Originally Posted by davex:
I was referring to about half the field drops out due to mechanical problems. These are air cooled motorcycle engines, they aren't intended to run 50 lap TQ races how you guys run them. It is just hard on them. I think the car count would actually suffer if it is a long feature race.
I should just leave this dog in the road, but I can't. The fact that these are motorcycle engines, has nothing to do with the number that drop out of a race, Nor, has it anything to do with the fact they are TQ midgets, the number of laps, is not a factor. 99 out of a 100, the drop out is due to any number of things, unrelated to "engine failure". A broken wire, a partially plugged fuel filter, a fuel pump dies, a suspension bolt comes loose, I think it is called "racing". And, not only in TQ's, but every form of "competition", unexplained things happen. This season, at Osgood, on the white flag lap, we were running third, just as Kyle took the flag, it dropped 2 cylinders. got it home, ck'd it out, and an ignition module had gone dead, almost everyone runs the same system, Dyna, and it's not something you can prepare for, it's the first one I've had die, and I've been using them for 17 years. 50 lap races, not a problem, these engines get better care, than they did in the bike. I run an external oil cooler on mine, with a thermostat, so the oil temp stays around 190-220, which is ideal, the oil gets changed at least every 4 races, which in a bike, would amount to about 20 miles. I have watched,and participated in almost all forms of racing, and it's Murphy's Law, if it can happen, it will, and the dissapointment to the driver, doesn't matter what he's driving, be it a Go-kart, Midget, or a multimillion dollar IndyCar, it's still not what he had planned. Again, don't blame failure on the engine, most of the time it isn't at fault. Bob