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| Don and I were at Sebring for the start of the new racing season. My M3 was back together again, with a newly rebuild engine, new front brakes and new windshield. I had high hopes after much time and $$$ reinvested into the car. The engine held up great, with the exception of losing a fanbelt because the crankshaft pulley came loose. Fortunately, I had a replacement and Buddy got it resolved quickly. The bad news was that an old, intermittent problem reared its ugly head again. Shortly after checking out the car and warming it up on the track, I started having difficulties shifting from 3rd to 4th gear. As a result I lost many seconds per lap, and wasn't able to sustain speeds to pass other cars. The more I ran, the more the problem affected shifting between other gears. I qualified 17th out of 50 and ended up 14th overall in the race on Saturday. Attempts to bleed the clutch hydraulic line didn't help the problem, so I decided not to race on Sunday because the condition was affecting my rhythm. Ultimately we determined that the OEM pressure plate configuration just couldn't handle the load in racing conditions. Later in 2003, I upgraded to a Quartermaster titanium racing clutch and flywheel to solve the problem once and for all. |
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