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By PAUL SOKOLOSKI; Times Leader Sports Writer
Tuesday, June 21, 1994 Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: `SPIRIT’S’ TRANNY WOES
SOLVED BY VIGILANT CREW
SPARKS, Nev. — That the “Spirit of Northeast PA” made it through the
second day of the Interstate Batteries Great American Race without even a
whimper might be seen as near-miraculous.
But the effort it took to put the “Spirit” back on track was all in a day’s
— er — night’s work for ace mechanic Joe Anusiewicz.
The crew chief of the car’s support team led crewmates Frank Wallace, Eric
Lippi and Dave Daris on an all-night vigil that concluded early Tuesday to
repair the car’s broken transmission.
Then Ken Wallace and Mickey Cohen beat the heat, high mountains and driving
wind of California and Nevada to finish two minutes and one second off the
“perfect” time set by race officials over the 492-mile second stage of the
event.
“The car, right now, is better than when we started,” Wallace said. “But it
took my crew until 3:30 this morning to get it that way.”
They can thank Anusiewicz. A line mechanic at Valley Chevrolet, Anusiewicz
rifled through the guts of the “Spirit,” a 1940 Chevy Wallace and Cohen are
using to represent Northeastern Pennsylvania on the Great Race.
“You should have seen him, he was a maniac,” Daris said in admiration of
Anusiewicz. “He was like a surgeon. Eric held the light, Frank was holding the
lamp over him. It was like being in the operating room.”
The effort became necessary when the car lost second gear during the Great
Race’s opening day run Sunday.
“We had to take the transmission out, take it apart,” Anusiewicz, 33, said.
“A broken retaining ring gave us fits. It was basically time-consuming.”
But the crew did its job.
“They fixed the transmission so well, you couldn’t tell it was broken,”
Cohen said. “Now, second gear is as quiet as a mouse. The transmission’s
perfect.”
The whole team owes a great deal of gratitude to Jay Dykes, the owner of
J&D Collection Automotive Restoration. Dykes kept his Lancaster, Calif.,
garage and staff of employees available to any Great Race team in need of it
all night Monday and Tuesday, providing the “Spirit” team with an excellent
work setting in which to complete its tough task.
“We’re thankful for their services,” Anusiewicz said. “Beautiful shop,
great staff, great people.”
“And he refused to take any money for it,” Daris said of Dykes.
With their car purring again, Wallace and Cohen were back in high gear.
Their Chevy ate up California’s mean Eastern Sierra mountain range, which
elevated from 4,000 to 8,000 feet and left 18 other race vehicles gasping for
life.
“We had overheating problems, but it didn’t have an effect on how we
finished,” Ken Wallace said. “Seeing that the mountain claimed 18 other cars,
just to finish today was good. The car ran flawless.”
That overheating trouble was nothing major, as the “Spirit” team noticed
the car’s temperature gauge rising and simply added a gallon of water at the
next rest stop.
End of problem.
Then, just before the race’s second day finished in Sparks, Nev., high
winds whipped the car along an array of small Nevada towns. The “Spirit,”
however, breezed across the finish line with little trouble, ready to take on
the challenge of Stage 3 today.
“I think we did great,” Cohen said, “going up through those mountains …
when they built cars like this, they didn’t have roads that go up mountains
like THAT.”
And back in the 1940s, they probably didn’t have mechanics like Anusiewicz,
either.
“I’m going on about two hours sleep, maybe a little more,” Anusiewicz said.
“But it makes it all worth it coming through the finish line. They say to
finish is to win.
“I believe it now.”