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Day Two - Derek
Daily Track (Las Vegas, NV)
"You Start Me
Up"
If you're ever in Las
Vegas, take our advice and don't stay at the Hotel San Remo.
Since we needed a place to park the truck and trailer, we didn't
have many choices. Since the San Remo is just off the strip,
we figured it would be close to a good dinner. Well, after an
hour long check-in line (made up of a whole six people), we decided
to just eat the hotel's local swill and use our remaining time to
sleep.
Another 6:00am alarm
and we're at the track in time to setup before our 8:15am driver's
meeting. The U1 guys hit the track and they're really moving.
I've been on this track before and I'm looking forward to my first
session. A couple of laps in, I get a big surprise when
exiting turn two. I'm not sure if I dropped a wheel, or slid
on the concrete apron, but whatever happened, the car spun fast and
hard with no warning. I went whipping to the right and spun
all the way around before sliding sideways about 100 feet down the
track and then off into the dirt. A bit two late, I realized
that I had steered straight but only put one foot in. I
belated put in the clutch as the spin was winding down but it seemed
to be too late. After coming to a stop, I couldn't get the car
started. Everything looked okay but pressing the starter
button just produced a sickening click. I was towed back to
our pits by the track crew and left to explain to Dave what
happened. As usual, I didn't have the video camera going so
there's no tape to study.
Everything looked
okay with the car, but still no luck with the starter. Both
the catch cans were empty and everything looked fine when we pulled
a spark plug and peeked at the piston. Time to call Pro
Fabrication and find out what they thought. The news would
seem to be good... it seems that on a motorcycle engine, the
starter is always engaged (no solenoid). Pro Fabrication
figures that the starter got spun backwards before I put the clutch
in. Fortunately, the starter is right on the top right side of
the engine so it takes only five minutes to have it disconnected and
removed from the car. We give the starter a little shake and
hear a whole bunch of bad noises. A few minutes with a
screwdriver and the starter is disassembled. We pour the
contents onto the ground and now we know why the car won't start!
The starter is totaled. No problem we figure, there should be
plenty of places in Vegas to buy a new one. Fifteen minutes
and ten phone calls later, we know we're in trouble. No one
has a starter in stock. To add insult to injury, they sell for
over $300! I called back to our shop and they started looking
around in San Diego and Los Angeles. While Dave got ready, I
quickly put the starter back together without any internal parts.
We bolted it back to the engine, taped up the lead and rushed to
make the second session. Dave jumped in the car while I gave
it a push and it started right up. It looked like we were in
business until we could get a replacement starter.
While Dave was on the
track, I checked back with the shop for a status report. They
had no luck finding a starter anywhere. I called Pro
Fabrication and they had one in stock. I gave them the address
for Buttonwillow Raceway Park and they promised to sent it out via
FedEx so we could have it the next afternoon. During lunch, we
pulled the skid plate and changed the oil and filter (well, Dave did
most of the work since I was still trying to get a starter).
After lunch I was
ready to give it another try. Dave gave the car a push and we
were off and running. I tried to push as hard as I could but
the car still felt loose. I knew I was slower than some of the
other cars in the run group so I backed off a bunch of times to let
them by and not mess up their times. The result was a pretty
poor 1:37.01 for my second and final session. Dave went out
for our last run and was able to kill my time with a great 1:31.541
lap. We end up still around the middle of the overall
standings at the end of the day.
Neither one of us is
very happy with the way the car feels. We also discover that
it's now significantly lower on the left side. While we're
messing with the suspension, Jason Rhoades reminds us of 7s Only
Racing at the track in Buttonwillow. We decide to take the car
there in the morning and have them go through the whole suspension.
Thinking that other teams will have the same idea, I call ahead and
make an appointment. They agree to open an hour early and meet
us at 7:00am.
So far, I'm winning
the incident count three to one over Dave. At the same time,
none of my times so far have counted towards our totals. We
have at least a six hour drive to Buttonwillow (near Bakersfield) so
we get packed up and hit the road. Not far outside of Las
Vegas, we come across one of the teams who has wrecked their tow
vehicle, trailer, and race car by going off the road and crashing in
a construction area on I-15. Some other teams have already
stopped to help and we get the word that everyone is okay so we
continue down the road paying even more attention to traffic and any
sway in the trailer. We hook up with Mark Allan and his son
Trevor (running an NSX in U2) as well as Greg Hardee and Todd
Southwell in their T2 NSX. We convoy over to Baker and eat at
the Mad Greek ($8 for a gyro sandwich!) with a bunch of other teams.
Afterwards, we continue on towards Buttonwillow with Competition
Coupe (in it's trailer) joining in as well.
After a few more
stops, we make it to Buttonwillow around midnight. We've heard
that a number of cars and tow vehicles have been stolen from the
motels in "town" so we go to the track first and drop off the
trailer.
Video:
Looking for a starter in Las Vegas
Video:
Dude, we can fix it!
Video: Who
needs a starter anyway?
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