Never the Same #66 A Change of Scenery

After Dee’s nocturnal visit, Kirk remained disturbed and distracted. He forced himself to focus on the positives going on around him, especially on the track.

         

           

Cue: “Faster” https://youtu.be/ew57ZIVVUSQ?si=5menWRLdpBMNEPMh

           

            For a couple weeks after Dee’s nocturnal visit, Kirk had time to ponder his on again, off again love life. It had been two years since his intense relationship with Dee, and since then, he came to an irrational theoretical conclusion that love didn’t actually exist. His hypothesis boiled down to his infatuation with Dee just resulted from overactive teen hormones coupled with a first love. Rethinking it all since her, Kirk thought that relationships just develop over time with no bolt from the heavens with the subsequent going head over heels over someone. Like Kirk had said earlier in this chronicle that Babe was a keeper, but so were Bonnie and Farah. No bolts from the heavens, but he got along with all three girls very well. Probably his own fault for not trying hard enough to make those relationships work. In summary, Kirk remained unsure about how to handle the opposite sex especially after Dee.

            Despite his women problems including his recent cold shoulder toward Sarah and the lingering recall of Dee’s visit and her surprising revelation, Kirk had some good times surrounding his racing season. One thing to mention was his small, unofficial fan club consisting of unidentified fans and identified relatives even though still at this juncture he didn’t recall ANY of his high school friends ever coming to watch him race. Shows how well liked he was in high school doesn’t it? Anyhow, Kirk would appear in the racing program in the running for favorite driver, but seeing he didn’t have that many fans, he never reached the top five.

From last week’s spinout, the program had a picture of Kirk’s car and the red car sideways, spinning out in an action shot entitled “Twin Spin.” Not the sort of publicity Kirk would like to see...

            Kirk often had fans coming into the pits after the races asking for Uncle Kirk’s autograph while wearing his picture button. Once in a while, the tracks would host a fan recognition night or day depending on the track. During these instances, the fans, especially the kids, could get out on the track, climb in their favorite car with their favorite driver and get a ride around the track. Kirk would be happy to get a couple riders and tell them about the car and his experiences racing in a field of cars. Sarah’s mother often jokingly said she wanted to get a ride around the track with Kirk, but that wouldn’t happen with Sarah out of the picture.

            After his name showed up in the local newspaper for winning a heat or doing relatively well in features a couple times even Kirk’s father would surprisingly go to the races to cheer him on or, as Kirk was told, apparently shout out to “stay low” so no one could pass Kirk on the track. This was well after his father barely acknowledged that “his boy” existed during childhood. Well, Kirk tried to explain to his father that if he always stayed low, he couldn’t pass anyone! On a related note, his father would inform him, if Kirk had a good race, that he had snuck some “Fuel Activator” into his gas tank so he’d have more power. Kirk informed him that the additive was only a cheap concoction of colored alcohol and nothing special, but his father already had a whole case of this “Snake Oil” additive, so there was a usual supplement in his fuel supply, much to Kirk’s disdain.

            Kirk’s new/old girlfriend Farah was now a practicing nurse and bravely attended almost every race if she wasn’t working even though she voiced her composed concern about the danger and potential for injury in such a dangerous past time, but as we know, it remained very irresistible for Kirk. Picture red-headed Farrah as a pretty, slim and stately young woman of smart, gentle demeanor with few, mild words. She was not the typical racer/gear head’s girlfriend like you might think of like Sarah Elizabeth who didn’t mind getting her hands greasy. Sophisticated Farah accepted Kirk’s obsessive hobby with a calm reserve, acting very relieved after his races, especially when they could quietly reunite in the pits when it was all over. We covered Kirk’s love life many chapters back. Let’s see the first, probably the only time, Farah put Kirk on the spot.

            “What do you think of me?” Farah had asked during a quiet moment, her pretty green eyes begging an answer. Instantly Kirk’s mind went blank as his mind became a scrambled mess of what would be appropriate for such an intimate and important question. It put Kirk under intense relationship pressure that could theoretically inflict serious tension or permanent damage to their relationship bond if answered inappropriately.

            After thinking probably too many moments, he answered her, “A very stately lady.”

            Which she definitely fulfilled but Kirk could have done better with a classically romantic descriptive answer, but it seemed to satisfy Farah just fine. He wondered after the fact, but decided against to ask her the same question to see what she thought of him. Sometimes you don’t want to know! Even though Kirk perpetually pined for his first steady girl, Dee, Farah proved to be a loyal, longstanding steady, stable girlfriend for him even with this being the third time around for them. They spent a lot of quiet time together both most happy in each other’s company. Back to racing.

            Currently halfway through that second season, Kirk became a consistent finisher, most of the time anyway, often in the top five but always showing up to race despite the likelihood of rain that would force him, and everyone else, home without a race. With experience under his belt, he learned to make skillful recoveries from spinouts, minor bumps, or taps during tight competition and still finish towards the front contributing to a healthy point standing. The car ran reliably and strong with the car’s single mechanical breakdown almost keeping him from making a feature race. That we’ll relive now.

***

             Racing in the first heat of two that night, Kirk’s engine suddenly died after two laps. He coasted to the infield, and as the race continued, Kirk did some trouble shooting like he had in the contest he competed in high school Vo-Tech. Checking for the obvious, the engine had fuel. Popping the distributor cap, thinking that perhaps he broke a rotor or stuck ignition points, but those looked okay. Without thinking, he twisted the rotor and the rotor and distributor shaft turned freely not solidly engaged with the cam below the shaft. On a first guess, he determined the problem to be a broken ignition distributor causing him to envision a lost night of racing. As the winner of the first heat cruised around the track with the checkered flag, the efficient track crew pushed his car to the pits.

            Back in the pits, Kirk frantically pulled the distributor out with Jon running tools he needed. Yanking the unit out, he found the distributor intact but the drive gear had sheared off, and of course he didn’t have a spare gear. Meanwhile, the second heat began and so Jon and Kirk went separate ways to find a replacement gear among Kirk’s competitors that ran the same engine. In the meantime, the pieces of the nylon drive gear lay down in the bottom of the distributor hole. With a long thin screwdriver, Kirk nervously fished the pieces out; luckily the gear only broke in two.  A fellow racer had a gear and informed Kirk that brass distributor gears were absolutely necessary for longevity in these racing engines than the usual stock nylon gears and… Kirk didn’t have time to chit-chat. Kirk thanked him for the loan and running back to the car, Kirk waved Jon back.

            With trembling fingers, the shaft was still hot and oily, Kirk took a pin punch and a hammer and tapped the drive pin out of the distributor shaft right there on the car’s frame rail. Sliding the brass gear onto the shaft, Kirk tapped the pin back in without a thought to determine if there was a right or wrong way to assemble it. They quickly replaced the distributor as the second heat finished and the winner coasted around the track. Kirk turned the engine over by hand, lined up the balancer timing marks, and dropped the distributor back into place once, then twice to get the rotor pointing to number one cylinder terminal. He quickly hooked up the wires and lightly tightened the distributor down. Hoping for the best, he started the engine. It ran rough, but it ran. The timing was off.

            As always, Kirk’s last chance to make the point-making feature was by competing and finishing in the top two in the consolation race that consisted of all the losing cars from the other two heats. Lined up and idling, the other cars waited to go on the track. Next to his running car and bent over his engine there in his pit parking spot, Kirk reached over to the carburetor linkage to rev up the engine. While holding the speed up, he twisted the distributor back and forth until the engine sounded right. At the same time, the consolation race cars filed onto the track. Kirk told Jon to re-tighten the distributor down as Kirk squeezed into the car, put his helmet and harness on. Jon picked up the hood to remount it, but stood there dumbstruck as Kirk spun out of the parking slot. He roared down the dusty pit road risking disqualification for breaking the speed limit and racing without a hood; that is, if they even allowed him on the track at this late venture. Convinced he was too late; he watched his last chance to race in the feature slip away as the pit official closed the gate after the last car went through. As he roared up to the gate, Kirk blipped the throttle a couple times to get the official’s attention who spoke into his radio, hesitated, nodded, and then, unexpectedly reopened the gate. Kirk roared out, pulling onto the track knowing the other cars were coming around behind him.

            The pit gate opens on the third turn, and the pack of cars already coasted around the first and second turns, gaining speed to take the green in half a lap. Kirk realized that he was in a position almost a lap behind before even getting the green flag. He eased the throttle down open wide on the front straight roaring fast going through the gears to catch up with the pack. He risked disaster (again) with a fast first lap on cool, slippery tires as the other cars bore down behind him that he eyed in his panoramic rear view. He was in last place, almost a lap down! They got the green flag and Kirk literally still ran on his pace lap.

            Amazingly, K irk’s quick timing adjustment “by ear” worked perfectly because the car seemed faster than ever. The consolation race was always a sprint, really, only eight laps and only the top two finishers got to the feature on that night. Kirk knew what he had to do. For his first two laps, he had a wide-open track in front of him, which gave him space to go wide-open throttle and wide-open maneuvering space. Kirk quickly caught up with the stragglers in the back of the pack. One straggler actually spewed blue oil smoke as he blew past. Kirk drove recklessly high along the wall on the straights and dove deep and hard into the turns. He passed cars on the right and left cockily hoping that his car’s tires would stick to the track no matter where he drove. He drove like a reckless, desperate crazy man. By four laps, Kirk made it to mid pack. While going wide around the fourth-place car with his wheels high on the bank in the loose rubber, dirt and dust, Kirk pushed his tires past their adhesion point and started going sideways. He steered hard into the skid, learning that recovery from last week, while letting up on the throttle for a second, he recovered cohesion, straightened up, and charged ahead feeling just like back on the farm in his field car! Kirk took over fourth position.  

            With five laps down, he passed the third-place car by sneaking past on the inside apparently unseen with his fast approach and overtaking. The last two cars battled it out for first as Kirk closed the two car lengths on a single straight, braking later on every turn. Diving hard left into a turn, his left front tire touched the dust on the infield’s edge sending up a dusty cloud. The two drivers must have seen him coming in their rear views because they pushed a little harder. Kirk snuck his front wheels past the second car on the low side of a turn as he slid just a bit and tapped the other car, which in turn made the second-place car spin out. Kirk saw him slide away out his side window with his excellent peripheral vision.

            Kirk didn’t know if the first-place driver saw the second-place car spin out and forgot about Kirk or suddenly lost his nerve or concentration because he left an opening for Kirk to sneak by on the third turn. Kirk took the opening advantage and charged through the fourth turn to take the checkered flag. After a cool down lap, Kirk ran a victory lap with the hard-fought checkered flag whipping in the breeze. Racing without a hood must have been bad publicity, or illegal according to the rules, so no picture was taken of that victory. After the excitement of that race, the night’s feature race is long forgotten, but at least he made it to the feature to keep up his point chase.

            Afterwards, Farah who usually didn’t have much to say about the races, said the announcer really got caught up with Kirk’s fast mechanical repair and comeback to fly by all the other cars in eight short but super-fast, perfectly executed laps. Farah told him that the announcer said that he had never seen a more exciting consolation race and had everyone sitting on the edge of their seats. Farah hung onto Kirk especially tight that night after the races in the pits.

            Maybe this event didn’t leave Kirk Never the Same, but it was certainly a defining moment to remember in Kirk’s racing career. Hey! Get it?