I am now a member of the club!

[shwah]

Well I joined the 2 wheeling VW club today!

Had a good, but frustrating weekend at Blackhawk. The car worked well, I improved my personal best by over a second, but I spun in something on the 2nd lap and lost touch with the battle for 2nd/3rd. I did get a lot of open track to work on smooth, settled, fast driving.

Made a mistake going into 6 which is a med/slow right hander. Near the top of 4th approaching, brake hard, grab 3, turn-in, throttle through. Broke a hair late, cranked the wheel early for turn-in and stomped on the gas to try to salvage some exit speed. Nailed the curb just right (or is that wrong ) and popped up on 2 left wheels. Seems like it was about a 40 deg angle, but I can't tell now (video camera was mistakenly OFF! ). The weird thing is how everything slowed down and I was able to go through a pretty extensive thought progression - and never got worried, scared, or spooked afterwards.

1. hey here we go up onto two wheels, hope we don't go over.
2. don't lift, or it might upset the balance
3. hey stop turning right
4. wow the exit curb is approaching, and the dirt will probably send me the rest of the way over
5. how about steering slightly left?

She dropped down on all fours shockingly smoothly, I proceeded to the right hand kink following and lamented that my shift point from 3 to 4 whas 40ft further down track than I like.

So yeah - nailed the curb - got up on two - bicycled from T6 to the exit curb (right by the entrance road) - set it down and continued on. I doubt I lost more than a few .1s of time, and am still amazed at how little this bothered me. I don't know whether this is good or bad yet, but at least now I know to stay a bit off that curb :P

It was a great ITB race too - a shame that I took myself out of the running by not catching that spin. I think a new lap record may have been set by the Fiero with a 1:25.9. The silver Golf had a new best at 1:26.9 and my 1:27.08 was my new best. I really wanted to race with the black and silver Golf today and can't wait until next year!

[JLawton]

Remember, it's not if your going to roll a VW, but when!!

[JamesB]

I been up on two many times this season. Even got some great pictures of it sent to me. Just dont hit the curbs as much.

[Fastfred92]

1. hey here we go up onto two wheels, hope we don't go over.
2. don't lift, or it might upset the balance
3. hey stop turning right
4. wow the exit curb is approaching, and the dirt will probably send me the rest of the way over
5. how about steering slightly left?

[/b]

6. FWD= Don't be a hero, DRIVE STAIGHT OFF


Ask me how I know!

[Bill Miller]

Remember, it's not if your going to roll a VW, but when!!


[/b]

[racer_tim]

The problem I had when I went 2 wheeling, is that when I came down, I most likely broke the axle nut. Went through turn 6 and felt something grind, and didn't think anything of it, until I went into turn 7 @ Sears Point. Middle pedal went to the foor. Managed to make it through the turn, and then pumped the pedal through the exit, and i had brakes. Ok, so soilder on. Well, I went through the carosel again (turns out it was the last lap) and everything on the right front broke, and I came screaching to a halt.

When I got towed back to my paddock space, I looked at the wheek, and noticed the axle nut was missing. Damn sutpid crew chief (me) didn't torque the axle nut on. Oh well, so I started tearing everything apart so I could get the car on the trailer, and it wasn't until then did I realize that there was no axle nut, and there also wasn't any threads. The entire thing sheared off.

I assume that happened when I landed, and since the hub / bearing didn't have any tension on it, that's why I didn't have any brakes. The rotor was moving away from the caliper. Then the final grind through 6 the bearing finally let go.

The only thing holding the wheel on the hub was the brake caliper and rotor.

Here is the video

http://linerud.myvnc.com/racing/videos/sea...d-to-a-halt.avi

[shwah]

6. FWD= Don't be a hero, DRIVE STAIGHT OFF
Ask me how I know!
[/b]

I was not trying to be a hero, just trying to limit the damage potential of the incident. I was also in no postion to control where the car was headed. My best chance to do that was to put it back down on 4 wheels and take it from there. I a pretty lucky that it did get back to the ground as I drove onto the exit curbing.

I have thought about this a lot this week, and if I had made any different reactions all I can come up with is a rolled over GTI.

Remember, it's not if your going to roll a VW, but when!!


[/b]

Maybe next time.

[Colin Harmer]

Saving it once is cool, but when you save it twice in one incident, now that's really cool!

A classic video from the ARRC a few years back!

ITB "Pant Loader" Clip

Cheers,