Part 21

Sears Pointless 2012 was a weekend of firsts.  It was our first race, and our first DNF (did not finish).  We learned a lot of lessons and while we may not be perfect for Pacific Northworst in July, we should be at least 100% better...

Wednesday
We were scheduled to get on the road about 5pm, mainly because Carl had to work that day.  He ended up getting off quite a bit earlier, so we were able to get going around 2:30.  That was nice because no one wanted to get into Eugene at midnight, but it was also a curse because there are about a half dozen items that were forgotten due to all the rushing around to leave early.  Good job, Carl...

After plowing through nearly white-out conditions in the Willamette Valley, we reached the RV park around 10pm.  Not too bad, and even better that I could enjoy a cold beverage...

Thursday
We did the bulk of the driving on Thursday, from Eugene to Sears Point (510 miles).  Driving through Fairfield and Vallejo sucked because it was rush hour and the other drivers did not give an ounce of shit that we were driving an RV and a pickup towing a 30' car trailer...

We arrived at the track just about at dusk, found we couldn't really get unloaded until the next morning, so we parked the vehicles in the lot up the hill from the paddock and enjoyed some good steaks and cocktails.

Friday
Friday was a busy day.  We got the trailer unloaded and the car set up because we were going to participate in the test & tune session that day (we'd had zero opportunity to test the car before).  We couldn't find our brake fluid (turns out we didn't bring it), and we had a few items we needed to finish up on the car. 

Test & tune turned out to be a bust as the car was not running well at all.  The car ran one lap under it's own power, then the push truck had to bring us in (which smashed the hell out of Van's baby, the rear wing he'd put so much effort into).  So much for the "DO NOT PUSH" sticker on the back of the car...

We battled fuel issues for several hours before we finally got it fixed (clogged fuel line, just before the filter).  Too bad there are no pics of me buried under the back of the car, I was filthy after that...

In fact, we went through tech and Bullshit inspections with a car that wouldn't run for longer than 12 seconds at high RPMs...

After we finished inspections and got the car running, we were able to relax a little and kind of soak in the experience.  Friday night isn't too much of a party, but there were lots of cars to see and other teams to chat up.  We received quite a few compliments on how "clean" and "pretty" our car looked.

Saturday
The weather had been great so far, but that was all about to change.  A wet weather system had moved in overnight and it was due to stick around all weekend.  Boy, did it rain.  I mean real rain; not the drizzle we get in Seattle.  It rained pretty solid all day Saturday and into Sunday morning.

After the driver's meeting (for which we were so properly attired), the race got started about 9:30am.

The Team

(Left to right: Carl, Van, Roger, Melissa, Mike)

We decided to do short, 30-minute stints so that we'd all get a chance to get some track time in case the car broke down early.  We actually finished the entire day on Saturday, with everyone getting to drive at least two stints.  And we proved that our car will not be suffering from any maladies related to water...

Our pit stops were miserably slow and completely uncoordinated, which contributed to less than desirable ratio of time on the track to time in the pits.  Definitely some room for improvement.  We also experienced some radio issue, which we need to work out before the next race...

SpeedChimp Racing Black Flag Club inducted it's two charter members at Sears Point, with two black flags on Saturday (you get 5 before they shut you down for the weekend).  Melissa got one for spinning out in the 9a chicane (turns out that more throttle is NOT what's needed when the rear end breaks loose)...

Her penalty was a stern talking-to by the judges with advice to slow down.

Van was also black-flagged for a spin at 3a (I believe) during his second stint (sorry, no pics).  Van's penalty was that he had to get out of the car, even though he'd only been on-track for about 15 minutes.  They made us switch drivers (which we were NOT ready for...) and go back through the penalty box to prove it.

We finished the day in 128th place of 170 cars.  Not too bad for our first race.

After the Saturday session ended at 6pm, we got in some quick dinner then came back down to the paddock to service the car (check brakes, change the oil, clean the windows, etc.).  After that, we were free to mingle.  Saturday night is the big party night at a LeMons race.  Teams are showing off their cars, spying on the competition, and of course the cocktails flow endlessly.

Sunday
The rain abated early Sunday, and over the morning the track started to dry out.  The Sunday session started at 10am with Van taking the first stint, and the car was getting quicker and quicker.  This was due mainly to the track drying out, but also to Van getting more familiar with the car.

We'd planned to up the stint length to 90 minutes, which is just about how far we think the car can go on one tank of fuel.  Van was about an hour and 10 minutes into his stint and we were up to 123rd place with a team fast lap of 2:30.44 on the 101st lap

Then tragedy struck...

Over the crackle of the radio we hear the bad news.

     "The car is broken, I'm coming in.  The transmission's stuck in 3rd gear."

Our hearts sank. Was this something we could fix?  We have a spare transmission...

When the car made it back to our pit stall, we set to work on it.  I drove up to the trailer and grabbed the spare transmission.  We pulled the broken gear box out of the car and started changing over all the external parts to the spare, then we noticed the first issue: the shifter won't fit into the turret correctly.  The locating pin is on the opposite side...

To make a long and painful story short, instead of trying to install the shifter backwards to see if it would at least work, we proceeded to disassemble two transmissions in an attempt to make one that would fit in the car.  In the end, all we did was waste time and effort, and it ended up putting us out of the race; we just ran out of time to get the car back on track.

So we packed it up and rolled out early.  The silver lining (if you can call it that) is that we were able to reach Redding a little earlier than expected (10pm or so).  And a good thing too, because we needed a drink to drown our sorrows...

Monday
We completed the trip home on Monday (600 miles), and were glad to be done with driving.

Summary
We learned a LOT in this race.  Everyone did a fantastic job in their first ever wheel-to-wheel racing experience.  We've already come a long way in the 4 weeks since the race, identifying areas for improvement, and we're really looking forward to the race in Shelton, July 21st and 22nd.  But there's a lot to do between now and then...

You can see all the pics here.