It was a lonnnnnng Memorial Day weekend at Shadyside, thanks to the weather, but the trip proved to be a useful one even though the Beast didn't make the field, qualifying 13th out of 20 or so cars with a 4.32. The big discovery, Paul said, was that the magneto was faulty, which means all the tuneup adjustments basically "never made any difference" because it wasn't firing correctly.
Paul said he suspects the problem may have begun while the car still ran a clutch, and when it ran its best times. Since the switch to the automatic, the Beast has come within about a tenth of its best clutch performances, and has been wildly inconsistent. "You could have a good run, but it wouldn't repeat," Paul said.
So, the magneto was sent back to MSD for a thorough refurb, is recertified and back in the car. Confident now that any tuneup changes will be reflected on the track, Paul said he's going back to the fast tuneups when the car had a clutch for his new baseline. The first chance to run again could be July 9-10 at Huntsville at a Southern Outlaw Tour event. Paul sees it as a test session, since the SOT is a screw-blower series. If the weather isn't too hot, he said, the Beast likely will be there.
As for the quirky Shadyside track, Paul said the racing surface was great, an uphill shutdown area a la Holiday Beach, and even the hairpin at the end wasn't a problem.
He said there was plenty of stopping room, but you had to get on the chutes "real quick. If your chutes failed, you'd be in trouble." The difficulty came at the other end of the track, Paul said, as the car had to be pushed back and forth to get it into the staging /burnout area. He couldn't fire the car and pull right into staging But he likes the series, so it's likely the Beast will be back at Shadyside, and at other tracks in the Carolinas.
We'll update closer to the Huntsville race.
