October 1 – Rallycross day!
We slunk into the Suburban early in the morning to head out. I stopped to get coffee, donuts, and gas on
the way but otherwise we went straight to CORE.
We arrived at 7:30 and, with little debate, decided to race on the new
(to us) upper-upper area. I was not
wanting to design the course but as the only other guy available (Kubo) didn’t
really have much experience I helped out.
The ground was mercifully dry and we were able to utilize new areas which
was cool. I felt like we were behind all
morning but we got the first car off at the normal 10:00. When we finally drove we found white
oily-smelling smoke emanating from around the evo’s engine after I finished my
first run. We decided it was not worth
chancing a major mechanical issue and parked the car. We then finished the morning in Kubo’s RS (it
was super-nice of him to offer us the car to use). I allowed a long lunch to give everyone time
to do their lunch-thing while Kubo and myself changed the course up for the
afternoon. The ground held up pretty
well after some initial fixes and all the drivers had fun. I opted to not drive in the afternoon (I
really didn’t want to break Kubo’s car) and instead worked as starter (my
favorite job). We finished early despite
everyone getting 11 runs total. Right
before we left we helped a fellow driver take down his pop-up. It was lucky for him that we did stick around
as torrential wind coincidentally decided to pick up right then and it was a
struggle just to keep the thing from flying away. Once on the road the wind had towing a bit
sketchy but we made it home alright. We
were tired and settled on Jimmy John’s delivery for dinner. I got their largest sandwich and thought it
would be good with even more meat. It
was tasty but I could barely finish (no, I didn’t have to eat the whole thing
but my pride was on the line). We
finished the evening with Bella watching a movie and our Sunday night
shows.
Susan flew to San Francisco, California on Monday October 2nd
for work. While there she walked on the
Golden Gate Bridge, toured a mechanical museum, ate at the Fisherman’s Wharf,
and subsequently got food poisoning later that night. Tuesday was meetings and a flight to Los
Angeles. Her hotel wasn’t in the best
part of the city so she didn’t venture out.
Wednesday was more meetings and a flight back to Denver. This was Susan’s first work trip ever and was
mostly a success. Bella and I missed her
terribly. I brought Bella with me to the
airport to pick up Susan and she was so excited!
While Susan was gone I pulled the turbo oil return line off
the evo as it clearly was leaking again.
It looked like the exhaust shop’s weld on the return line didn’t hold so
the whole thing needed to be replaced. This isn’t a common part and there was no way
to order one by the next event so, out of desperation, I reached out to the evo
community on Facebook. Amazingly someone
immediately offered a new one for $10 and to meet me at the airport the same
night I was to pick up Susan. This was
super-lucky and I was able to get the return line while I waiting for Susan’s
flight to arrive. Unfortunately the two
gaskets and small washers were not so easy to obtain and I had to have the
parts overnighted from Utah at a high price ($10 in parts cost $50 in
shipping). Such is I suppose. While I was under the car I had also noticed
the radiator was leaking - luckily I was able to order a new one on
Amazon. On Thursday night I installed
the oil return line. It took far longer
than I’d anticipated as the space was cramped and evening rain had dirty water
dripping in my eyes, mouth, and everywhere else. With Susan’s help I did manage to finish that
evening. On Friday the radiator came and
Susan and I had it installed in a couple of hours. With that we loaded the evo on the car
trailer for the upcoming weekend’s event.
October 7th weekend – Saturday we attended and aided
in the running of an intermediate rallycross school. Our pal Kubo did much of the work though we helped
where we could. Usually I am an
instructor but I opted to mostly just help with logistical stuff and fill roles
as they were required. Susan and I got
an early start out to CORE as we didn’t need to stop for gas or coffee (I made
some at home). Once we arrived I helped
set up the practice course and Susan set up the timing computers. I put on a brief drivers meeting and we
started the school by putting down two timed runs. I quickly found that oily smoke was pouring
from under the evo’s hood again. When
the group finished the timed runs I stayed to remove the skid guard and tighten
some bolts which fixed the leak. We then
headed up to the upper area where features were set up and the instruction was
already going on. There was a large figure
eight and long slalom. The surface was
great and held together despite literally hours of abuse. The features were effective enough that we
used them again in the afternoon after lunch.
We eventually connected them and let drivers attack the whole thing like
a mini-course. Around 2:30 we finally
headed down to the practice course again to do more timed runs. Kubo led a guided course-walk and we tagged
along. We didn’t agree that his
instruction necessarily applied to us but it was meaningful to the other
attendees. Then we let the drivers drive
the practice course again. Susan ran
timing and I manned the start line while the drivers put down many runs. We ended the school around 4:30 as we were
collectively tired. We left the trailer
and evo and just drove the Suburban back home.
Susan and I were going to stop at Chili’s for dinner but opted to simply
pick up wine and for me to cook something instead. I made Susan a hamburger while I ate a ground
beef concoction which was tasty.
Sunday was the eleventh series event of the 2017
season. We slept in slightly but were
able to get to CORE by around 7:30. I
immediately reinstalled the skid guard I had removed the day before and went
about setting up the course. I used much
of the practice course from the day before which held up amazingly well. The event went well for us until my final run
of the morning when I braked too late before a turn and smacked the front of
the evo hard into a small ridge. I was
able to finish my run but found that skid guard was bent backwards at the front
and several engine components were damaged.
Miraculously no fluids were leaking so Susan finished her final
run. At lunch I jacked up the evo and we
took a closer look. From what we could
see the intercooler was dented and pushed up along with the radiator. This caused the hood latch-point to also rise
which made the hood look like it was open when it was secured shut. The piping into the intercooler was smashed
badly and would likely need to be replaced.
The new radiator crushed against the engine and had damage in several
places (it really should have been leaking).
All in all my mistake caused some serious damage to our car. Since the car seemed to be running alright we
decided to try driving it for the remainder of the day. The afternoon’s course was fast and fun and
the evo made it just fine. I even ended
up getting 1st place in our class which I felt pretty good
about. Susan came in 6th but
only because she hit a lot of cones (her driving was phenomenal). It was a really fun event despite the evo’s
damage. The students from the day before
showed amazing improvement in their driving which was nice to see. On our way home (we were the last to leave)
we saw several rallycrossers pulled over on the side of the interstate. I almost stopped but they were waiving us to
continue on. Word eventually came to us
that one driver didn’t torque his lug nuts enough and lost a wheel. Whoops!
Everyone (including those in the temporarily-three-wheeled car) ended up
making it home alright. Once we were
home and the evo unloaded I jacked up the car and tried pounding on the skid
guard with a small sledge hammer. That
thing is way too thick for my small tools and will likely need to be cut
off. As nationals is in a week and a
half and the car is running alright we decided to leave it be and fix it
afterwards. This made for a stressful
end to the weekend for which I can only blame myself. We spent the rest of the evening with Bella
on the couch.
Monday – we were planning on doing some work at the Dawn
house after work but ended up chatting with Kubo after he dropped off the rally
bus until it was dark and we’d lost our motivation.
Tuesday – I stopped by rally.build to have some new rally
tires mounted for nationals and have the skid guard looked at. In the end the tires were ignored and the
whole evening was spent on the skid guard.
I originally asked that the portion bent down be cut off and that the
rest be left alone but the guy working on it did his own thing which included
removing the entire skid guard and spending the next few hours trying to
straighten it out. Several rally people
showed up to help and the point of what I’d asked to be done was lost to an
almost mob mentality of “must unbend the metal”. Unfortunately the skid guard is 3/16” of
relatively high grade aluminum and was resistant to change using the tools the
shop had. There were many “hold my beer
moments” where I was relatively certain someone was going to get hurt. My patience was close to its end after a
couple of fruitless hours and I interjected with some ideas to finish up what I
really wanted accomplished. Amazingly
progress began to be made and, ultimately, what I wanted done was done and I
left the shop somewhat placated around 11:30.
The forgotten tires were to be mounted the following Saturday.
Wednesday – Susan and I went to the Dawn house to do tend to
some final issues, clean, and take home more of our stuff. We installed smoke detectors in the upstairs
bedrooms, cleaned out more of the garage (including the loft), and swept and
removed the last of Susan’s darkroom stuff from the basement. We ended up having to leave some stuff behind
in the garage to pick up the following night as the Suburban was packed
full.
October 14 weekend – I had almost ordered a new OEM
intercooler pipe from Mitsubishi but Susan found one available locally for
essentially nothing. Dave Kern races
evos and offered to let us use a spare he had for the cost of replacing it at
some point. On Saturday morning Susan
and I drove up to Sterling’s shop (Sterling is Dave’s rally mechanic) to pick
up the intercooler piping we needed. As
expected we spent an hour hanging out and chatting about racing and
whatnot. Afterwards we headed to
rally.build to pick up our newly mounted rally tires/wheels. As expected the tires weren’t yet mounted but
we didn’t mind a bit as we hung out with Ryan McLaughlin (one of the owners)
who we’ve known for years while the tire work was done. It was a fun time and a reminder of how cool
many of the people are in our chosen hobby.
After loading up our newly mounted tires and old worn tires we were on
our way. Since we were out on that side
of town we stopped at Costco and went to Chili’s for a tasty lunch. When we finally got home I set about swapping
out the crushed intercooler piping while Susan briefly napped. The install didn’t go as smoothly as I’d
anticipated and Susan was up and hanging with me outside when I finally finished. We drove the evo around to make sure there
were no obvious boost leaks and called it good.
Dinner was chili I whipped up and it was yummy. We spend the remainder of the evening on the
couch with Bella.
Saturday we woke with an alarm (again) and drove up to
Arvada to pick up an intercooler that a guy was giving away. It may or may not hold boost so we’ll look to
try it in the offseason. The intercooler
on the evo now is squished and bent but we know it holds boost. We dropped by a Harbor Freight to attempt to
exchange a busted car jack but were declined.
Apparently we just missed the warranty deadline. Such is and we bought a new jack
anyways. On the way back around C470 we
met Jeff at Applebee’s for lunch. We
jawed about this and that before we left.
Good times as always. After that
we stopped by the Tires Plus we often frequent for alignments to drop off the
old worn rally tires that were dismounted from Saturday and then went to Lowes
to buy new wood for the Suburban ramps (they go under them to prevent the ramps
from sinking in soft soil). Once home I
proceeded to change the oil in the Suburban.
That thing takes a lot of oil but wasn’t difficult to manage. To give me time to perform needed car work
Susan went out by herself to purchase some needed clothes. I also put the newly mounted rally wheels on
the evo including spacers on the front (no more grinding at full-lock,
yay!). Susan got home around this point
and helped me change the oil in Tia. It
was still light when we finished but we elected to call it a day as we’d accomplished
a lot. We watched TV on the couch with
Bella for the rest of the evening - a nice end to a busy and productive
weekend.
October 19-23 weekend – Nationals
Thursday – We woke up around 7:00 and loaded up the last
things into the Suburban for the trip.
Susan put a non-slip thing on the center console followed by a dog
bed. Bella was to stay there for the
majority of the trip (such a great idea!).
We left our driveway about 8:00.
The drive was relatively uneventful besides some wind and we listened to
podcasts for much of it (something we haven’t done in years). We only stopped for gas and got to our hotel
in Topeka around 5:00 where we unloaded some things and set out for the site
where we were to race. On the way we
stopped at a car wash to vacuum and wash the evo and the Suburban’s gross windshield. We found the site to be rather empty and
Susan picked the perfect spot to drop off the trailer and evo. We were to meet with some other rallycrossers
for dinner at 7:00 but were running late as we still had Bella and had to swing
by the hotel to drop her off. Dinner was
at the Blind Tiger which seemed to specialize in BBQ and steaks. We walked around and found two open seats at
a table full of rallycrossers from the east coast. The food was excellent as was the company and
we talked about rallycrossing. We were
tired when we finally got back to the hotel but managed to drink a bit more
wine before falling asleep.
Friday – I woke up early and decided to shower and eat
breakfast before getting Susan out of bed.
Once she was up and about we gathered Bella and drove to Wal-Mart where
I purchased ice and a pen and notepad.
This time when we got to the site there were many competitors
present. We walked to the tech trailer and
picked up the necessary event stickers.
Then we spent the next 20 minutes sticking them on the evo (Susan did
most of the work as she has more patience and cares more). We hung out with some other Colorado
competitors who were paddocked nearby before driving to the timing trailer to
check in and get event info. Then we
went to the practice course to get a feel of the terrain. It was on my second run when I discovered the
clutch was starting to slip. Uh oh. We managed to get some decent practice in but
the countdown clock on the clutch failing had begun.
We were the first ones to get our practice runs in and were
free for the next few hours so we picked up Bella and mingled with other
drivers while watching them also utilize the practice course. At 4:30 we drove the evo to its grid spot for
class inspection. At 5:00 we popped the
hood so everyone could see our dirty engine.
For the modified class the class inspection is really just a time to get
to know one’s competitors and their cars as there isn’t much to protest. After it was over we drove back to our
paddock spot to chat with friends and wait for dinner. The SCCA handled the meal and a mix-up with
the large tent caused a significant delay for which there was much grumbling
(it was the vendor’s fault). All was
forgiven (at least to us) as the food was tasty and we were able to sit with
fellow Coloradans. After the meal was
through there was a town hall where a couple of relevant questions were asked
followed by some commentary - both good and lame. The mostly cordial town hall was blessedly
short and we were freed to go to our hotel to drink our wine before falling
asleep.
Saturday – We woke up with the alarm at 6:00 and I showered
and ate breakfast before we leashed Bella and headed back to the event site at
7:30. We were to work first so we left
Bella in the Suburban, parked the evo in its grid spot, and then Susan checked
in with the chief of workers. We’re not
sure whose Jimmies Susan rustled but somehow she was busted down from chief of
timing last year to chasing cones this year.
Susan wasn’t happy but ultimately only had to fetch a single cone during
the entire the event. Once again I was
to write an article for the Sportscar magazine so I used my recently acquired
pen and notepad to take some notes while the stock class cars did their
thing. They were fun to watch and I
spent much of the time chatting with other competitors who didn’t have anything
else to do. Finally we got to drive
ourselves. We were only going to get
three runs and we tried to make the best of them. I was two seconds faster than everyone on my
first run but then coned on my second and ultimately was sitting barely out of
first place after the third run. Susan
did alright but struggled to get her times down. The slipping clutch was slipping more and
more each run. There was one serious
issue with the site itself which was that it didn’t hold up at all to the
cars. There were literally changes made
after each run which delayed the event significantly. This plus a broken car that blocked the
course for 20 minutes and timing system issues were frustrating. It didn’t help that a massive storm front was
threatening all day.
It was shortly after our first run on the afternoon course
that the weather arrived with pounding rain and bright lightning. It was something to behold as course workers
scrambled to their cars and we hastily packed up our race supplies. The remaining day’s event was cancelled and
rescheduled to the next morning. We and
some of the other Colorado rallycross “leaders” had planned on meeting over
dinner to discuss our local program but many others wanted to eat together as
well so we shelved our plans and went to the Blind Tiger with our large group
of racers. It took some time before we
could get seated and we ended up in an upstairs storage room all by our
lonesomes (all 20 of us or so). We ate,
drank, chatted, laughed, and even managed to talk a bit about our plans for
Colorado rallycross. It was a great time
and we stayed until around 9:00 before heading back to the hotel for (you
guessed it) some wine and sleep.
Sunday – We, again, woke up at 6:00, I showed and ate
breakfast, and we grabbed Bella and got to the event site at 7:30. The rain proved to be devastating to the
course and most of the M2 drivers struggled to get through the mud. I knew I was hosed when I made my slow way
around the course. By the time our class
finished our one run it became clear who was running mud tires and who wasn’t
(us along with many from Colorado). In
the past mud tires weren’t generally utilized but this year many of the
competitors were using them and it turned the results upside-down (at least in
our class). It was frustrating but
nothing could be done. It could have
been worse as we watched one competitor get stuck for several minutes at the
start line (he drove a Mustang shoed in evidently poor tires). After us the prepared drivers got a crack at
the course. While it was a bit better
they still struggled to put down good times and, once again, those with mud
tires pulled ahead. Once the prepared
drivers put in their two runs the final course was set up while we waited. Susan had to work the course again and I
watched as the stock drivers did their thing.
I had a slight chance to snag the last trophy and drove hard but only
managed to make up a little time and the clutch was slipping badly. On our final runs we both struggled to
accelerate above 4,000 RPM and I actually slowed down.
Now done racing we limped the evo back to the paddock and
loaded it onto our trailer. We packed up
most everything we needed to and then watched the prepared drivers drive the
course with Bella. After the racing was
over we hung out for the trophy presentations to show our support. We then got together for our traditional
group picture of Colorado folks (plus some adopted racers) before splitting up
for the drive home. Hilariously a
full-sized tracker trailer got stuck in the mud blocking the sole entrance to
the paddock as we were about to leave. Undeterred
we drove back out to the practice course where there was a somewhat gentle
egress to the paved road. Susan got out
to make sure traffic was clear and the Suburban made it through the shallow
ditch with little fuss and we were on our way.
We stopped at Wal-Mart so we could get some food which we ate as we sat
in the parking lot.
The plan was that we would stop on our way home to visit
Susan’s grandmother and the timing worked out great. We got to her nursing home around 9:15 and
stayed until 10:00 when the doors were to be locked. It was a nice visit and hard to leave. Norita is 93 years old and I know she wishes
she lived closer to her family. When we
got back to our rig we found a few people mingling about it. It turned out a couple of folks recognized
the evo for what it is (an amazing piece of racing machinery) and we chatted
with them before getting back on the road.
Susan wisely convinced me we should get a hotel for the night and we
stayed at the Days Inn in Hays (the same one we’d stopped in back when we
brought home furniture from Georgia two years ago). I was soooo tired and fell asleep soon after
we arrived.
Monday – We woke up at 7:00 and I ate a quick breakfast in
the hotel lobby. After packing up we
were on the road at 8:00 for home. Susan
quickly took to napping with Bella on her lap (Bella also slept). We only stopped one more time for gas and
Susan didn’t stir much until we were a couple of hours from home. Once home we unpacked most everything save
the evo from the trailer and went to Costco and Wal-Mart for food stuffs. Because “why not?” I started a big chunk of
beef in the slow-cooker when we got back.
The rest of the afternoon and evening had us on the couch while I edited
and uploaded race videos and Susan caught up with game shows we missed while we
traveled. We both fell asleep on the
couch and I woke at 10:30 to Susan going to bed. I followed her soon after as I waited for the
final video to finish uploading at 11:00 (our internet is soooo slow) and I put
the fully-slow-cooked beef in the refrigerator.
While neither of us did particularly well at nationals the
weekend was a lot of fun overall.
There’s something special about traveling to another state to race and hanging
out with competitors we only see once a year.
Bella was so good on the trip!
Instead of a burden she was a buddy and we were glad to have her with
us. Next year’s event will be back in
Iowa (best site evar) and we’ll be coming prepared with mud tires and a new
clutch.
October 28 weekend – Saturday morning we got up with the
alarm as our furnace was scheduled to be serviced between 8 and 10:00. We didn’t think the guy would be on time but
he ended up being a few minutes early. I
was barely out of bed and Susan had to throw on some clothes real quick. It was the same guy who sold us the A/C and
he remembered Bella. Susan mentioned
that the heat wasn’t as hot as expected (it came up on the house inspection) so
he checked and found that the furnace was set up for natural gas as opposed to
propane. Once he adjusted the burners
the temperature came out hotter and we were happy. After he left we went to Kohl’s for Susan to
use some Kohl’s cash that was about to expire.
Afterwards Susan noticed one of the rear tires on the RS was very
low. We filled the tire at a gas station
and found the other rear tire was also low.
We figured there was a nail in one or both of them so picked up a
puncture repair kit at Wal-Mart and went home to check. It turned out there were no punctures but the
tires were leaking slowly out from their beads.
I called Discount Tire and they said they could unmount, clean the bead,
and remount the tires for us so we dropped them off. We were scheduled to meet with some Colorado
rallycrossers at HPR to check out a potential new rallycross site at 2:00 and
arrived on time. The track guy said we
should be able to drive our own cars to the area and we did indeed make it,
although our bumper was cracked pretty badly on the way. The area we toured was ideal for running a
rallycross if used in conjunction with a water truck (and after much land
preparation). Pretty neat. After much discussion we drove back (cracked
the bumper again on the other side) and talked about this and that before
heading home. On the way we stopped and
picked up the remounted tires from Discount.
I went to put them back on the RS and discovered one was mounted
backwards (they were directional tires) so had to go back to Discount for the
tire to be remounted again. Fortunately
it only took a few minutes for the correction to be made and I was soon at home
and had the tires back on the RS. The
rest of the evening was spent with Bella on the couch.
Sunday was busier than we expected it to be. Susan was up before me and cajoled me out of
bed at 8:30 with the prospect of having breakfast with Jeff. Jeff was in New Mexico with Alvin looking at
a car so I made coffee instead. It
happened to be that this was the last weekend of Parker’s farmers market so we
got dressed and headed over to walk around and buy spice packets to make tasty
dips. Afterwards we stopped by Wal-Mart
to buy food stuffs for dinner (Jeff was going to come by later but him and
Alvin got lost and didn’t get back in time).
We made a quick stop at home to drop off the food and went out again to
Old Navy in pursuit of pug-themed pajamas which Susan did indeed find. There was a long line at checkout and outside
we found a rabbit hanging around the RS.
We briefly speculated that the rabbit was actually from our house and
merely hitched a ride to Old Navy. We both
laughed but made sure the rabbit was still there when I pulled out of the spot
(he was). Once home I changed into PJs
as we weren’t planning to do anything else for the day. Then we were talking about used Miata engines
and looking at craigslist. Smack-cut to
us unloading the evo and driving up to a commercial area to buy an engine. We did make a stop at Harbor Freight to
return a jack and buy some measuring tools that I couldn’t get to work properly
(I wanted to check the crank end-play).
We did buy the engine as the guy was willing to come down in price and
it looked alright. Susan made sure it
was securely tied down to the trailer and we made it home without issue. With her help we had the engine on the hoist
and in the garage. Hopefully we’ll have
the engine in the NB Miata and the car out of the garage very soon. Once back inside the house I promptly changed
back into my PJs for the remainder of the afternoon and evening which we spent
on the couch with Bella. So much for
lazy Sunday!
October was so darn busy for us. Hopefully things slow down a bit with the end
of the rallycross season and the holidays.
Then again, the evo needs a lot of work and we usually are busy during
the holidays. Such is!
