It was me!

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Chris Marchand
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Re: It was me!

Post by Chris Marchand » Sun Sep 15, 2013 7:18 am

Terry, Very good news that your home ! R & R and get well soon. Chris

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Jeff Campbell
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Vintage Karting items owned: 1961 Fox Go-Boy MC20's
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Re: It was me!

Post by Jeff Campbell » Wed Sep 18, 2013 10:53 pm

Terry, we were all very concerned, it's good to know that you should heal up well and want to come back. Something strange must have happened ... if you learn anything after looking your kart over, let us all know.

Jeff Campbell

ted johnson
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Re: It was me!

Post by ted johnson » Thu Sep 19, 2013 12:43 pm

Terry, I second Jeff's post. Every one of us is very glad that you are back home and on the mend. I have a question: Bug karts had a propensity for the steering skaft pittman to flip over center and for the kart to suddenly reverse its direction. Is this a possibility for what happened? My friend, Jerry, was entering the pits at the Ft. Pierce, Florida modified 1/4 Mi. oval on Pop's '60 Wasp at a fair speed. He went to spin the kart around, and flipped the steering over center. Jerry was a football player at Melbourne High, and he instinctively stuck his hand out and stiff-armed an Oldsmobile that was parked in the pits. He put a good big dent in the door of the Olds, and walked around school all the next week with a sore arm. After that, we welded a stop on the axle to stop the pittman from over-centering. Just a thought. I wish you a SPEEDY recovery! Ted

Terry Sullivan
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Vintage Karting items owned: 4 Bugs, including the Wasp bought by my Dad in 1959. Many Clintons and a few Macs
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Location: Cumming, GA

Re: It was me!

Post by Terry Sullivan » Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:23 am

I wish I knew for sure what happened.
We can't find anything on the Bug that failed, so it must have been the driver.
I only remember being 'in trouble' for a second and then I was on my head.

My guess:
I raised my hand as I was heading for the pits - I was in turn #2 and maybe a bit too fast.
Applying the brakes right there (steering with one hand) could have upset my balance and possibly caused me to jerk the steering wheel.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
I have raced karts off and on since 1958 and I this is certainly my worst accident.
I can handle one bad one every 50 years.

Ted - I'm familiar with the over-center Bug steering and I make sure mine can't do that.

ted johnson
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Re: It was me!

Post by ted johnson » Fri Sep 20, 2013 5:57 pm

Terry, I figgered you'd run across the Bug steering flaw before. It was just a thought. We started making our steering into a two-tie rod setup in '61 so this couldn't happen. The only Bug we had that escaped the hacksaw was the Scorpion that Charlie still has. TJ

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