April 2nd weekend –
Friday was Good Friday and I was off while Susan had to work. I still got up early and spent some time in the garage before Susan woke up. My morning plans consisted of getting Scrappy up to a fabrication shop to have a header and exhaust made.
After I had prepped Ralphie and Scrappy for movement we pushed Ralphie out of the garage and out of the way. Scrappy thankfully started right up and I drove it into the trailer with Susan’s guidance. I then drove up to VI Engineered and dropped Scrappy off, hopefully for just a week’s time.
When I got home Susan suggested I go to the DMV to take care of the majority of our DMV-related things and pick up food for lunch. I agreed and thus set in motion the next two hours of my life.
Our DMV was more-or-less open as normal. The big difference was masks and that everyone received a digital number for waiting in line. I was 24th in line but was able to sit in my car and mess around on my phone while I waited. After a bit over an hour the system crashed for everyone. Que a rush of concerned DMVers standing around the building entrance asking each other if everyone else had the same problem (everyone did). Some tempers flared but calm was restored when we were told that, while the online part of the system was down, our places in line were still valid and that we just needed to wait inside (while socially distancing, of course).
By the time I was done with the five items I needed to take care of and was almost $400 poorer I’d been at or around the DMV for over an hour and a half. Such is. I then finally went to Safeway to get Susan lunch along with some food for the next day’s adventures. Susan was very hungry by the time I got home.
The weather was simply perfect for being productive so I pulled Betty into the garage to replace the passenger side axle seal on the differential. When I had backed Betty out of the trailer earlier to make space for Scrappy I had noted that the extra large puppy pad Susan had put under the differential was absolutely saturated with expensive gear oil (the differential had leaked after the last few track days so Susan had prepared for the inevitable). Thus I endeavored to fix the problem.
As always seems to be the case it took me more time than it should have to remove the old seal and lightly hammer in a new one. I had Betty back on the ground and was just torqueing the lug nuts when Susan came out to tell me she was done with work for the week. I took advantage of her work-freedom to have her guide me into the trailer and help push Ralphie back into the garage.
It was a long day and we decided that enough had occurred so we retreated to the couch for the rest of the evening.
We were out of bed around 8:00 on Saturday morning for coffee to start the day. It was to be another day at the track so we packed up the last minute stuff and went to King Soopers for gas and ice.
We arrived at the track nice and early and checked in with no issues. It was the final winter open lapping day before summer prices and scheduling begin and the paddock was very busy. We had managed to find a good place to pull through so we didn’t mind. As per normal we alternated taking Betty out onto the track and had a lot of fun in the process.
I was adding gas to the Betty in between stints when a familiar masked-face came by. After the last Lemons race when we had pushed our broken race car into our trailer a couple of guys had come by to ask about the car. They were from the CU Buffs team and wanted to know how our car was so much faster than theirs. Our conversation got that team on the path to performing the same engine swap that we had. During their journey one of them (Tyler) had asked me a lot of questions and he was the one who came over to chat while I was fueling.
Tyler was there with some of his teammates testing the newly engine-swapped car as well as their other non-engine-swapped Miata. Both cars were functioning, but as things inevitably go with race cars, they were running into issues here and there. We walked over to check out their Miatas and chat. It was a nice time.
We eventually made our way back to our car and I went out for one more stint. It was early in the afternoon but we decided to pack up and go home. I had been invited to a happy hour at one of my new colleagues’ homes and wanted to attend. We did swing by the CU Buffs paddock space to give them some water for their cars (they didn’t bring much and had suffered a coolant leak) before heading back home.
After backing the trailer into the driveway we unpacked and fed the dogs. It was another beautiful day so Susan drove us to the happy hour gathering in Tia with the new top down. The house was in Parker but on the south side and it took us 20 minutes to get there (Parker is simply huge). We wore masks but not for the entire time there. I got to meet and interact with several of my new coworkers while we tasted wines. We had a nice time.
Before calling it a night I poked and prodded at Ralphie for a bit. The car still wasn’t running which was driving me a bit insane.
Sunday I was up early to feed the dogs and plopped down on the couch to watch YouTube and wait to get Susan up at 10:00 (her predetermined time of awakening). Once Susan was up, we had our coffee and headed to the garage. I very much wanted to get Ralphie running and had a list of things to do and check.
Over the next several hours we swapped out spark plugs, checked the timing, checked compression, swapped out the engine harness including distributor and wires, plugged into a diagnostic scanner, and yet still the car wouldn’t start. Several days before I had swapped out the crank position sensor and in a last ditch effort I adjusted it slightly and had Susan try starting again. Ralphie roared to life immediately and ran smooth as silk. I was pretty mad at myself at this point but my self-disgust was mostly assuaged by our joint relief that the car was running.
While I was doing my thing Susan had cleaned up much of the old and useless wiring from the previous racecar-owners and applied a few more coats of paint. After Ralphie was running I spent some time fixing its leaky differential (not the seal this time, the axle just wasn’t fully seated) before filling it up again.
We needed to purchase food stuffs for the next week (and were hungry to boot) so we stopped at Qdoba on our way to Walmart. The weather was perfect for eating outside so we elected to do so and had a pleasant time munching away sitting in Qdoba’s patio. We didn’t dawdle at Walmart and were soon back home where we plopped on the couch to finish out the weekend. The dogs were so happy to see us. This was a great way to start the month of April.
April 10th weekend –
On Saturday I was up with my alarm to feed the dogs. I then hung out until 8:00 or so to get Susan out of bed and drinking some coffee. Soon we were in the suburban driving up to Westminster. Traffic was light and we made good time. We arrived at Jeff Lee’s house around 10:00 to buy a used wing and hardware for Scrappy. While it wasn’t cheap it was far less expensive than a new one. We chatted about Miata stuff before we were on our way. Before heading back south we stopped at Jax to pick up some cheaper by-the-pound hardware. Traffic was much worse on I25 but we got through it. We made a stop at Firehouse Subs to get Susan a sandwich before going home to eat lunch.
Back in the suburban we then drove down the Upull in Colorado Springs. Construction on I25 made traffic terrible which doubled the drive time. We arrived at the junkyard hopeful but didn’t find what we needed. We were looking for a front bumper cover but it was already gone from the one NB Miata in any junk yard in Colorado. Susan found a nice gauge cluster and I pulled some random fuses and bolts so it wasn’t a total waste of time. Fortunately traffic was much better on the way back with only a slowdown here and there to mar the trip.
We had a lot to do to get Ralphie ready for the track and started on it. We installed the seat, headlights, bumper, tail lights, rear view mirror, shift light, and wheels. We had to unload Betty from the trailer, don its hardtop, and then park it next to the other Miatas before we could load up Ralphie and tie it down. At some point in the process we went inside to start a casserole in the oven. We did eventually eat and finish up after the sun was down.
Sunday had me up with my alarm to feed the dogs and hang out before rustling Susan up for coffee. Soon we grabbed some last-minute things and left to get gas on the way to the track. We arrived at the track at 10:30 to check-in and unload. It was windy but uncharacteristically it was from the north (usually the wind is from the south) so we were able to better find refuge in our trailer which was nice (the wind from the south tends to blow directly into our trailer due to our preferred parking orientation).
We hadn’t quite finished prepping Ralphie the night before so set to finishing getting it ready. I installed the shoulder straps while Susan worked on the radios. I strapped in to try to get a lap on the track before the sessions changed but just missed my chance. It was for the best as I needed to make more adjustments to the belts.
Soon Susan was belted-in and out on the track. Ralphie seemed to run fine except at high RPMs when it would cut out. Susan came in for me to look around but I didn’t see anything obvious that was wrong. I went out for my stint and experienced the same symptoms.
At noon the track broke for lunch and we poked at this and that before I left the track for an O’Reilly’s in Bennet to buy new wires and plugs. It was an hour round trip and Susan had taken out the old plugs by the time I had come back. We soon had the new parts installed and I went out to try them out.
The same issue occurred so I came back in after a few laps. This time we tried swapping in a new fuel pump. This was our first time attempting a fuel pump on a Miata but it was straightforward enough that we muddled through the experience alright. Again I went out onto the track and again the same issue came up. This time I stayed out for a few more laps as the stuttering was more annoying to me than detrimental to the car.
We decided we were done for the day around 3:00 and were reattaching the suburban to the trailer when we heard a “pop”. A fellow driver came over and told us that the radiator on our Miata had blown. We quickly rounded the trailer to find that Ralphie (which we had left idling) was blowing a lot of steam out of the hood. Susan turned off the motor and we found that the radiator had indeed blown. The top of the radiator had broken badly which made for a spectacular mess. Luckily the car hadn’t gotten too hot by the time we got to it so the only really damage (besides the radiator itself) was that a lot of things in the engine bay were sticky and there was a lot of coolant on the ground.
We let the car cool down for a few minutes before loading and packing up. We swung by the track registration building and grabbed some quick dry to dump onto our mess before we headed home.
Once home Susan fed the dogs and Oliver while I unpacked this and that. It would have been nice to call it a day at this point but we had to unload Ralphie so we could pick up Scrappy the next day. We also elected to swap in a new radiator and bleed the coolant. Bleeding the coolant takes a long time but we decided it was worth doing. It was dark again before we went inside to finish the weekend on the couch with the dogs. It wasn’t an entirely successful weekend but we got a lot accomplished in the end.
April 16th weekend –
I was up with my 6:30 alarm to feed the dogs. It may be noted that Mel is usually awake and needling me to get up a few minutes before my alarm goes off. I do always wait for the alarm as Mel’s internal clock tends to run fast and I don’t want her to think I’ll get up super-early if she starts whining at me. It’s cute and all of our previous pugs did the same thing when they were younger.
I had a lot to do in the garage so immediately went out to get started. The previous night we had picked up the differential from a transmission shop (had the front seal replaced and bushings pushed out) and I had mostly reinstalled it along with new bushings. The driver side axle also needed replacing and I swapped out the brake pads on the rear as well. It was around 10:00 at this point so I woke Susan up for coffee and hangout time.
Soon I was back out to the garage to work on the front brakes. The driver front caliper was damaged at the last race so I searched for a replacement among the parts stored in the fridge. I found what I believed would work but they were upgraded “sport” brakes and were too large to fit our preferred brake pads. I didn’t realize this until I had installed one side on Scrappy so I swapped them back out and ordered a remanufactured non-sport caliper online.
I stopped my garage efforts to shower before we hopped into the suburban to drive up to Loveland. We were to meet a guy to buy a beat-up Miata bumper for Ralphie. While Ralphie already has a bumper in acceptable shape my plan is to make some large aero updates to it for the Lemons race in June. Part of the Lemons pre-race inspections is the BS inspection where judges rule whether a car deserves penalty laps. As Ralphie is mostly a stock Miata I don’t expect any issues BUT if we show up with upgraded aero I am afraid the car will be penalized. Thus I had been searching for another bumper to use for the BS inspection that we’d then swap out for the upgraded bumper for the race. Diabolical? Yes. Would we be the first Lemons team to partake in such shenanigans? No.
We arrived to the designated KFC parking lot a few minutes late but we’d communicated our ETA ahead of time so it was no problem. We waited for a few minutes before a Miata pulled up with a yellow bumper cover strapped to its trunk. It was cute enough that Susan snapped a picture before the bumper was removed. The bumper was in very rough shape but that’s exactly what I had in mind so I gave the guy cash and loaded the bumper into the suburban.
On the way back we stopped at a BBQ store off of Spear boulevard. I’d never been to a BBQ-specific store and it was much as I would have imaged it would be with BBQs of all shapes and sizes on display.
Some weeks ago Susan had ordered vinyl numbers for Ralphie from the same guy that we’d been buying such things from since way back when we started racing (pre-2010). Through this purchase the guy asked Susan if we’d do him a favor.
In Tulsa (where the vinyl guy is located) a particularly expensive and popular grill was manufactured. As it was highly sought-after even used examples sold for high dollars. The vinyl guy had found a new one for sale at a Denver BBQ store for about half the price they normally sell for and asked Susan if we’d pick it up and hold it for him for a time. The company he works for would be in Denver in a few weeks he would have someone swing by our home to pick up the grill and transport it back to Tulsa. We agreed and thus found ourselves in a BBQ store on our way home from Loveland. Eventually I carried the prized-grill to the suburban and we were off again.
After a quick stop to by mostly random cheap wine at a big liquor store in Park Meadows we got home and unloaded the bumper and grill. The weather had been cold to start out but had progressively gotten warmer so we decided to do more work on Scrappy.
The newly installed side-pipe exhaust ran below the passenger door in prime ankle-burning territory. Wrapping the exhaust in thermal wrap is one way to protect the exhaust as well as flesh so we spent a few hours installing titanium wrap I had purchased a few days before. After a couple of arguments, many small wounds to our hands (safety wire is very pokey), and way too much time spent we finally had the exhaust wrapped up to the engine bay. It was our first time attempting such an exhaustive (heh) job of this type and we felt that the results looked quite nice.
It was getting late so we went inside to hang out with the pups on the couch to finish the evening.
Sunday had me up with the alarm again to feed the dogs. I was tired so molted on the couch for a time before heading out to the garage. I applied more wrapping to the exhaust, this time in the engine bay. By the time I was finishing up Susan joined me in the garage.
The night before Susan had responded to a fellow who had posted to Facebook saying that he had $4,000 and was looking to buy a Miata. This sounded scammy to me but evidently this isn’t that uncommon and, as we happen to have a Miata we’d like to sell (mostly I’d like to sell but Susan isn’t too attached to Mia 2 yet), I asked Susan to reach out to the guy. Amazingly the guy seemed legit and was legit-interested in our rough 1990 Miata. As it was dark when Susan messaged we were going to take pictures the next morning.
The first order of business with Mia 2 was to remove the hardtop as it would not be part of any potential sale. This necessitated driving the car around the house which required a jump to the battery (the downside from owning so many Miatas is that the batteries frequently die from infrequent use). In an attempt to revive the car’s battery Susan left the car to idle while we looked it over.
The car had clearly been in a minor front-end collision at some point as the hood was a bit misaligned. We loosened the hood bolts in an attempt to make it look better but did more harm than good so set things back to how they originally were. Eventually we turned off the car so I could check the oil level (it ended up needed a little) and we put up the soft top.
The soft top was one huge positive the car had going for it as the top was in almost perfect condition. The top must have been replaced in the recent past and we were sure that it would help sell the car.
We tried starting Mia 2 but found the battery was still kaput. I grudgingly swapped in another battery I had just finished charging via a trickle charger and Susan drove the car back around the house for pictures. Once she was done we were left in a pickle as we had another hardtop we needed to deal with and a garage that had little floor space to store it.
In the past we had talked about hanging our excess Miata hardtops on the walls of our garage but finally decided to go for it as we had crossed a threshold. Thus we soon found ourselves at Lowe’s looking at hooks. We eventually found hooks to our liking and grabbed a piece of 1x2 to screw them too. We asked a cashier to have someone meet us at the wood-cutting station but no one ever showed up. Luckily Flo’s trunk passthrough worked to allow us to transport the eight-foot uncut wood home without having it sticking out a car window or open trunk.
After some measuring, drilling, cutting, more measuring, more cutting, and some hook-screwing we had our mounts ready. We were going to hang the tops above the person doors but Susan didn’t like the location so we instead went with the corner behind where Scrappy usually lives. This was great except we had been piling random old car parts and other miscellaneous things over there since we had moved into the house almost four years before (time really flies). We moved all the corner-things outside the garage to make room for the ladder. I then shakily drilled pilot holes and eventually had the first mount up.
Lifting Mia 2’s top up was a challenge but I got it on the hooks on the first try and it seemed solid enough. I had to relocate the second mount but soon it and Tia’s hardtop were also up on the wall and looking good.
We then tackled cleaning up the car parts and various other things we’d piled in front of the garage. This led us to gathering up extra Miata parts to store in the tire shed. This included the automatic transmission parts from Betty’s auto/manual swap which had been taking up entirely too much space. We were very happy with how the garage felt once we were done with our decluttering.
We’d had some interest in buying one of our Miatas from Brad Ames (the cage builder and Lemons driver) as well as Tasso (the rallycross/rally guy we’d sold our red WRX to many years ago). Neither Brad nor Tasso were interested in purchasing Mia 2 (Susan reached out to them before messaging the $4,000 guy) but Tasso inquired about Golf Ball (the white mostly-stripped rolling chassis).
Ironically Tasso had disparaged our small collection of Miatas a few years ago when he had come over to buy some used rally tires. In his mind Miatas were pathetic and not “real” cars. Since that time Tasso had a change of heart, probably due to him racing a V8-swapped Miata at a Lemons race. For the past several months he had been looking for a cheap Miata to make into a track-toy. Unfortunately for Tasso, Miatas are a hot commodity right now and prices are ridiculous.
I didn’t really believe Tasso would be interested but, as Susan was quite serious in her desire to get rid of the two non-running Miata chassis, I came up with a price I could live with which Susan conveyed to Tasso. It turned out that Tasso was ecstatic for the chance to buy Golf Ball and I probably could have asked for more money. After getting the “ok” from his significant other he agreed to buy the car. Susan was elated and I went out to make sure there wasn’t anything on Golf Ball that I wanted before it left (there were a few things).
As our horde of 10 Miatas wasn’t likely going to last much longer Susan wanted to commemorate our madness with a video and pictures. After we finished clearing out the spare Miata parts we re-affixed the bumpers to the racecars (we had them removed for work) and lined up all our Miatas outside. Susan was originally planning on talking about each of the cars in the video but, as she knows I can barely contain myself about the cars, in the end she asked me to narrate while she recorded.
We did one take which came out better than we thought it would and Susan took some panoramic pictures for internet points. It is crazy how far down the Miata-rabbit hole we’ve gone. Personally I have no real regrets as this has been a shared obsession that has given us many amazing experiences.
Once we were finished commemorating our favorite psychosis we spent time cleaning the garage floor before backing the racecars inside. The weather was so beautiful that we decided to do a few more car-things. I added fluid to the Scrappy’s differential while Susan worked on extricating the old yellow foam from the roll cage. As the tape used on the foam was old and worn it was quite the bear to remove. I soon joined Susan in her plight to pick all the pieces off. Most of the tape was removed before we called it for the day.
Susan ordered Domino’s for dinner and we settled down on the couch with the dogs. We finished the weekend off watching streaming shows on TV. While we didn’t manage to get to the track we did manage to have a fantastic weekend.
On Thursday I took a half day off and left work around 11:00 in the AM. After a stop at Walmart for this and that I went home where Susan helped me hook up the trailer and load up Ralphie. Then I was off to SCR in Loveland to get a racecar alignment.
The alignment experience went well. We went to high school with Mark Baer (the owner of the shop) who was present at the time and he introduced me to his son while we chatted. I had to leave to get gas and when I returned the car was mostly ready. The alignment guy told me that the car aligned easily which was nice as such ease is often not the case. We chatted about racecars and whatnot and I was soon on my way.
An aside about the trip to the gas station. The fellow sharing the other side of my gas pump was demonstrably upset about a transaction he had made with the gas station attendant. He made it obvious that he wanted my attention in particular and I gave him my socially-distanced sympathies. He was a bit manic and it was clear that he was in a bad place in his life. So when he asked if I could do him a favor and buy him coolant for his overheating truck (it was coming out all over the ground) I sighed and said “sure.” It’s hard to see an adult is such distress and I couldn’t help but think of how it must be for him to ask a stranger for help. I bought him the bottle of coolant and left.
I got home around 4:00 and went out to the garage to put water in Scrappy. With the cold nights we didn’t want to chance adding water before and I didn’t want to put antifreeze in just to have to swap it out for water (for the racing we do antifreeze is not allowed). This process was straightforward and Oliver drank from the water jug as I added it to the radiator. It was very cute.
Alvin and Kari arrived a bit after 6:00 with their new puppy Ember. Ember is so darn cute with her puppy-attitude and mannerisms. We chatted about this and that as the food cooked. We ate inside as the temperatures had dropped.
Once we were finished gorging Alvin and I went to the garage to tune Scrappy’s ECU. Mostly what we did was talk about the cars and whatnot. Eventually we got around to tuning which went alright until we realized I had installed the incorrect O2 sensor. Whoops. So Alvin helped me figure out what I needed to order and we just ended up hanging out. Not too bad a thing as we hadn’t seen Alvin or Kari in some time so there was a lot to catch up on. They stayed until 9:00 or so before heading home.
April 24th weekend –
Saturday I left off my alarm but was still up early to feed the dogs. I felt like I should be productive as the weather was simply amazing so I went outside and worked on removing the gas tank from the green Miata.
I’d never removed a gas tank from a car before and my efforts were hampered a bit as the car was sitting on rolling dollies which rested on plywood resting on the loose rock of the driveway. I managed to get the back of the car up on jack stands and fiddled with this until the tank was on the ground. Susan came out to see what I was up to right as I finished extracting the tank so we went inside for coffee.
When we ventured back outside our plans were to work on “car stuff” and so we did. I removed more gas tank accoutrement and hooked up a hose to an outside faucet to rinse off the dusty tank and various parts. Susan saw an opportunity and sprayed off the cars we had lined up in the drive. The last few snow storms had all our cars pretty filthy. Oliver walked over the still-wet cars until Susan discouraged the behavior with a quick blast of water from the hose.
We then spent time washing Ralphie’s exterior. As the paint had no clear coat on it we used vinegar and water. We rinsed and let things dry off before Susan painted the roof and I made some touch-ups here and there. It was so warm that Susan was soon able to add another coat to the roof which was all it really needed to look nice.
Food eventually became a focus of ours and Susan ordered Jimmy Johns delivery. It came quickly and we enjoyed a meal at the kitchen table.
When we went back outside we finally started constructing front splitters for the racecars. We had purchased materials weeks ago but always found other projects to work on. We spent several hours contemplating, measuring, and cutting plywood. It was enjoyable to work on together and by late afternoon the wood was resembling what we thought it should look like.
I didn’t want the fun to end so went to Lowe’s to pick up drop cloths and hardware. Once I was back Susan and I positioned the drop cloths around Ralphie. I then shook up a can of clear coat and started rolling a coat on Ralphie. Susan held a light so we could make sure I did not miss anything. It took the entire can of clear coat to cover the car and the garage smelled chemically when we were done.
We were tired when we finally went inside for the evening.
Sunday I was up early again sans my alarm. After feeding the dogs I wandered out to the garage to wet-sand Ralphie. The clear coat is supposed to be sprayed on evenly via multiple coats but, since we rolled it on, sanding was necessary.
I took my sweet time working over all the surfaces before I washed off the residue. The results were quite pleasing. I had forgotten how much of a difference adding clear coat made. I went inside to let Susan know I was finished and we had coffee together.
Since Ralphie’s paint was finally complete we applied the vinyl decals. Susan read the instructions thoroughly and we affixed the decals with zero bubbles. Ralphie finally was looking good so we pulled it out of the garage for some pictures.
As I was moving Ralphie around I saw an old crack in the windshield which we then filled using one of those windshield-fixing kits. We’ve done this many times over the years with much success. I don’t believe we’ve ever failed to stop a crack when we’ve caught them early enough when using these kits.
It was around this point that Tasso backed his trailer into our driveway. Per Susan’s suggestion I had moved the suburban and trailer to the lower forty so there was plenty of space. Tasso had come to buy Golf Ball with the intent to turn it into a cheap Spec Miata.
Tasso was new to all things Miata so had a lot of questions which we answered the best we could. He sat in both of our racecars to get an idea of different configurations and we talked a lot about Miatas and racing them. Eventually we had Golf Ball loaded up onto Tasso’s trailer via a come-along and some manpower. He also ended up buying some of our spare parts to help get him started.
It was only a few minutes after Tasso left that a guy named Michael showed up with the intent to remove a rear quarter panel from the green Miata shell. He had come before to buy miscellaneous other parts which we were happy to sell and indicated that he would like more. What wasn’t happiness-inducing was that he’d taken weeks to finally come back to get what he wanted. Susan had given him an ultimatum that we would soon be junking the shell and to get what he wanted or miss out.
Something about Michael bugged me. He was an older guy who was also really into Miatas though differently than Susan and myself. The core of what eventually drew us to Miatas was our love of racing cars and the experience of driving around in a fun convertible. While I’m sure Michael also enjoys driving his Miatas his draw seemed to be more about building and maintaining them. Michael is all “show” while Susan and I are mostly all “go” if that makes sense.
He also had an annoying way of interacting with us. Every conversation was just a way for him to impart his view on things and add his judgment. Genuine curiosity didn’t fuel his inquiries; they were only avenues to make himself feel better via imparting dubious and un-asked-for advice and/or to turn the conversation back onto himself.
I think we really learn about ourselves by seeing ourselves in others and I see this as something I do as well. Over the years I’ve tried to recognize my tendency make conversations about myself and dial it down a lot. Ironically (or maybe it’s just hypocrisy) I find that I have a very low tolerance for this particular trait in others.
Safe to say that any future interactions with Michael will be only occur from happenstance.
We spent the rest of the day working on Scrappy’s splitter. It turned out that some of the hardware we’d bought earlier didn’t fit together and this, plus the later hour, had us retreating inside for the remainder of the weekend which we spent on the couch with the dogs.
On Thursday I took another half day to bring Scrappy up to SCR for its alignment. We had finished the splitter earlier in the week after getting the needed hardware and fasteners. The alignment went fine although it sounds like I need to replace some bushings at some point. The fun never ends!
I got back home around 4:00 to unload Scrappy. Susan had received her second COVID injection that morning and worked from home the rest of the day. We had a few things we wanted to button up before heading to the track which included: swapping the tires, bolting a brace to the rear of the splitter, and adding support to the new exhaust. It took longer than we wanted but eventually we finished and packed up and left for the track.
The track was mostly empty when we drove up which was great as there were no group sessions. After we checked in and unloaded I took Scrappy out for a lap. Hilariously and uncharacteristically I spun out on the fastest corner of the track. I think it was due to a combination of unbedded brake pads, the new aero, cold tires, and that the sun happened to be setting directly in my eyes. In any case the car was fine and, after I met with the track-manager Glenn ( a requirement when you spin), I went back to see Susan in the paddock to check under the Scrappy.
Thankfully there were no discernable leaks under the hood and things looked as they should. This was the first time Scrappy had been on the track since the 24 hour race back in September and with its new engine and I wanted to be sure nothing seemed amiss. I then headed back out onto the track and put in a few laps. These were more enjoyable than with our other Miatas as Scrappy is a pretty amazing track car now. Susan then took her turn but, with the sun down and Scrappy not having headlights, she only got a few laps before calling off the fun. Next time Susan will go out earlier so she gets more time in the driver’s seat.
The last day of the month Susan took a sick day off work as she was experiencing side effects from her vaccine. Mostly fever, chills and exhaustion… a bigger portion of her day was spent sleeping as opposed to being awake. So much so the dogs were wondering why they were spending the entire day in the bedroom. By late Friday evening it looked as though she turned a corner so hopefully she can enjoy the weekend ahead.
April was a productive month for us though the weather hampered us a bit here and there. We are really REALLY hoping the snow is done for the season as it’s getting old. The pups are still pupping away and bring us joy every day. Mom sent over a fresh batch of adorable sweaters for Pebbles and she looks so cute in them. May will likely be another busy month as we’ll be finishing up what we can on the racecars in preparation for the June 5th race.
