The worst day of racing is supposed to be better than the best day at work right? Well, ok, so it is true, but sometimes just barely.
So I take off work on Wed. and Thursday before the race weekend to make sure the car is prepped. I spend Wed. taking off an intake manifold I just installed (to replace the previous owners cheater manifold) after discovering a vacuume leak due to two fairly large cracks in the manifold. I finally sorted through a very frustrating stripped braided brake line fitting fiasco and was still waiting on 12x1.50 wheel studs which were scheduled to arrive Friday via UPS. I needed the studs to run the new 13x7 wheels that I had just had some scrubbed in Victoracers mounted on (Thanks Keith @ Autotire!).
I get the car loaded up on the trailer shod in the Khumo Ecstas that have seen way too many heat cycles. I figure I'll just burn them up on the Test & Tune on Friday.
Friday the 30th rolls around and it's absolutely pouring! 70 is shut down from some huge accident, and 55/44 is all backed up. What a great start to the weekend! I show up at Gateway around 7:30 along with my brother Steve and his SSC ACR Neon. Still pouring. Set up the www.ridgid.com canopies and proceed to get the cars off of the trailer. The RX7 starts right up, which hasn't happened in the 2 months since I burned out the MSD's welding on it at the track in order to make it to grid. Should have taken that as an omen and took it back home.
It continued raining... hard. The Turn 1 run-off was 3 feet under water. Turn 3 was a lake. The T&T was “postponed“ until 10:00. After becoming completely drenched, the T&T was cancelled. Time to head home with zero testing of a car that hasn't had a decent outing since the Phil Wicks school in Oct. 03.
Sat. morning started out great! The car ran well, the new carb ( www.pbandjracing.com ) made power all the way up to 8k. The car finally felt great although I could feel the tires starting to go. Managed a 1:18.xx. Not great, but fastest of the slow IT7's ;)
I decided to swap the new wheels/rubber over for the race. I installed the new wheel studs I had received the day before ( www.wheelcomponents.com ) and tested the lugnuts that I had. The studs were too long for the closed nuts. A little work with the cut-off wheel on the nuts and I was good to go. During my brothers qualifying, he ended up in the infield of T2 and smacked the gator strip and knocked the RF wheel out of alignment. No big deal except that I forgot to load up my toe plates. Steven Burkett to the rescue ( www.tuxedoparkracing.com )
The RX7 wasn't acting quite right on the way to grid. There was a little something different in it's idle. During the warm up lap it felt fairly responsive and until the green flag dropped, I thought it would be a great start. Nadeem Bari was qualified 1st, with Bryan Cohn right in front of me. When the flag dropped, the RX basically stayed at the rpm it started at. The entire field pretty much blew by me. I played catch up the next 4 laps until the first Spec Miata blew by me down the straight. Coming into the carosel, everything was fine, until I went to brake/downshift. As I pulled my foot off to step on the brake and pushed in the clutch, the rev's zinged to 9,500 and the rear started to break loose. As I spun off into the grass I heard the sound of the motor change. I then noticed the 20 or so Spec Miatas staring at me as I was just off of the racing line. Isaac System ( www.isaacdirect.com ) don't fail me now! Back at the paddock, there was oil blow by all over the pass. side of the engine compartment (where the oil catch can is). Could some oil have spilled out and caused the spin? Who knows...
So... I now have to put in an appeal to keep my club racing license as I've had mechanical issues at every race I've been to with the new car and my license expires this month. Ain't racing fun!