Streets of Willow, July 7-8, 2001

This was a disastrous event. In retrospect all the bad omens were there about this event.

First, my brother bails out on me the last minute. I do not like going to the track by myself. I like company and I like a second support car. So my brother calls and tells me he cannot go on Thursday night. So I have to scramble and find someone else to go and I do. Unfortunately that person cannot make it until Saturday morning. So I have to load all the tools, tires, canopy and other crap in my rollcage equipped car. What a pain.

Second, I decide to drive out on Friday at 10:00 am. There was a track event that day at Streets that was attended by other SE-R pilots. Having nothing to do I decide to drive and hangout and ride with them. On the way up there on highway 14 I am driving in the left lane @ 85 mph and I pass a parked CHP car. Oh oh!! I see him turn on his lights and pick up speed. Shit, he is after me I think. There was a right hander coming up followed by an exist. I immediately move to the right lane, look in the rear mirror and cannot see the cop car and then exist the freeway, still not seeing the cop car. I park and hide the car and wait for a while. Then I proceed back on the freeway. I do not know if the cop was after me, but that was some omen of bad things to come.

Third, I arrive at the track and park my car next to the other SE-Rs and Jay's Maxima. I ask the guys if they want a canopy and they say yeah. So I unload the canopy and we open it up and enjoy the shade. Then the wind starts picking up and even though the canopy is spiked to the ground, it lifts off and lands on the hood of Boonie's car. Damn. Boonie is so kind and says not to worry about it.

Fourth, I take a ride in Jay's Maxima and later on in Boonie's NX2000. I have never felt sick riding in a car for a long time, but for some reason I felt so sick that I was about to puke when riding with these guys. I rode before with Boonie and nothing like that happened. So it cannot be the driver :-)

Fifth, After the Friday event I head over to the Motel. I have never stayed at that Motel in the summer. But I discover that they do not have an AC. What??? They do have a cooling system that blows air on ice and then ducts the cool air to your room. Very primitive. It was ok. I was lucky since the weather was not as hot as earlier in the week.

Sixth, the next day I head early to the track and I set up my canopy and empty the car. I already had my car tech inspected at Road Race Engineering earlier in the week. I do that because I do not like waiting in line for tech inspection on track day. So I show the tech form to the inspector and he says he wants to inspect the car again. That pissed me off. Why? because there was a huge line. So I wait till the the line thins out and tech the car and park under the canopy.

Seventh, my run group is called to pre-grid and I am in the number one pole position. Things are beginning to look good. I attack the track and the car feels great. The track is very technical and the car just felt good. 3 laps into the session I am black flagged on the front straights. WTF. I did nothing. So I head to the pits and I am informed that my rear right brake is fuming. It is glowing orange and smoking. Yikes. So I figure that the Metal Masters on the rears are too aggressive. I head over to the pits and switch to Raybestos stock pads. I go to the pit chief and tell ask if he will allow me to run in the next group since I did not get a chance to do much in my run group. He agrees.

Finally disaster struck. I am second in pre-grid. I am given the signal to head out. I start moving I shift into second and then third. I wind up third up the slight right hander and onto the small hill and as I shift into fourth I hear a clunk and then loud marble noises. WTF. I shift into third and the car runs but with marble and clunking noises. I shift into fourth and there is nothing. All other gear work (with clunking noises) except fourth. I have broken my tranny. But how could that be? The gears have been cryotreated for strength. And I barely had 5,000 miles on this tranny.

I head to the pits and park the car and inspect it. Nothing is visually wrong underneath the car. All gears work (with clunking) except fourth. I cannot drive the car home for fear of making it worse. I had to wait for 2-3 hours at the track for my friend to arrive. When she arrives we call a flat bed tow truck and tow the car to Long Beach, a 120 mile trek. That was the first time that I have ver towed my car from the track. I know that it will not be the last time. I better hurry up and get a truck and a trailer :-)