Today was my second track event and boy was it fun. This one was at Autoclub speedway in Fontana, ca. And a beautiful sunny day in the upper 80s. Well it started out great on my first few laps but then something hapoened. I entered the front straight into the finish line (through the big NASCAR oval section). As I was reaching the rev limiter in fourth gear at about 90mph, I shifted into 5th and then the shifter kept going into nowhere land. I was extremely worried I actually grabbed third instead of fifth and ended up with a very bad day. But after pulling back to the pits stuck in 5th gear the whole lap, i started taking things apart. Nothing obvious seemed wrong until I took apart the shifter.
Well the housing that holds the shifter in the linkage had a bolt missing, one was 75% backed out, and the two others were maybe finger tight. After much turmoil wondering how to fix it, I found a nice guy who happened to have a perfect 12mm bolt that fit just right in there! Bolted it back together and made it back out ,only missing one session. I still had two more 25 minute sessions so I was very happy with my day. What an adventure but at least I can drive home!
I went back out and placed some solid times. My fastest recorded lap time was 2:20 but my fourth session I went a bit faster. Unfortunately my phone decided to not work right and didnt record the data. I beat a few people in my run group (purple, low intermediate, level 2 of 6). And I managed to pass some people even though they had significant horsepower advantages. I barely touched 110 on the straight while faster people easily made 130+ there. Fun day through it all though. Very happy I’m not being towed home and my day was awesome.
I witnessed this car blow up on the front straight while spectating before my first run. Thing sounded loud as hell going by the first time and then the next lap a giant cloud of smoke and an oil streak down the straight. I also saw 4 other cars being towed away at various points of the day due to other mechanical failures. All things considered, my trackside repair was but a momentary problem. No idea why those bolts were loose or why it didn’t affect me sooner considering I replaced that shifter last summer. But I also have never shifted 4th to 5th at those speeds before anyways.
