Tired and hungry, we leave at the end of the saturday session, some half-assed welds holding the frame together and the rack sitting in its proper place unbolted because of the damage. We get to the track on sunday morning and I have bought the best item to tie a steering rack to a frame.... hose clamps. I put the hose clamps in, and one of the other guys takes the car for a test drive. "Straight keeps changing" he reports back, also "No way in hell Im driving this car out there". I say, "F-it, somebody suit up and get us some more laps until it breaks" One of the guys suits up and takes the car out for 5 laps. Here are some action shots:
He brings it back in and says that it is death-defying, and also a hell of a lot of fun. He and the other guys want me to suit up and take it back out, so I do. I am wheeling my heart out, and take the back straight full-throttle, this puts me into the 90 degree at the end at around 70-75. I brake and turn... POP! no steering, I hit the grass, lock up the brakes and spin into the sand. Luckily, I stop without hitting the wall. Here are some shots of me playing in the sand box:
The tow-truck brings me in, and I get out of the car, knowing we are out of the race after 6 laps completed. Just then, a guy and his woman entourage show up. They are from one of the competing teams and came over to say how disappointed they were that we went out like that, after working so hard on saturday. They offer beer and cleavage, so we didnt say no.
A little while later, the event organizer, Jay Lamm shows up. He asks why that car hasnt been out on the track mor than six laps, and says he had been hearing our situation from others and wanted to get it himself. We tell him the whole story and he says that we amazingly still seem to be in good spirits. I told him we were, and thanked him for putting the race together. He leaves to go do "important" things, and we start packing up.
The race ends with a 1st gen RX7 taking the checker, how awesome. We went to the award ceremony to see who won the various awards:
After presenting the "heroic fix award" to a team that had to leave early (their story was similar to ours, but they finished the race, and posted the second-fastest lap), he says, "Some of you may have seen a black SVX around, it did one lap yesterday and about five today...." he tells our story and presents us with the "I got screwed" trophy:
Feeling vindicated, we head back to TN. I know that I will be competing in next year's race and I think the rest of my team will as well.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
The race was amazing, even with all the problems the subie had, I had a blast. From the competition, to the hilarious pentalties, to the people's curse, it was great. I am doing it again next year, and plan on bringing my game (which I apparently left at thome this time).