Racing Bloopers

[Wayne]

Time for some humor. They say the ability to laugh at yourself is a positive trait, so lets hear your embarrassing racing moments.

I spun out on a victory lap once...

This was a rain race, with a heavy, steady down pour, a full wet track with periodic river crossings at some corners. About 1/4 through the race I had made good progress towards the front. I was actually passing people!! The same guy who has had my number all year (dry races) I was able to pass and put some distance between us.

It was a crazy race with people spinning off the track right and left. Some guys passed me three or four times during the race. They would come flying by, and spin off the track at the corners. A few laps later, the same guys come flying by and go spinning off... Amazing how some people don't grasp the concept of throttle modulation on a wet track. It's like they have a toggle switch for the throttle - full-off OR wide open, nothing in between.

Anyway, I was having a ball, steering the car through some of the corners with the throttle - right at the edge of traction, rear end stepping out on occasion etc. Managed to get the lead about 3/4 through and then had a good, albeit slippery battle with two other cars until the end of the race. I had them on the straights, but had to keep the car well away from the wall as the car was hydroplaning badly, even in a straight line.

Won the race, came through the pit lane to pick up the flag and headed back out on the victory lap. Going through one of the corners on the back side of the track, at a slow speed, the rear-end came around and I spun off into the grass... but I was still holding the flag out the window. ;)

This was the same corner that I just spent the last 30 minutes going through at speed during the race. I'm sure the flaggers were thinking WTF is up with this guy????????

I was thankful for:

It happening on the far backside of the track.
Few flaggers saw it happen.
I had turned off the in-car camera after the race so this feat was not included on the race video.
I didn't get stuck in the grass.
No spectators (my wife and family) could see the corner where this took place.
The track photographer did not have a view to this part of the track.
The car didn't stall (hard to restart sometimes) Can you imagine having to get a flat-tow because you spun out on the victory lap?????

So, what are your embarrassing racing moments????

Wayne

[joeg]

I spun on the first lap. Cold tires. Fortunately everyone was able to take evasive action.

Other embarrassing moments can include "cruising" toward the end of the race and watching your competition spin out and recover in time to nip you at the line.

[zracre]

Breaking an axle at Daytona at pit in while running second in an enduro...with only a few minutes to go...I could almost hear the laughter and cheers from my competitors... :o

[Knestis]

Two people who should have been able to figure it out managed to tip a certain white GTI off of the jackstands at the Roebling school in 2004. A helpful competitor nearby explained how we should do it in language normally reserved for small children and idiot cousins. :)

I take solace in errors like that, based on one of my favorite racing stories...

WAY back in the mid-1980's Carroll Smith (of "...to Win" book fame), was running a Formula Ford for his son Chris. Competitors at the time included the likes of Jimmy Vasser, Jon Beekuis, and Calvin Fish (the latter two great examples of unfunded talent of the time), so this was where some of the good stuff was happening.

That show came to a National at Portland and, because we wanted to learn from the greats, we were eyeballing Carroll S. as he did a valve adjustment on Chris' car. He got done and fired it up, with the car on a set of car stands...

...only to discover that (1) the car was in gear, and (2) he'd left a centerlock wrench about 3' long on one of the rear hubs.

WHEEEEE!!

He'd been using it to turn over the engine to get TDC on each valve. Nobody was killed but I learned a couple of important lessons - about adjusting valves and about mere human beings going racing.

K

[charrbq]

Immediately, I can think of two...one in race preparation, and one during a race.

Race prep...showing off my race car to a friend. We were going to change the front pads, and he was really excited about helping with the job. Rather than jacking from each side (the safe way), I ran the jack under the middle of the front and jacked from there to expedite the process. Talking away with an inflated ego and an unobservant eye, I jacked the car almost high enough for the jack stands when it came off the jack...ripping through the rubber bumper, grill, and radiator. Boy, was my buddy impressed!

The other happened on the pace lap at Daytona when the hood came flying into the windshield. I'd left the hood pins out when I checked the oil and got too busy to check them later. This was stupid, but to add to the irony, I'd checked the oil before qualifying. So I ran an entire 20 minute session, at substantial speed, with the hood undone only to have it come up at 30 mph on the pace lap.

Ran the race with a cracked windshield after the pit marshall shoved my hood down and pinned it. Got back up to my grid position when I ran out of laps.

[planet6racing]

I know you all are waiting for me to respond.

So, I'm goinig to keep you waiting!

[zracre]

Originally posted by planet6racing@Oct 5 2005, 03:26 PM
I know you all are waiting for me to respond.

So, I'm goinig to keep you waiting!

61848


HA!!! I remember...i was there and saw the video!!!! :blink:

[lateapex911]

Originally posted by planet6racing@Oct 5 2005, 03:26 PM
I know you all are waiting for me to respond.

So, I'm goinig to keep you waiting!

61848


And I still have the "Emergency steering wheel kit" that was taped to the dashboard.......

[Geo]

Oh boy, mine came when I was racing karts.

We had a local street race. Cool course through downtown. We went down Main St. back behind the city hall and up a hill back out on to Main St. OK, there was more to it than that, but the cool part was coming up hill out onto Main St. I was like Monaco for us. Spectators were 3 deep and that was just first practice!

So... after first practice I decided I needed to make a handling change and decided to change the rear track. Jump ahead....

In the second practice session I was on about my 5th or 6th lap and in the middle of the lap my handling suddenly started noticeably changing. Behind city hall there was a fast left/right combo. Well in the left hander the rear suddenly got REALLY loose. I caught it plenty quickly, but it was a big oversteer and I thought "gee it didn't do that last time around" when through the right hander I did a VERY quick 360 only to see my RR tire bounding down the track!

On karts of that vintage you had to remove the rear wheels to alter the rear track and in the middle of the process I got distracted and did something else important and you guessed it - I forgot to finish the rear end. Learned a good lesson.

Kirk's story about Carroll Smith reminded me of this event. It taught me to ALWAYS finish one thing before going on to something else, no matter how important unless something is on fire or some other very immediate danger to someone.

An honorable mention is something that didn't happen to me, but I witnessed in my first SCCA school. A guy in an EP Scirocco spun on a full course caution while in line and going slowly!

[charrbq]

Well, as time would have it, I remembered another stupid thing. I'm sure everyone has, at some time or another, bumped the starter while the car was in gear.
Picture...weekend of car trouble finally diagnosed to water in the tank. Drained fuel, second degree chemical burns, hot July day, swapped tank, car still running bad...total frustration.
Attained the assistance of a certain well-known Honda guru and the owner of the track to help me work on the car and find the problem. Fuel pump check, fuel line check, carb check, electron check...nothing makes sense. They tell me to get into the car and crank it...see it coming.... I'm watching them through the gap in the hood for signals as they stand in front, watching for something to happen. Starter bumped, car in first, track owner sent flying and Honda guru pinned under wheel.
What makes it funny is not just that the track owner didn't get hurt and got a big laugh out of it, but the well known Honda guru was not pinned by his foot, as it looked, but by the toe of his tenny runner.
The car was removed, and they had a big laugh. I was traumatized!
The problem with the car finally cleared up, and it ran great later...don't know why...I suppose it was hungry for flesh. :blink:

[Ben 84 RX-7]

When going for my racing license...doing a lead / follow session with my instructor. My brakes (stock rubber lines) on the Celica race car I was using completely went away. I followed him into the turn...nothing at the pedal! I slid past him on the grass sideways! He still issued me my license though. He said because I was able to avoid hitting him! I did not feel like a cool race car driver at that time! :smilie_pokal:

[ITANorm]

Other than losing a wheel and running out of gas (2 different tracks), nothing really spectacular. ;)

[Roy Dean]

I had lent my ITB Suzuki Swift to a friend to do a hillclimb up in Williamsport, PA, last year. Normally, he would've borrowed my tow rig to get it up there, but I needed the truck to tow a rallycar up to the Maine Forrest Rally which was the same weekend. Because his replacement tow vehicle (a jeep grand cherokee) didn't have a brake controller, I told him he could not use my dual axle trailer.

So he went out and rented a uhaul tow dolly. Now, after an uneventful tow to Williamsport, he unloaded the car from the dolly....

Unfortunately for me, he neglected to extend the ramps.

Result was a 1' drop to the ground, only after ripping the bumper of the car off. So, this isn't really embarassing for me, but for him. The best part is a couple of fellow racers witnessed it and got a pretty good laugh.

[dickita15]

i went out to quailfy at new hampshire with $600 worth of brand new hoosiers and on about the 4th lap went into turn one which is the nascar oval and the rear stepped out. I could not catch it and put both feet in. slid the full length of the oval turn grinding the tires away and stopped inches from the wall with the motor running.
in the words on benny parsons i slid so long i thought i was going to starve to death before it was over

once i restarted my heart i put it in first gear and let out the clutch but the steering was turned full right and i drove into the wall knocking out the toe and hurting my fingers from the wheel snapping back.

[RSTPerformance]

OK I/we have many, but this one might be tough to beat...

I took my brothers Audi to the Carisle Car Show in PA (HUGE Car show and swap meet). The car was in the Audi Corral for one day and in our sponsors booth the other day. The car was at the event mainly promoting our Audi/VW sponsor (force5auto.com). While giving "promotional" rides in the car around the car show with a customer/audi enthusiest the left rear tire fell off :bash_1_: . With all the "good look" prep that went into the car we never tourqued (or even tightened) the tires on the car.

The worst part was that thier were 100's of people jamming the walkway that we were travaling, so we were going at 1-2 mph (very very slow) as the crowd split giving us room to drive through... The car drove over the tire creating a rather large "sceen" that was obviose to all what happened... as we climbed out of the car to see what had happened, we got a bigger cheer than I have herd at any victory circle for a Nascar race...

ok wait, the even worse part was putting the tire back on the car infront of the 100's of people walking around the car from booth to booth...

LOL, thats one way to attract attention!!!

Raymond "opps" Blethen

[seamus88]

Mine was at VIR this year and one of my friends has the up close and personal video to prove it. On the cool down lap while talking on the radio and waving to the workers I proceeded to drive off the track and launching the car about foot in the air :unsure: . And at the same time removing my nice spoiler/air dam off the car :bash_1_: . Agian a friend of mine directly behind me caught it on video so there was no hiding it. :o

[MIKEGTR]

Greetings, this is my first post so why not begin my forum career by telling of my bloopers...

We had a night endurance race and several classes were racing with us namely SCCA GT-1 and GT-2.... so the pace car was going farely quicker to allow GT-1 cars to stay at second or third gear... the pace car's (an RX-8) laps were quicker than my hot laps jajajajaja so i had a train of T-1 and T-2 cars behind me unable to reach the pace car... that was so embarrising so i pitted the car along with the other IT cars that had done the same to avoid a black flag. I won the race anyways thanks to it being an endurance race and good pit stop strategy but it was a day to forget... the pace car being faster than me jajajajajajajajajaja

Cheers,

Mike

[Festus E. Simkins]

Well, mine happen several years ago at Memphis. Got to talking while I was changing the rear pads on the RX-7. Forgot to tighten the caliper bolts. :bash_1_: First race of the weekend - Second lap I came through the kink after turn one flat out, as usual, up to the M's, brake hard. Right rear caliper comes loose, rips off brake line, makes a lot of noise. Brake pedel goes right to the floor. :o The M's become a straight. Shoot past the flag station reenter the track. Luckily no one was there. Limped back to the pits. Found another brake line and made the race the next day. :)

[Catch22]

Left the hood pins out once. Got VERY lucky and discovered that my car has excellent aero as the hood stayed down.
Nevertheless, there's now a sticker on my dash that simply says "Hood Pins"

Earlier this year at an Enduro we were in a rush due to a minor crash. Our co-driver was helping out by doing the fluid checks, and after adding a little oil forgot to put the cap back on.
There was a big wreck right in front of us early in the race, so I didn't think much about all the oil all over the front of the car during the pit stop.
After the race, sitting in impound, I noticed that the car was dripping oil. Not from one spot... From EVERYWHERE. It was very Triumph-ish.
Ended up about 1.5 quarts down, with a very shiney and rust-proofed engine bay, and we won the race. No damage whatsoever.
Again... Lucky.
AND as we were loading up the turn 4 corner worker brought the cap back to us. He actually saw it fall out from under the car during the race.

Some things that are funny that I've not actually done myself...

Backing off the trailer without the ramps in place.

Forgetting that you're on a hill and loosening the rear trailer tie-downs. Watching helplessly as your race car rear-ends your tow vehicle.

Starting the motor with a breaker bar hanging on the crank pulley nut (BAM BAM BAM!!!).

Losing your 12mm deep well socket in the middle of a project, cursing and throwing things :angry: , getting in the car and driving to Sears, selecting a new 12mm socket, reaching in your pocket to pay and discovering... The missing 12mm socket.

Lucky Day - A few years ago a friend drove his car to a DE at CMP. He changed the pads/rotors before he left but didn't tighten one of the caliper bolts. On the drive to the track, the bolt fell out. leaving the caliper hanging by one bolt.
He got to the hotel, and was staring at his jacked up car wondering where he was going to find a Honda caliper bolt in Kershaw South Carolina when another Honda guy pulled up and asked what was up.
Jokingly, he said "I need a caliper bolt, have you got one?"
The answer... "Yep." :smilie_pokal:

And for the award winner...

Installing brake pads backwards. Thats right... Friction material out, backing plate in. Strangely, the brakes didn't work very well. :bash_1_:
Even more strangely, the guy admitted that he did that.

[gsbaker]

Originally posted by planet6racing@Oct 5 2005, 03:26 PM
I know you all are waiting for me to respond...

61848
:023:

[Despr8dave]

Originally posted by planet6racing@Oct 5 2005, 07:26 PM
I know you all are waiting for me to respond.

So, I'm goinig to keep you waiting!

61848

I was there too , but didn't know what actually happened until I saw the in car video. I had to watch it 4 times before I could get my jaw off the desk......scary as hell and amazing you didn't destroy the car or get hurt. Thank goodness you were on the straight instead of the turn you just came out of. I've had it happen sitting on the grid that unnerved the hell out of me, but never at speed like you where!!!
D

[Greg Gauper]

Last month at the Runoffs.......

I arrived at the Honda tent and proceeded to unload the car from the trailer. After I get the car unloaded I attempt to start my Suburban but it fails to start since my starter doesn't like to engage after a heat soak from a long tow. Normally it starts fine after cooling off for about 20 minutes. Since I was partially blocking the lane, I decided to pour some cool water on the starter to help speed up the cooling process. After pouring water on the starter I jump in the cab and hit the starter....Success! It fires right up. Now I'll just throw this empty water bottle in the trash before I drop my open trailer off in the trailer park and.....oh sh!t don't let the door shut........you know how GM's automatically lock the doors when you start the engine? :119: :119: :119:

So for the next 20 minutes, fellow Honda racers Bill Hunter, Jim Wessel, and myself try to break into my locked vehicle that's idling away using coat hangers and pry bars and lots of swearing. :bash_1_:

We caught a lucky break when another crew member from from somebody's team walks up with the correct tools and manages to snake one of those flexible metal rods over the window to trip the power lock switch. Yay!!! :happy204: :happy204: :happy204:

On my way home one week later, it suddenly dawns on me that I have one of those GM credit-card size emergency spare keys in my wallet and I could have unlocked the door with it at any time.....if I had remembered. :rolleyes:


Several years ago I was racing my old Honda in SSC at Road America. On the second lap, I'm heading down the long straight into turn 5 trying to catch another SSC car when an SSB Dodge Turbo Colt goes past with his rear hatch open. Somehow his hatch popped open on the first lap but he didn't know it. Now those cars were normally rockets in a straight line, and I'm thinking "Gee, I wonder if I can catch a draft off of him to tow me up to the guy I'm racing with"

So as he goes by, I wait for him to clear and then I tucked in behind and suddenly, my car acts like somebody lit the afterburners and I just drill the guy in the rear bumper. As I found out the hard way, those cars punch a BIG hole in the air when their hatch is up, and I never expected the draft to be that strong. I mean it felt like I was behind a semi. I felt like an idiot for hitting him, but I was caught completely off guard by the effect of that draft.

Fortunately the damage was confined to couple of scratches on both our bumpers and I talked to the driver afterwards and appologized. We both had a good laugh over it. He couldn't figure out why he suddenly lost 10mph of top end because he didn't know his hatch was up.

[Anubis]

Wayne, that is pretty good although I saw one slightly better. Was working Turn 1 at Road Atlanta for the Monsoon National a couple years ago(only 1 full dry and 2 semi-dry session all weekend, rest were in downpours) and the winner of the SRF race drove off drivers left. Luckily the mud was so bad it steered him back on course, but was funny to watch.

A few years ago for the promoter test day one of the WCT came out of hte pits and headin up the hill his hood flew up, he pulled off drivers right between 2 and 3. They spend a few hours searchin for a new windshield, get it, install it. So heads back out again... and guess what, WHAM! hood flies up and trashes the windshield. The driver is absolutely livid, asks the marshall who responded to him the first time if he could be his crew for the weekend. And his job, and only job would be to ensure the hood pins were in fact prior to leaving the pits.

Another cool down lap one was at Kershaw a few years ago, had a T2 spin on the cooldown. Turns out his diff wasn't in great shape prior to the race and got really bad on the cooldown. Suppose its better on the cooldown then the last lap of the race.

[7racing]

"I WAS SEVENTH!" :D

Not me, but that was pretty embarassing, or will be when that guy becomes more famous.

As for my worst moment, which my racing "friends" continue to bring up (I'm looking at you Dick/Grant!). It comes during a rain race during my first year of racing. I was running an ITS RX7, not one of the good ones, mind you, but the first gen GSL-SE version. It was a pretty impressive rain storm, the kind that is often referred to as monsoon. I was at Lime Rock Park, I think it was my 2nd or 3rd race EVER. But I came prepared.

In my vast list of spares was my secret weapon. High performance snow tires mounted on stock wheels (no longer sponsored by said tire manufacturer, so their name will not be uddered here. That and I forgot what brand tires they were). I came to grid prepared, ready and out for the race of my life.

Well, 8 minutes, 3 laps and 4 spins later I was in the pit lane. Not wanting to look like the fool that I really was, I had my crew rush around the car. They made sure everything was fine and out I went.

A few minutes, a few more laps and many more spins later I came back into the pits. But this time I had a plan. I called my brother over to window, he asked how the car was. With a gleam in my eye, I shouted ever so eloquently"IT SUCKS!" However, we can make it better......if he lets some air out of the tires. Surely, this was the cause of all my angst. :bash_1_:

So, there he was with 2 other willing participants in my ruse to let air out of the tires. However, since it was raining out, we didn't want to get our tools wet, so no tire pressure gauge in the pits. You need to picture 3 people in pit lane letting air out of tires of a very non-competitive RX7 on high performance snow tires with their fingernails! :happy204:

I went back out and I think I spun in the 2nd turn out of pit lane. Needless to say, the plan did not work. I was never so thankful for a checkered flag.

[dlg208]

A friend of mine borrowed my ITB Pinto for a few laps at Beaverun. He didn&#39;t come around for a while and I was wondering what happened to him. Finally he pited with a really disgusted look on his face.... The steering column pulled out when he jerked on it to slide his seat up on the back straight. No crash, just some seriously panicked in flight mechanic work. <_<

[seamus88]

"I WAS SEVENTH!"

Is that online? I need to show it to someone.

[lateapex911]

Originally posted by dlg208@Oct 11 2005, 08:51 PM
A friend of mine borrowed my ITB Pinto <_<

62345


That says it all..................







Ok, the rest was funny too...

[zracre]

Originally posted by seamus88@Oct 11 2005, 10:40 PM
"I WAS SEVENTH!"

Is that online? I need to show it to someone.

62353

http://www.specmiatavideos.com

[Despr8dave]

Originally posted by seamus88@Oct 12 2005, 02:40 AM
"I WAS SEVENTH!"

Is that online? I need to show it to someone.

62353

LMAO.....................LOL.............
David
ya gotta watchit!!!

[gsbaker]

I saw that shortly after it was posted. What a hoot.

[Willisbe]

I just completed the two schools this past spring. We went up to the Glen for my second race on my permit. Scared to death being out there ...as a newbie....and on a new track...
Sat. morning practice went w/o incident. During the race that afternoon, the car started acting funny...it would not rev up. A few laps later, the car was missing and sputtering. I was bound and determined to finish the race so that I could get my novice permit signed. I barely finished the race and when I was about to park the car back at the van, the car died.
We spent a few hours that night trying to figure out what the problem was, while the guys consumed "brain juice" to help solve my problem. The car finally started and we just chalked it up to PFM. During the practice on sun. the car just died after the "bus stop" . I coasted into the grass on the inside of the track and stared at the corner workers not remebering the signal for rope tow all the while yelling at my crew chief over the radio because he didn&#39;t know either. The only signal I could remeber was the thumbs up to signal that I was ok.
After getting towed in, my crew chief found the fuel pump relay sitting on the oil pan. Two zip ties around the relay cover and I was ready to for the afternoon race.
During the race the car started missing again right after the bus stop, so I threw in the towel and pulled in. Upon inspection we find the relay had seperated from the harness about a 1/4 inch. I didn&#39;t even finish the race. Now the relay is zip-tied to the harness and I don&#39;t think I will forget not to run over the curbing.

[Mark LaBarre]

Here&#39;s a couple...

1). Sliding off track on the pace lap (Yes, you heard right, the pace lap :o ) and smacking the dirt berm with the left front, pushing it a foot to the right. There was cool video of the crash, back end jumped 2 feet int the air! THat&#39;s the last time I watch "The Dukes of Hazzard" in front of the car.

2). Driving the race car from the shop up to the garage , realizing just as I&#39;m pulling into the garage that I&#39;d never bled the brakes after having the brake lines apart. Profuse swearing ensued (oh, s@&t, OH, S@&t... OH S@&T!!!!), just before a "slight" thud as I hit the wall. 2x4 stud walls are waaaaaaaay stronger then you&#39;d think...

3). Hit the concrete wall during the 2nd lap of qualifing. Hmmm... now that I think about it, there seems to be a pattern. Some one has telekenitic powers and is forcing my car to do things against it&#39;s will. Yeah, that must be it. ;)

[bullydog]

losing a lower radiator hose on turn 11 at Sebring...
in my best Homer Simpson voice.... mmmmmmm slippery.......

This isnt TOTALLY my fault, but....
not tying down a friend&#39;s car (upper deck of trailer) and taking a 10 hour cruise.


THIS ONE IS THE ULTIMATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bash_1_: :blink: :lol:

Telling the wife how much it actually costs to go racing!!!!!!!!

[Geo]

Originally posted by bullydog@Oct 13 2005, 01:23 AM
THIS ONE IS THE ULTIMATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bash_1_: :blink: :lol:

Telling the wife how much it actually costs to go racing!!!!!!!!

62480



WINNER!!

[JeffYoung]

My very first race weekend after school was at VIR in March 2003. I had just finished trying a case that week (we won!) and got no sleep the night before as I had tons of car prep to do. I mean NO sleep. I went up for the test day and the litany of mistakes I made...unbelievable:

1. I purchased a HUGE tent from some online place that I then had to put up myself. I mean HUGE. 4 cars could fit under it. It was immediatley named the "VIR Hilton" by my buddies, until it blew away later that year (thank God). Lesson: biggest is not always best.

2. It had rained like hell the week before the test day (which dawned bright and sunny), and the Dan River was way up. I mean WAY up. We could see a guy in a pontoon boat over at the end of the front straight. If you know VIR, the Dan River runs along the front straight but is usually not visible because of the trees. Well tha weekend, March of 03, the water was up to within 30-40 feet of Turn 1, which you enter at about 120 mph in an ITS car. Normally, there is plenty of run off room if you overcook it. You see where this is going....

I went out for lap one of the test day with my brand spanking new Toyo tires (I had run onold hard R1s at school0 and went into one. Hmm...felt sticky....lap two......hmmm....REALLY sticky...lap three, I think, let&#39;s go in a bit deeper.

Typically rookie driver mistake. I go in hot, feel like the car is not going to turn, and don&#39;t even try. Just take the car off straight. Normally, not a problem at VIR. This time......well, when I hit the water, th corner workers said I put up a splash about 30 feet high. Water was over the hood and in the car up to my knees before I could get unbuckled. I had to crawl onto the trunk of the car to stay dry.

The corner workers pulled me out and hauled me back to the pits where I proceeded to dry the car out. got the car dried out and...lap 3 of the Enduro...splash same thing. Really dumb. Twice. Now, other cars had gone in the deep end as well, on ITS Alfa all the way up to its roof, but nobody was stupid enough to go twice.

My car, No. 44, was known as U-44 after that. Or the UnderseeTR-Booten.

[StephF]

OK, I&#39;ll bite.
This happened several years ago at Summit Point. My husband and I ran our ITB Opel Manta in the 12 hour endurance race. We trailered out with the usual assorted crew members and one person who usually wasn&#39;t with us: my sister. (no not Karen for the NER folks, there are actually 3 of us :rolleyes: )
So, Ed and I shared the driving for the entire race, doing three hour sessions (lesson #1: Use the bathroom before you go out!!!!!! :ph34r: ) without any major difficulties.
However, we almost had a major blooper about 2/3 of the way through the race.
We were running radios in the car with strict instructions: only talk to the driver when he/she was in sight. As any of you can testify, it can be a bit distracting to suddenly have a little person in your eardrums bellowing at you as you are concentrating on the apex. :unsure:
Well, I had been dicing with some Volkswagens throughout the race, and my sister was joking around about it in the pits. In her best Elmer Fudd voice (and she does it very well, I might add) she was singing, "Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit." ala the Saturday morning Bugs Bunny cartoons.
So here I am, in the seat, and I&#39;m about 90 minutes into my shift. I&#39;ve been racing close with these two Volkswagens for several laps now, and I&#39;m trying to find a place to push my way through. We come down the hill, hard left into 5, and through the carousel. They are side by side with me right on their tailpipes. We come into the esses on the backside, and I see my chance. The car to the inside grabs the line and hugs tight on the curb, I&#39;m right against his outside rear fender. The car on the outside bobbles and goes wide, <span style='color:red'>WABBIT, KILL THE WABBIT!" :119:
SONOVA*^#!* :angry:
The two Volkswagens squirted away from me as the backend of the Opel got squirrley. I pressed the push to talk button down to kill the babble in my eardrums, swearing as an acre of racetrack opened up between us.
Um, needless to say, someone else worked the radios after that!!!! <_<

[racer14itc]

Originally posted by JeffYoung@Oct 14 2005, 04:39 AM
My very first race weekend after school was at VIR in March 2003. I had just finished trying a case that week (we won!) and got no sleep the night before as I had tons of car prep to do. I mean NO sleep. I went up for the test day and the litany of mistakes I made...unbelievable:

1. I purchased a HUGE tent from some online place that I then had to put up myself. I mean HUGE. 4 cars could fit under it. It was immediatley named the "VIR Hilton" by my buddies, until it blew away later that year (thank God). Lesson: biggest is not always best.

2. It had rained like hell the week before the test day (which dawned bright and sunny), and the Dan River was way up. I mean WAY up. We could see a guy in a pontoon boat over at the end of the front straight. If you know VIR, the Dan River runs along the front straight but is usually not visible because of the trees. Well tha weekend, March of 03, the water was up to within 30-40 feet of Turn 1, which you enter at about 120 mph in an ITS car. Normally, there is plenty of run off room if you overcook it. You see where this is going....

I went out for lap one of the test day with my brand spanking new Toyo tires (I had run onold hard R1s at school0 and went into one. Hmm...felt sticky....lap two......hmmm....REALLY sticky...lap three, I think, let&#39;s go in a bit deeper.

Typically rookie driver mistake. I go in hot, feel like the car is not going to turn, and don&#39;t even try. Just take the car off straight. Normally, not a problem at VIR. This time......well, when I hit the water, th corner workers said I put up a splash about 30 feet high. Water was over the hood and in the car up to my knees before I could get unbuckled. I had to crawl onto the trunk of the car to stay dry.

The corner workers pulled me out and hauled me back to the pits where I proceeded to dry the car out. got the car dried out and...lap 3 of the Enduro...splash same thing. Really dumb. Twice. Now, other cars had gone in the deep end as well, on ITS Alfa all the way up to its roof, but nobody was stupid enough to go twice.

My car, No. 44, was known as U-44 after that. Or the UnderseeTR-Booten.

62628


Jeff, I was there that weekend running the test day as well (in the blue/white GP VW Scirocco). When they towed your car in, my buddy and I made bets on whether you would ever get it running again, being that it has Lucas wiring and all. Bad enough when dry, but Lucas + water = ??? :wacko:

We were impressed when we saw it running again later...but then you had to go and...well, you know. :018:

I will say that your car is one of our favorites in IT! :023: Speaking of oddballs, Dad has an ITA Corvair just sitting in his garage gathering dust. I need to talk him into letting me take it out to VIR one weekend just for giggles. :eclipsee_steering: He keeps refusing, saying he doesn&#39;t want it out there with all the SM&#39;s.

MC

[BlueStreak]

Memphis, March 03 (I think), morning qualifier. Right rear wheel cylinder lets go braking for the hard left after the M&#39;s. Somehow dodged the nice fellow in the 944 that I was passing on the inside when the wheel cylinder blew and the pedal went to the floor. Heart rate was way up after finding myself choosing between totaling my RX3 on a 944 or the paddock wall outside the turn. Fortunately I missed both. Took the rear entry into the paddock immediately after and pulled to a stop in my paddock area. I&#39;m sitting there, waiting to settle down from a near crash before I even bother to take off my gear and get out of the car. About two seconds later I realize the car is filling with smoke. I get out in a hurry and find that the right rear brake is on fire (with a little MOTUL as fuel). The right rear brake is 6" from the fuel cell! :blink: :unsure: Grab the nearest fire bottle, pull the pin, aim directly in front of me, and admire the chem as it splats off my firesuit ;) Spin the fire bottle 180 and try again, much better results.

We had zip for time to get the car ready for the race, so my crew chief plugged the line, and I went out and raced with three braking wheels. Worked great until one lap to go when the plug blew - spun off track, leading, got back on track in second, engine braked that last lap to finish second :rolleyes:

Oh, there are more and better stories I could tell on myself, but I&#39;ll save them for later!

[nlevine]

I got a couple - in my zeal to get my first race car (ITB 1971 BMW 2002) prepared for my three-day race school, a buddy and I managed to remove all the wiring for the battery charging circuit. Didn&#39;t notice on day 1 (fully charged battery), but when I had to get flat-towed in from JUST off of pit lane on the morning of day 2 because the electric fuel pump suddenly found itself without juice, I realized I had a problem. To keep the car going the rest of the day, I&#39;d have to plug it in to a battery charger between track sessions while I was in the classroom. During the last session of the day, brain fade (no doubt heightened by the stress of car problems during the day and no crew) helped me to shorten the left side of the car significantly at the exit of NHIS turn 10. Fortunately, after an ambulance ride up the road to make sure my neck wasn&#39;t broken, I managed to rent a car for day 3 to finish the school and get signed off.

With the new car, I was at an early-morning instructor training session for the BMW CCA. I had checked oil level and such and then closed the hood. Only after I saw a large amount of fluid dripping from the car did I remember that I had put my coffee on top of the battery when I was poking around underhood.. Fortunately, nothing shorted out, and as I drink my coffee black, there was no milky or sugary mess in the engine bay.

-noam

[MMiskoe]

Here&#39;s a couple from my book.

Hoods without hood pins give no warning before flying up and smashing the windshield.

Sending your wife out on track w/ only 3 of 4 wheels torqued gets remembered for years to come.

Drips in the clearcoat of your backyard paint job can be good for a laugh - provided they are directly under the fuel filler. Ask my crew, I got one of them to even go find a paper towel to try & wipe it up.

If you ever have what sounds like a rod knock, push in the clutch & see if the sound goes away. Check this before building a complete new engine, installing it, only to find that knocking sound is coming from the transmission.

If you share the car w/ your wife (this probably applies to any female) and you&#39;re planning on buying a seat, tread lightly when trying to determine how wide a seat to buy. Asking the question while holding a tape measure is not the way to do it.

Purposely bumping the car in front of you while under caution does not always get them to hurry up. It does however make for an interesting conversation when the driver of the car you were nudging is your father.

Families that race together stay together and we interrupt this marriage to bring you the racing season.

[bobpink]

It&#39;s 2001 and I am sharing an ITC CRX Si with Mike Fine for an ECR at VIR.

Weekend is going well and we&#39;ve got the fastest car there if I remember correctly. Mike starts the race and builds what he says was a 20 second lead over the field before turning the car over to me. Once in the car and buckling up, a crew member pokes his head in the passenger window and points to two switches that need to be in the up position for the fuel pump to work. Double-check this and give him the thumbs up. 5 minutes are up and head on down pit road only to have the car die. &!!@#) ... one of the switches is in the down position (and to this day don&#39;t know how it happened). Flip it up, start the car and go. No biggie. We&#39;ve got a big lead and didn&#39;t notice anyone get out in front of us.

Having a great time going through the field and see KKRR Debbie Anderson (now Buras) up in front of me and proceed to chase her down from about 12 seconds back. On the last lap we come out of the last corner onto the front straight and I am right on the rear bumper of her Scirocco. I move alongside and as we near the checker I back off just a tad as I "didn&#39;t want to add insult to injury by putting her a lap down"" thinking chivalry is not dead and all that. We passed under the checker with her about a foot or two in front of me. And she won the race.

Yep, it still comes up in conversation. I can kind of chuckle about it now.

[bhudson]

At my very first race in April 1988, I qualified 20th in a 21 car field at Road Atlanta.

I knew that being that far back, the green flag would probably wave before I could see the start stand, so when I came out from under the Turn 11 bridge, I looked for the Turn 12 flaggers, saw them drop the double yellow and I took off.

I passed two cars before we got to Start. With the momentum, I passed one more before Turn 1, going into Turn 1, everyone took the inside line, I stayed outside and passed again. Woo-Hoo!

When we got to Turn 3, I was side-by-side with Jack Baxter&#39;s SAAB 99, a car that had qualified 6 places ahead of me! We continued side-by-side (I was on the left) through the Esses and when we got to Turn 5, I reached for the shift lever to downshift to 3rd and.....

Realized I was already in 3rd. In the excitement of my first race lap, I had forgotten to shift to 4th after exiting Turn 3. Jack closed the door going into Turn 5, I had to pinch the turn and lost my momentum.

Everyone I had passed got around me before Turn 6, and when I got to Turn 7, the last place car was on my tail. He drafted me up the hill at Turn 8, then passed me going into the backstraight dip. By the time I completed my first lap, I was in last place, with little hope of being able to catch up.

I didn&#39;t have any cars around me again until the leaders started lapping me. On the bright side, enough cars dropped out that I finished 7th in class and picked up 3 SARRC points in ITB.

Bob Hudson
Atlanta Region