Bent Car
(c) 2005 J. Sage Schreiner
www.unsage.com
Sunday, I had bent my race car. The coming Sunday, I had a race to make at Mission, BC. The challenge was that the race car was U-shaped; very good at turning left, not-so-good for going straight. Plus, the steering rack was seriously deformed and the sub-frame was most likely torn. Body damage was fairly minor. The front and rear right fenders were a bit worse for the wear, but still generally had more paint on them than not. I wasn't too worried about being able to repair the car. I had some extra parts in the shed, and a body-shop as a sponsor. It wasn't going to be cheap, but the important thing was that I was back on the track in 5 days. In time for the race at Mission the coming weekend.
I spoke to Jeff Butler of Haury's Lake City Collision Sunday evening on the tow home and explained what I needed. Even though Haury’s specializes in top-notch, OE quality work, Jeff knew what I meant right away by a "race car fix." It didn't need to look good, just be straight. The tires needed to be mostly in the right places, but a good alignment and adjustable race suspension could fix any minor issues. I left the car on the trailer when I got home that evening. It looked how I felt: sore. The gorgeous, shiny car of the year's first race was no more. In its place was a bruised, battered and bent race car.
First thing Monday morning, I had the car at Haury's. I knew that Jeff and the Haury's guys would do their best to have the car ready for my race the coming weekend. I was still in the lead for the championship, although an early season lead doesn’t necessarily carry through. If I was going to have any chance of winning, I was going to have to race at Mission. After an inspection, Jeff told me that I would need a new rear bumper, bumper shocks, new steering rack and new sub-frame.
I rooted through my parts-shed, and found those bits from a 318i parts car that I had pulled apart three years before. I dropped them off at Haury's Tuesday afternoon.
By Wednesday, the Haury's guys had my car up on the rack and were tugging it straighter. While they were at it, they found some pre-existing cracks in the front chassis rails that they cleaned and welded up. Thursday, they got the new bits bolted on. Friday morning it was off to get an alignment. I had given Jeff some specific alignment specs. Primarily, I wanted zero front toe. Street cars generally have significant toe in, which adds to the cars stability, but it adds tire-drag and isn't the fast way through corners. My hope was that this, plus my engine RPM increases, would make the car a bit faster. I had also acquired a better front air-dam, but it was going to have to wait until after the Mission race to install it. Besides, Mission was a very slow track with a short straight, so it wouldn't matter too much.
I picked up the car Friday afternoon at 2 pm. It was still a bit bruised looking, but it wasn't nearly as u-shaped. The hood actually closed. I loaded it onto the trailer and headed North to Mission, BC. My hope was the car was as ready to race as I was. I wouldn't know until the next morning.
Racerdog and Girlchief weren't with me. On the drive up, I took a moment to review my number-one goal for the weekend: don't crash. Mission is an intimidating track. There are a lot of walls, and very little run-off space. All the same, even though my confidence was a bit bruised, I didn't feel like put-putting around the track. As they say, racing is fun and winning is funner (most of the time).
Linda Heinrich's red Paseo and Mark Wilson's red Datsun 510 were both in the paddock. I was pretty sure that I could beat Linda if I stayed focused, but I was equally sure that Mark wouldn't have any trouble staying ahead of me. Sure enough, the qualifying times indicated this. I was about a second faster than Linda, and Mark was about a second faster than me. The only suspension change I made was to slightly soften my front shocks to account for Mission's rough pavement.
The RPM-boost from my mild circuit board change seemed to help, as it allowed me to accelerate a bit longer out of the corners. I generally found myself using the same gears. All the same, I was driving pretty conservatively, and doing low 1.29's. This was slower than I had been at the beginning of the year.
Sunday threatened rain, on-and-off, just as it had been the previous weekend when I crashed at Portland. I was chewing my nails about whether to keep the dry tires on, soften the rear suspension, or just go with a full-rain setup of disconnected rear-sway and rain tires. Finally, just before the last call to pre-grid, I made up my mind and went with the dry setup. Or would have. As I got ready to hop in the car, I noticed that one of my tires was flat. However, big budget racer that I was now, I actually had a spare with me for the first time ever. That’s the irony of racing – bring a spare, so naturally you get a flat.
I whipped the spare on the car in seven-seconds flat, double checked the lugs and made it down to pre-grid moments before the 5 minute warning.
Sitting in the pre-grid, drops of water splattered onto my windshield. I had a flashback to the absolute, pouring buckets of the previous weekend, but just as quickly as it started, the rain stopped. Nature just messin' with my head. Waiting in pre-grid is always nerve-wracking for me. I hate it – it's the fear of the unknown, and the knowledge that racing can be dangerous.
When the green flag waved, I stomped on the gas, all anxiety blown out the muffler somewhere well-before Start / Finish. Mark had qualified in front of me, but his 510 had starter problems and was beginning from the back of the grid. Even as the pack began to spread out, Mark passed me – it took him less than three laps to catch me.
I settled down to drive the violent rhythm of Mission. The rough pavement and hard turns provide no time to rest. The rhythm of the track is fast and irregular. The jars, rattles and bounces are constant and painful. Least favorite is the bone-rattling pavement on the two corners before the straight. The slightly-softened shocks helped the front tires bite, but my head was still cracking into the roll cage. Part-way through the race, I noticed that the steering felt loose, and there was a loud rattle coming from somewhere under the car. I was physically tired, as well. I backed off a bit to 9/10ths. Mark was far ahead of me, and I was far ahead of Linda. It was a repeat of my previous race a month before.
After a few more laps, the car picked up a heinous vibration. In the past, I've found that a sudden vibration like that can be from running over a bit wad of racing rubber. If that's the case, it tends to fade a bit in following laps, as the rubber gets mashed into place. Sure enough, that was what happened. The looseness and the banging was more pronounced, however. I was concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the race. There was no real racing to be done, so I backed off a bit more and stayed well out of the way as the two group-leading CRXs lapped me on the last lap of the race. It was a relief when the green flag waved.
I hadn't driven particularly well that weekend, but I hadn't crashed. That was important, and a heckuva lot better than I had done the previous weekend.
On the tow home, I considered the rest of the season. As I was not going to the double race weekend in Spokane, my next race was two months off. When I returned to the track in August, I wouldn't be in the lead for the championship any longer. I hadn't realized it when making my year's schedule, but the second Spokane race was going to count for twice as many points, meaning that I was effectively going to lose out on three-races worth of points.
But then, what's the fun of racing without the challenge of being an underdog?
