Race Teams

I need some help here. I put a new transmission in my 1975 ford f-100. Its the np-435 4 speed with granny gear. I put the transmission in and now the clutch wont work. I pulled the bellhousing back but not off and bolted the transmission to the bellhousing and bolted it back up to the motor. Now that i have everything in the clutch linkage wont fit right anymore. There is a rod that comes off the linkage and sits in the throwout bearing arm, mine no longer wants to sit in there. when the clutch is depressed it will push the throwout bearing about an inch but wont compress the clutch. and when i pull the clutch off the floor( yeah, the clutch doesnt want to rebound by itslef either)the rod falls out of the throwout bearing arm. When it off the floor the rod sits about and inch away from the t.b.a If anyone has some insight to this problem please let me know, as i have already lost weeks of time and a tooth and several doctor visits to try and figure this problem.

Saturday 21/11/2009 16:30

Author: Briar Gunther | Source: BigPond Sport - copyright
BigPond Sport - copyright

Ambrose at Texas Motor Speedway

Two-time V8 Supercar champ turned NASCAR driver, Marcos Ambrose, has talked of his disappointment at not being able to compete in the Sydney Telstra 500 next month.

Ambrose spoke exclusively to BigPond Sport at NASCAR’s Dickies 500 held at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this month, revealing it was his idea to make the one-off appearance at the inaugural Sydney street race.

The former Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) star had to give up on his campaign to once again step into a V8 Supercar after it became apparent he could not secure a Racing Entitlements Contract (REC).

“It was just an idea I had to come back and try to help the series and make the first (Sydney) event successful as well; unfortunately it’s not going to happen,” he said.

“The series can stand on its own two feet so I’m not saying without me it’s not going to be successful, but it could only help everybody if I came back to the event and competed against the regulars down there.

“It’s in (V8 Supercars Australia’s) hands, it’s in the team owners hands and they chose not to do it. Yeah, it’s a shame.

“We had sponsorship in place; I wanted to come back and do it and see all my friends and have a race back there at home and just enjoy the event and help make it a success.

“It’s the first event for the series in Sydney, which is a very tough market traditionally and a brand new event and I thought it would only help if I was down there competing and trying to raise awareness about it.”

Ambrose said his bid to compete in the Sydney Telstra 500 was not from lack of effort.

He understood why no driver would give up their seat for the grand finale but pointed out that V8 Supercars Australia (V8SA) could have let him use the 30th REC.

“(V8SA) has one and chose not to release it and no one else is willing to give up their race for the event so it’s finished for 2009.”

Ambrose gave a similar response to an American reporter at NASCAR’s final race of the year at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend, which prompted V8SA to release a statement today.

V8SA Executive Chairman, Tony Cochrane, said speculation that the category prevented Ambrose from taking part in the inaugural Sydney event was “wide of the mark”.

He cited the sport’s rules and other teams as the reasons why Ambrose could not appear, “as much as it would have been a bonus for the event”.

“We would have loved Marcos to race but it simply couldn’t be done,” Cochrane said.

“Under our team rules and our Racing Entitlements Contracts one driver would have to give up his seat for Marcos to come back but not one team chose to do so.

“It was not a decision of V8 Supercars Australia, we looked at it every way we could. In the end it just could not be done legally as the 30th REC had been wound up.”

A V8SA spokesman further explained that Ambrose’s special appearance would have required a total re-write of the REC along with the approval of every single team owner for a do-over of the REC.

Cochrane said he totally understood why other teams would not sacrifice their fulltime driver at Sydney for Ambrose.

“The Sydney Telstra 500 is the grand final of our sport and means an enormous amount for all of our teams and the drivers who compete all year,” he said.

“The right to race in the V8 Supercar Championship Series is a great privilege and while commercially they may have stood to gain, the value of being able to compete is far greater.

”Marcos is going to be at the Sydney Telstra 500 as our guest and we are excited and honoured to have him with us for this fantastic inaugural event.”

Ambrose, who qualified third at Homestead-Miami Speedway, also told BigPond Sport that he would have raced either a Stone Brothers Racing or Ford Performance Falcon at Sydney.

And he said his old Pirtek livery, which he used to win the 2003 and 2004 V8 championships, may have seen the light of day on an FG if he had raced at the grand finale.

“We had three (sponsors), we just had to choose the right path or whichever path we decided to go down,” he explained.

“Pirtek was one of them. We could have done a retro scheme; we could have just had a purely new sponsorship scheme.

“We also could have had support from Jeld-Wen as well who has been loyal to me when I’ve been over here in the US; they were on our car back in 2005 as well so there were a lot of things we could have done.”