and how much I had poured in from my Jerry can on Friday.. 
so Erik shut the Scout off while waiting for our turn.. only to have the 
keys fall out of the ignition.

If you've ever been strapped in with a 5-pt harness, you can't move 
much.  When I was in the driver's seat, even with it slid forward for 
better control, I had a heck of a time reaching the transfercase lever.

Anyhow, Erik had to call out to the timers and race officials to please 
come over and get his keys.. they were laying on the floor, just below 
the driver's seat.. but with the 5-pt harness on, you can reach the 
steering wheel and the shifter.. and that's it.  You can barely turn 
around (particularly with a stiff neck) to back up..

At other points during the weekend, we heard the familiar cry of a driver 
strapped into his (or her) seat, unable to reach the helmet that was 
sitting on the hood just a few inches from them.  :-)

-Tom Mandera, Helena MT
http://www.tmcom.com/~tsm1/scout
'72 and '77 Scout IIs