I've got a running thread on upgrades and thoughts with my '68 Fury, but figured a trip writeup deserves its own thread. Will try to knock this out in a couple posts.

Back in February I was accepted from the waitlist for Sick Summer, a new event that Tom Bailey was putting on. He'd already done Sick Week in Florida 2 years in a row and decided on a midwest version too. I'd been to almost every track on the list but hadn't raced at any of them besides Cordova, and I was super excited to drive a bunch of midwest roads near the Mississippi. The route was also quite short by D&D standards, so it was a good time to get my feet wet with the Fury.


Day -1, Clinton

I had some issues leading up to the event, namely a cracked LCA, a rearend that I picked up later than I was hoping, and I also underfilled it like a bonehead. But... the car felt good enough to load on the trailer, so Saturday the 3rd I picked up a U-haul car hauler, drove home, loaded the car, and then we took off for Cordova!

Was also able to meet up with Furious70/Jeremy briefly, he was coming back from Indy and was right behind me on the east west tollway so I pulled over in Naperville to chit chat for a bit. We got to the hotel around 6, the car had 5500 miles exactly on the odo to start the trip. We unloaded it at the hotel, and then decided to drive it 40 minutes to dinner at Bent River Brewing in Moline. Found parking on the 3rd floor of the downtown parking structure too. I'd been there before on work trips and loved their bacon wrapped jalapenos and beers. It ended up being even more stellar than I remembered, and was by far the best meal of the trip!

Drove back to the hotel along the Mississippi, and the front end of the Fury got *ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED* by all kinds of bugs. Have to take care of that later...




Day 0, Sunday, tech day at Cordova

Loaded the car back up on the U-haul and left the hotel around 7 after seeing several fellow racers in the lobby, including Sam from the Cleetus youtube channel. Was at the track by 8 after a lengthy stop at Kwik Star for supplies and gas, and the line for tech was already 5 lanes deep. Unloaded the car again, and it went pretty smoothly - everything on the car worked, my paperwork was in order, and tech was pretty light since I signed up to stay under 11.50. They checked my battery hold down, taillights, turn signals and horn... that's about it. Once tech was done, we went back to the trailer, where I wanted to check a few last minute things- tossed a fresh set of -6 NGK's in it, checked torque on suspension fasteners, and also checked the torque converter bolts. Everything was looking good.

Didn't make a test pass- was feeling gunshy about the trans and some vibrations it has on certain turns. Turns out it didn't get worse over the week, thankfully. Left the track around 5, grabbed dinner at a very average mexican place in Clinton, Iowa, and were at the hotel by 7. It was around 90 and we were suffering mightily in the sun, luckily the weather got progressively better over the course of the week. The hotel a/c was a welcome relief!