[Cglrcng]

I won't go round by round but just back from the last LODRS Div 7 race, found out in the lanes during Q2 that there has been an issue w/ the new shifter cable I had installed just back in April 23', (I am now sure it happened in the Lanes during the Test and Tune evening of Sept 8th when the plastic lockout lever on the stock shifter T-handle broke internally locking the shifter and the transaxle in Park, many together attempted to help Rock The Car (because I originally thought it was transaxle related, when in reality it was locked in park at the shifter), and I was almost at the same exact spot in the lanes this last Friday morning lined up for Q2, and as everyone in front of me was pulling forward, sure enough as I went from Neutral to drive the cable let go of the grommet at the shifter and went freewheeling no longer even connected within and below the stock shifter console. Ohhhhh, Nooooo!

There I was again just 2 months later almost to the day, waving all those behind me to go around please (a few nice gentlemen offered after our lanes were empty and I had missed Q2 completely to help push the car back and beyond on the other side of the staging lanes barrier (a hearty THANK YOU ALL!!! to those very kind people, and then of course I called my great friends The Irving's (both John and Jon), and they came with pit vehicle and a tow rope, and towed my 2,845 lb slow sled back to their pit, where I had a brand new spare cable amongst all the hundreds of lbs. I take to the track within that packed hatchback, and a couple of hrs. later it was not only fixed correctly, but it was ready to run under index the following morning in Q3 (and it did).

The Indicator is now out (removed completely), as is the old shifter stick boot slide, so I may just look down now and see within the console and not only monitor the condition of that cable end, but reach it with fingers and or tools for the short period of time left before I receive the backordered aftermarket B& M ratchet shifter and the Tunnel Mount shifter stand I ordered last month (due to arrive this week).

The repair cable was smooth and straight...and shifts like a dream now. I cannot believe how badly the other 1 was bent up (see the 2 pics below).

The car from Q3 on was working like a dream, still short shifting it a lot 1-2, and a bit 2-3 (and still under once that repair was done)...The Q1 1-2 shift flat did not happen properly (now known why, but at the time hidden & unseen below the console so the first pass did not have a minus in front of it for the first time in 3 events, I was on the Q-sheet, but below where I needed to be....I would rather screw up 2 Q passes than 1 or more Elim. runs! (As long as the issues I find are fixed! And the overall car combo is improved).

Lots of changes/improves still to go this Winter off season.

Thank You GTX John Irving and The NV Missle Jon Irving...Without you guys and your deep hearts and compassion, friendship, and your never ending hospitality, we would never be this far along, in this mission of the 2nd chance in life return to class racing at this point My Brothers!

Our gratitude is endless, but thank you's can never be said enough times.

To the Emmon's Family of brothers and a few others, I had not seen in ages, have missed for so long, and have had a precious few minutes to visit with this week after almost 3 decades...It was fun to visit and allow me to invade your space, Gary, you found out exactly how stubborn this old man really is...You have been the only one that actually asked me "How I could possibly keep that car and not sell it for a quarter of a century?"

My answer was truthful...No mechanical entity is going to beat me, not a desktop or laptop computer (I am a 30 yr. IT Tech), and certainly not a vehicle, unless I get it fixed, or fix it myself...it will not go to another human being for their use, and this car will eventually be used by some younger person in the future than I.

But, it will go to them only after It is performing the best I can get it to do so. And it was plenty of time to educate myself to solve the issues that dinosaur of a rudimentary computerized one off oddball class car. It is getting there, slowly....A decade plus of Mentoring High School Robotics Teams (via the F.I.R.S.T. ROBOTICS PROGRAM), from 2011 (when our youngest of 3 sons was a High School Freshman), forward to the present day actually taught this old dog a few new tricks (by being surrounded by every imaginable Type of Engineer, Master Machinist, Mechanic, Teacher, Professor, Marketer, you name it by the bushel basket full at team shops, Meets, and Events all over the country (and those were Engineers from all over the WORLD, from NASA to what seemed like beyond The Moon to Mars and back), all very open to any decent human or mechanical discussion, but especially those not robot related, each more than willing to have dinner and talk race cars instead...I learned EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION, you just must think "outside the box"...or build a new box...or reshape the box, and never be afraid to fail and try, try, try again, and again.