Track Day. Success! — Apex Attack

Back to the ol' black car. While Duncan is having a lot of success and learning a ton about driving, I was just hoping my car wouldn't fall apart.

Feeling some faith in my car after fixing the intercooler issues (pipe slipping, and ducting), I had signed up for a SCCA Track Night In America.

The Pros of these days:

- Cheap, you can usually get a $25 coupon code, only $125 for three sessions.

- Good drivers in the advanced groupings. (Beginner/Intermediate can be... scary)

- Relaxed vibe, people are there to test and learn, not race.

The Cons of these days:

- They're on weeknights. I have to leave work early, fight traffic, then focus on track driving. These are VERY long days.

- It kind of sucks to drive 1:45 each way for 3 track sessions.

- Beginner/Intermediate groupings can be a bit hairy. Some of these guys are over driving their cars, and skill level.

- They're on weeknights.

But, for $125, I really wanted some redemption from the last doomed track day. So here I was, gassing up my car at 5am before heading to work. Yes, it sucks holding your coffee between your legs while clutching through the gears. I think most of you know that pain though. (especially the pain if you spill said coffee)

So, just like every other track day, I was nervous. Will my car make it home? Will I make it to work tomorrow?

But most importantly... conditions were lining up. It was an unusually cool June day. The high was 60 degrees at the track, cloudy all day, with no chance of rain. This is pretty much perfect weather for a turbo charged car, and 200tw tires. I knew today had some real potential to chase that sub 2:00 lap.

After dipping out of work at lunch, I made the sojourn around the sound towards Shelton, The Ridge Motorsports Park awaited.

After the usual pre-track checks and tunes (stiffen coils, check oil, coolant, air PSI), I was ready for line up.

I met my neighbors, a couple of older gentleman with a Ford Fiesta ST, and STI. The STI looked like it'd be a great daily.

This Miata was no joke! The driver said it was his dads', and was going to be driving it for the first time tonight. He was in a different grouping than me, it would've been fun to see it out on track.

Then there was this... Marlin? After a bit of googling it looks like a kit car out of europe. (check it out here) Likely Honda powered. I never got to talk to the owner, but it was cool to see out on track! Some day I will build a kit car from scratch... hold me to that promise eh?

We had our brief drivers meeting, which was a good refresher on passing zones, flags, and why we're all here (fun). I realized just how good this evening might be.

There was only 10-12 cars in my run group. Typically at The Ridge, we run 25-30 cars per session! This was my chance to really focus on my driving and the car.

So, I got out for the first session, and immediately realized my lap timer hadn't pinged a GPS signal yet... and therefore wasn't recording my times! I told myself this was a good thing, just enjoy myself and the open track. So I spent the first few laps warming up and adjusting my boost controller a bit. After sustained WOT pulls, I was hitting fuel cut. Once I was adjusted to hold 17psi until redline, I was able to really put in some great laps! It was one of the best track sessions I had ever had. Almost no traffic, great temps, and great traction everywhere. It just clicked.

So I came into the pits ecstatic. I knew a sub 2:00 lap was capable, if I hadn't already done it. I pulled my engine cover off and was immediately pissed.

Coolant all over the driver side of the engine. A few days before I found a very small coolant leak off my tree on this side of the engine. So I fixed the leak (replaced a clamp) and mistakenly overfilled my coolant system as a "top off." My coolant overflow tank doesn't have a relief hose like OEM... so the radiator cap had relieved itself wherever it pleased.

Once I realized this wasn't the end of my night, I saw another site that might be!

On the other side, we were leaking either more coolant or worse yet, oil. You can see my hose from hell heat shielding is a little tore up. This had me rightly nervous. If the hose from hell totally blew up, that would be the end of my night if I caught it in time... or the end of my engine if I didn't.

I couldn't get crazy underneath the car in my down time though, everything was hot, and I was pretty sure it was coolant. I just had the best track session of my life, but no track times to back it up. What would you do? Go back out, or call it a night after one session and limp the car home?

Yeah, I decided to go back out.

I figured whatever was leaking wasn't THAT bad yet... and hoped it wouldn't get worse with another 20 minutes of hi-reving, hi-g beating. This time I wasn't going to miss the timing.

I strapped in, setup my timer, and turned on my gopro, and set out on track.

First warm up lap, get the tires to temp, progressively brake harder at each corner... 2:11.

Second lap with pace, but still some screw ups coming into turns and had to get by one car, 2:02, matching my personal best.

Third lap, mistake free for the most part, fast. No traffic. I came around to the front straight thinking I'd probably be a 2:00 or 2:01.

I know, my reaction is embarrassing. But after 4 years, I had FINALLY broke 2:00 in an MR2. I was pshyched, why not share it with the world? And also, why the awful angle?

While trying to get you guys the coolest content ever... I tried changing my gopro mount situation to a helmet mount setup. This worked great in practice on some touge roads last fall, but I stupidly forgot part of the mount needed to get the best angle of my actual line of sight. So, I tried to make due with what I had... but upon reviewing footage, it's basically a six inches too low to see what the hell is going on.

I told myself after clocking the 1:59, I would cool it down and enjoy the rest of the session or even bring the car back in so I didn't blow anything up beyond repair.

Well, I didn't. I was having too much fun. I clocked another 1:59 while feeling even a little relaxed. Then, I hit some traffic.

Then, I found this Shelby kit car.

We had a lot of fun over the next 4-5 laps. Cat and mouse to the fullest. We swapped places a few times. Overall a TON of fun. I found the owner after the session (see pic) and we chatted. really cool guy, car is a Factory 5 Shelby kit car, on its' third engine iteration, a newer Coyote 5.0L engine. With full slicks, and 435hp, he was fast! But he was also new to the track and still learning it. We had a great chat afterwards, he was impressed with my car, thought for sure it was a V6 or V8!

After that glorious session, I came in to see the damage, if any.

The coolant had stopped spraying! But, the leak underneath the turbo seemed to be about the same. So, I decided to call it while I was ahead. I only got two sessions, but they solidified all my efforts over the last few years. I was completely satisfied. It was time to limp her home.

As I finished packing up, the light even broke for me. I snapped a couple of pics and made my way home.

The car made it home without incident, but I had a new rattle at 2500 RPMs. Once home I got the car up on jackstands and set to figure out what was really leaking on the backside of the engine. I finally deduced it in fact wasn't the hose from hell... but of all things... THE DIPSTICK TUBE.

Wow, never seen one fail before. How did it fail? I have an idea. Back when I was running TCS intercooler pipes, I had to "tweak" the dipstick to be able to actually pull it and read it. I guess a few years of tweaking and vibrations eventually cracked the tube. When under load, the tubes sees quite a bit of oil pressure, hence the gory mess it left in my engine bay.

Ian at Rat2 had a replacement for me in a day or two, so no big deal. What about that new rattle?

Another break from a bit too many vibrations (not the positive kind though). Luckily, I know a guy with a welder (...that's me), so I was able to weld this back together, grind it smooth, and re-paint the heat shield in the span of two beers.

So, we were all mended up from two track sessions. And I have another planned here in a few days, expect another post on that real soon.

But! I did make some new stickers up. Just a simple design, which is kind of where we're heading with Apex Attack, simple!

Snag a pair of them here: http://www.apex-attack.com/store/scribble

Or buy some other stickers for $10 and I'll throw some in your order!

Oh yeah, one last piece of juicy news. I just came home from a great trip down to California, and the newest issue of Grassroots Motorsports Magazine was in my mailbox. A few pages in:

Pretty neat, eh? After having a subscription to pretty much every auto mag over the years, GRM is by far my favorite. They give real world advice, focus on budget conscious, and keep it fun. You know we like that... No Ego, All Fun.

Pick up a copy, or pay the $19 for a year long subscription, I bet you'll read them cover to cover. https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/