gas it
SHO Member
The short story is, we crashed into cars twice in 2 days and still managed a 6th place finish. 45 cars started so it wasn't the usual field of 120 at MSR Houston. Could have been that June is not the time to be in a hot race car with a firesuit and all in Houston.
About an hour and a half into the race this happens to me. Put your helmet on and tighten your belts, it's a rough ride children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6A2W9VQeZk
Since I hit the other car and it had more damage than ours I had to help the Miata get fixed. No biggie, we had lots of help from the 2 other SHOTIME teams ETL and Team Ziptie. Our car was back out in 65 minutes, with a missing left bumper(from the foglight all the way around the fender), crunched fender, bent strut, and new inner tierod. I think we were in 31st. The handling was a bit "interesting".
The Miata got another subframe from a junkyard. I helped pull the bent one out and install the good one. They went back out some 3 hours after the wreck, did maybe 10 laps and blew the motor. That's racing.
When the racing stopped at 7:30 Saturday we were in 9th. Then we got to see the crash video. That's when we realized that the Miata locked up the wheels for a yellow flag that I never saw. Neither did the 46 Sentra driver. He just moved over to let us faster guys pass. The way he stopped was like if there was a bulldozer in front of him. But there was nothing on the track ahead of us that required a yellow flag. No dead car, tow truck, debris, nothing.
We showed the video that night to a couple of the judges. The next morning we showed it to the T&S chief, the LeMons organisers, and another judge. They pretty much all agreed that the Miata braked a little too hard. My fault for following so close in a narrow part of the track. And the worst part is the Miata had 7 penalty laps because they won the last race at Eagles Canyon in April. We knew that because they were pitted next to us.
We raced without any more problems til the end on Sunday. With about an hour to go and only 2 laps out of 5th our driver was pushing hard. Then it happened again. 5 minutes to the checkers, car contact. The Supra was having tire vibrations and was told to stay out for the checkers. One of the rear tires blew in the turn just as we were going to pass him. His car moved over to the left right in front of us. Boom!
http://youtu.be/4dP1xk1qj0Y
We finished 6th. Got the "I got screwed" award trophy for making us help fix the Miata when it wasn't all my fault. Drove the car home about 50 miles with some really lose steering.
ELT finished 7th, with fuel filter clogging problems, and a broke transmission, no 3rd, sometimes no 4th. Ziptie finished 15th, broken wheel bearing and fuel filter clogging problems. Both those teams used track fuel so not sure what was up with that. Seems like other teams should have had the same problem. Don't really know if any one did.
About an hour and a half into the race this happens to me. Put your helmet on and tighten your belts, it's a rough ride children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6A2W9VQeZk
Since I hit the other car and it had more damage than ours I had to help the Miata get fixed. No biggie, we had lots of help from the 2 other SHOTIME teams ETL and Team Ziptie. Our car was back out in 65 minutes, with a missing left bumper(from the foglight all the way around the fender), crunched fender, bent strut, and new inner tierod. I think we were in 31st. The handling was a bit "interesting".
The Miata got another subframe from a junkyard. I helped pull the bent one out and install the good one. They went back out some 3 hours after the wreck, did maybe 10 laps and blew the motor. That's racing.
When the racing stopped at 7:30 Saturday we were in 9th. Then we got to see the crash video. That's when we realized that the Miata locked up the wheels for a yellow flag that I never saw. Neither did the 46 Sentra driver. He just moved over to let us faster guys pass. The way he stopped was like if there was a bulldozer in front of him. But there was nothing on the track ahead of us that required a yellow flag. No dead car, tow truck, debris, nothing.
We showed the video that night to a couple of the judges. The next morning we showed it to the T&S chief, the LeMons organisers, and another judge. They pretty much all agreed that the Miata braked a little too hard. My fault for following so close in a narrow part of the track. And the worst part is the Miata had 7 penalty laps because they won the last race at Eagles Canyon in April. We knew that because they were pitted next to us.
We raced without any more problems til the end on Sunday. With about an hour to go and only 2 laps out of 5th our driver was pushing hard. Then it happened again. 5 minutes to the checkers, car contact. The Supra was having tire vibrations and was told to stay out for the checkers. One of the rear tires blew in the turn just as we were going to pass him. His car moved over to the left right in front of us. Boom!
http://youtu.be/4dP1xk1qj0Y
We finished 6th. Got the "I got screwed" award trophy for making us help fix the Miata when it wasn't all my fault. Drove the car home about 50 miles with some really lose steering.
ELT finished 7th, with fuel filter clogging problems, and a broke transmission, no 3rd, sometimes no 4th. Ziptie finished 15th, broken wheel bearing and fuel filter clogging problems. Both those teams used track fuel so not sure what was up with that. Seems like other teams should have had the same problem. Don't really know if any one did.
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