ba#97
Well-Known Member
well all, I feel I sadly have to share the bad news. I finally got home from my deployment just in time to take my car out to the track yesterday. Well, the signs were telling me from the night prior and the morning of that I should probably just stay home. but I did not listen...I had the itch...I needed to get my baby out to the track and relieve some stress after a long deployment! so here is my story....Thursday night, start the car, load it on the trailer. shut it off. all is fine. go to turn it on to accessory and the key wont turn. but the plastic collar on the ignition lock spins freely. No go on starting the car. won't even go to accessory or unlock the steering wheel. have to line up the collar perfectly with the key to get it out. great. alright well...car's loaded up...so...I'm just gonna take it to the track in the morning and see if I can't get it fixed in the morning prior.
alright...morning time. get in the truck and head out. have to stop to fill the truck with gas. one last ditch effort to start the cobra on the trailer....(I have a spare ignition key...lets try it). slide her and and bam. starts right up! look at the other key...my primary...and it's twisted like a damn bread package tie. I have no clue how in the process of me starting the car, loading it on the trailer and shutting it off that it did that. hulk strength son!
anyways. so...I'm pumped...time to get on the road. 5 minutes down the road, left rear trailer tire explodes. no spare. awesome. well lets jack this bad boy up, get it off of there and get it replaced. ha! funny. jack breaks. ok....call roadside assistance. while I'm waiting...trucks hazards have been on for awhile, truck is dead. woo. roadside assistance shows up...quick take the wheel off, limp the trailer to les schwab...they help me out, did an awesome job and made it quick and finally....on the road.
I should have just turned around and went home. but nope. alright so I get to the track finally right as my first run group is winding down. no big dealm have about 2 more hours of track time later anyways. unload the car and get it all ready to go. finally get out on the track. I was first in line and headed out. started off easy to get my sea legs again, and slowly but surely picked up speed...this time I wanted to see how well I could do out there and I was doing just great. car was handling awesome, wish I had my go pro or my lap timer so I could have seen my progress from before I left. but sadly, this is where my luck runs out.
coming off of turn 15 onto the front straightaway (right hander...full throttle, rumble strip on the outside with dirt right off of the strip and on your right is the pit wall) pit entrance right next to exit of 15 consists of concrete jersey barriers and a tire wall. as I was coming off of 15, car pushed slightly wide and dipped the left side tires in the dirt over the rumble strip. sadly I feel like I didn't have any chance to even let it drive straight into the dirt, it just turned me dead right as I still had some wheel in it anyways as I was slowly letting out of the steering at that time anyways. but I had nowhere to go. at this point I'm dead right aiming at the wall doing going too fast to miss it. lock it down and brace for impact. I hit head on, right front take brunt of the impact and thats it. air bags went off but I didn't feel it due to my helmet and harnesses. here is the aftermath.
Needless to say, I am ok. just a little dinged up. wrist is a little tweaked from hands on the wheel and hitting the wall. I think my ego and pride are more bruised then my body. everything did it's job just fine. the cage, harnesses and helmet saved my life or at least saved me from serious injury. that and the tire barriers. so, just my advice to all those up and coming racers out there, safety equipment is important. you get what you pay for. don't skimp on it. especially if you intend to take your car to the track. whether that be autox, drag racing or the road course. it works...and the biggest thing is...the car is replaceable, we aren't. so now...on to my next project. I'm in the process of trying to decide whether I want to pull the usable stuff off this and find a cheap donor 94-95 gt and build a new one, going in a even more race oriented route this time, or if I want to buy an already built racecar. I have some leads already...so I will keep you guys updated on my next endeavors. the bug is still there...I won't let one accident stop me from doing what I love!
alright...morning time. get in the truck and head out. have to stop to fill the truck with gas. one last ditch effort to start the cobra on the trailer....(I have a spare ignition key...lets try it). slide her and and bam. starts right up! look at the other key...my primary...and it's twisted like a damn bread package tie. I have no clue how in the process of me starting the car, loading it on the trailer and shutting it off that it did that. hulk strength son!
anyways. so...I'm pumped...time to get on the road. 5 minutes down the road, left rear trailer tire explodes. no spare. awesome. well lets jack this bad boy up, get it off of there and get it replaced. ha! funny. jack breaks. ok....call roadside assistance. while I'm waiting...trucks hazards have been on for awhile, truck is dead. woo. roadside assistance shows up...quick take the wheel off, limp the trailer to les schwab...they help me out, did an awesome job and made it quick and finally....on the road.
I should have just turned around and went home. but nope. alright so I get to the track finally right as my first run group is winding down. no big dealm have about 2 more hours of track time later anyways. unload the car and get it all ready to go. finally get out on the track. I was first in line and headed out. started off easy to get my sea legs again, and slowly but surely picked up speed...this time I wanted to see how well I could do out there and I was doing just great. car was handling awesome, wish I had my go pro or my lap timer so I could have seen my progress from before I left. but sadly, this is where my luck runs out.
coming off of turn 15 onto the front straightaway (right hander...full throttle, rumble strip on the outside with dirt right off of the strip and on your right is the pit wall) pit entrance right next to exit of 15 consists of concrete jersey barriers and a tire wall. as I was coming off of 15, car pushed slightly wide and dipped the left side tires in the dirt over the rumble strip. sadly I feel like I didn't have any chance to even let it drive straight into the dirt, it just turned me dead right as I still had some wheel in it anyways as I was slowly letting out of the steering at that time anyways. but I had nowhere to go. at this point I'm dead right aiming at the wall doing going too fast to miss it. lock it down and brace for impact. I hit head on, right front take brunt of the impact and thats it. air bags went off but I didn't feel it due to my helmet and harnesses. here is the aftermath.
Needless to say, I am ok. just a little dinged up. wrist is a little tweaked from hands on the wheel and hitting the wall. I think my ego and pride are more bruised then my body. everything did it's job just fine. the cage, harnesses and helmet saved my life or at least saved me from serious injury. that and the tire barriers. so, just my advice to all those up and coming racers out there, safety equipment is important. you get what you pay for. don't skimp on it. especially if you intend to take your car to the track. whether that be autox, drag racing or the road course. it works...and the biggest thing is...the car is replaceable, we aren't. so now...on to my next project. I'm in the process of trying to decide whether I want to pull the usable stuff off this and find a cheap donor 94-95 gt and build a new one, going in a even more race oriented route this time, or if I want to buy an already built racecar. I have some leads already...so I will keep you guys updated on my next endeavors. the bug is still there...I won't let one accident stop me from doing what I love!
