Post
by cfossum » Tue Jul 14, 2009 8:11 am
Well, I personally found the "People's Curse" destruction by mob a little disturbing. I had to watch, though... so there was certainly some entertainment value.
So, here's the scoop.
We passed tech after the second attempt. The first time through, they sent us out to get a newly required battery box, which is a rule change effective for the August event. Being July, we were thinking we didn't need one. Oh well.
Then, all cars must pass a BS inspection, where two event organizers wearing robes and gray wigs judge your car to determine your level of cheating. They decided that the RX7 was worth $2500, which is $2000 over the limit. They penalized us 200 laps as a result of our suspected cheating. Their argument was that I've owned the car for a long time, and that I must have been maintaining it during that eleven year period. I agreed that I've maintained it, but with components off of other "free" RX7s that I've acquired over time, but he said "wrong answer". They also decided that the suspension seemed too stiff and must therefore be aftermarket. So, there is no arguing with the judges, and we had already dispensed all our bribes while going through the tech line. Live and learn, right?
With our 200 lap penalty, we started the race in 55th place, out of 56. Somebody else had a 250 lap penalty.
We sent Fast Freddy out first, and I'm glad we did. The start of the race was absolute mahem. Fred is our most experienced driver, so he had a head for staying out of trouble. Almost. If you run over the grass or hit a cone, you get black flagged. The penalty is the same as if you hit somebody, or if even if you get hit, its all equal. Fred accumulated two penalties, which is pretty good for such a full field. Imagine 56 cars on a 5/8 mile oval/chicane, sort of like a mini NHMS without turns 3-9!
Fred was able to demonstrate that the car was one of the faster ones out there, so the team was really amped up!
After Fast Freddy, it was Paddy's turn at the wheel. Paddy did an awesome job running clean, no penalties at all. The car continued to kick some tail. Paddy ran a full stint of about an our and a half. It was pretty hot on the track, but the cool shirt setup kept Paddy the coolest. Then The Clam went out and continued Fred's trend of picking up a few penalties. Ryan was immediatly willing to toss the car around and mix it up with some of the dangerous crowd. We paid for it with an impromptu three-legged race with the Clam and another driver that we offended. They taped their legs together, and sent them over to the hot dog stand to buy lunch, then "run" out on track to deliver the food to the corner workers! What a scene! Then we got parked for a while. All the penalties were determined on a whim.
Joe took the wheel after Sandy Clam, and much like Paddy, Joe ran completely clean, again demonstrating the car's strong performance capabilities while staying out of trouble. Did I mention Joe stayed out of trouble? Ok, good. Nothing else newsworthy occured during Joe's productive stint.
Next, it was captian Carl's turn. With more guts than brains, I let them strap me in and hook up the radio, the cool shirt, and the belts, and the drink bottle. I started the car and headed out. My god, what was I doing? As I entered the track for the first time, I was overwhelmed with trying to learn the track, and work the radio, and pick a spot amongst the maniacs on the track. This was my first experience with wheel to wheel racing. It had also been the first experience for Joe, Ryan, and Paddy, but they didn't whine or seem nervous, so I kept my mouth shut too. So, exactly eight minutes later, I hit a cone while giving up some room to a very aggressive P.O.S. As a penalty, they parked me for the night. It would have been a two hour penalty, but nature came to my rescue and they canceled racing for the night about 45 minutes later due to rain. yeah!
Day two, we reversed the driver order. During a routine mechanical check in the morning, Paddy and brother Peter discovered a leaking CV joint boot. They replaced a missing clamp with a zip tie and after rotating the tires and adding a bit of oil, they approved the car as ready to rock. I went out first. Devoted to trying to drive clean, I went out slow under a full course yellow. Once the green flag dropped, I quickly forgot my vows. I started to have a lot of fun, just tearing up the field. Passing is an absolute thrill under threshold turning, just inches apart in the oval at 70mph. Inside or outside, the car could overtake just about every car out there. I even started passing in the chicanes! What a blast! When I finally ran out of room in a particular turn because another car was cutting me off, I remembered that the penalties were the same for hitting a cone as they were for hitting another car. What would you do? I nailed the other car this time. It was time to come in anyhow. I was able to convince the penalty judges that the other guy was just an idiot, they let me right through. We did a driver change, and Joe got in. Joe ran another clean session while passing most of the field many times. Um, and it was uneventful again. I’ve gotta say, I'd rather be able to say that I drove like Joe, but I can't. During the day, we progressively moved up in the rankings. When Joe came in, I think we were in 24th place. After Joe, Ryan got in and did a fine job, although the car was starting to run hot. It really was quite hot at the track on Sunday. Ryan kicked some more tail, but was concerned with the climbing coolant temps. When Paddy finally got in, he discovered that he had to keep it in third (rather than shift into second sometimes) all the way around the track. Eventually, he would use fourth, and even fifth gear in an attempt to keep the temps down. Poor Paddy, he really couldn't push the car to any point of competitiveness. He finally came in, bummed out. The car had been running so well, and he had been ready to turn up the wick a bit, but his superior intellect ruled and he drove conservatively with the goal of keeping the car from overheating. When he came in, we discovered a coolant leak in an old hose. Peter risked second degree burns and changed the hose with the skill of a fine craftsman. We were back out on the track in twenty five minutes, with Fred at the wheel this time! Fast Freddy was batting cleanup! It was good to see the car running quickly again, and thanks to Paddy, no permanent damage was done. Nice job! While we were out of the race, we dropped a few places. Freddy ran most of his session, he had enough fuel to finish the event for us. With fifteen minutes to go, he ran over some grass, and they parked him for the duration of the race. But with Freddy driving, we had climbed back to 28th place, where we finished.
A good time was had by all, and the car still runs! It appears that the RX7 will live on at future COM events, although with a nose job gone bad, and a few other battle scars.
Thanks to all who helped, thanks to the rest of the team, a big thanks to Peter McParland for being the master wrench, and thanks to Image4 with Jeff Baker for vinyl, and to DriverSupply.com for last minute parts and more vinyl.
-Carl
Team Call On yo Mom
It was getting pretty wobbly after about 12 hours. (Probably because I had to remove one of the screws to use in a last-dash effort to mount a center brake light before tech ended.) We also lost a bumper to the yellow Corolla FX-16, but saddest of all was losing our udder. 
That was a special gift from the other Volvo wagon (the green one).
