Getting later in the year, Autocross season is quickly coming to an end. Points event #9 for ALSCCA was on October 16th. It was only going to be a half event for me. It’s usually a party foul to leave halfway through an event, but I made sure that I picked up an early worker assignment, and then was there to help where ever needed during the first part of the day (ended up helping with timing and scoring).
Got to the site at 5:45 am. That was early, too early, by about 45 minutes. It was a cold, dark, drizzly morning. I didn’t wear warm enough clothes.
The day was eventful. It started as I was prepping the car. Somehow, I managed to cross-thread a lug nut. It was damaged beyond repair. I couldn’t run without all the lug nuts, so this was a real problem. Thankfully Mike (from the Huntsville region) was willing to run me up to O’Reily’s to get some spares. Crisis adverted.
Then the event started. We had some novices, and they made some bigger mistakes than you usually expect. One Miata lost control going into a slalom and went off-roading and into a plastic barrier. That was some excitement for that work station. Thankfully only minor body damage and hurt pride.
Second run group’s turn to go, and then this happens right in front of me:
I have no clue how he did that, but he had a bad day. He ripped the bottom off the engine and dumped all of his oil all over the course. He stopped on a service road, but rather than backing up on it he decided to drive through a ditch, over another curb and back on the course. He had to stop, we had to push his car on his trailer, then there was about a 45 minute clean up.
Finally got my runs in. Because of the drama with the lug nuts earlier, I didn’t get to walk the track at all. I went in blind. I was reasonably fast, but over did it on my last run. I understeered into a curb and put a wheel off. Only a minor scuff on the wheel, but all in all a fairly disappointing day. Also, I think I need an alignment now.