JMortensen Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 (edited) First autox in 10 years today, in a 10th Anniversary Miata that I bought because the Z build was taking too long. Brand new set of Toyo R1Rs on it, alignment, other than that it is BONE STOCK. Weather was supposed to be rain Sat, good Sunday, we got the reverse, but I was already signed up so I was going regardless. Drove a long way to the event at Packwood, WA. I see now why they autox there. HUGE area to work with. The course was pretty fast, it was raining, and average times were in the mid 60s. I walked the course twice and worked on the course, but it was so long that I had a vague idea of what was happening on the other end but couldn't remember any specific. Being so rusty I asked for a ride along and got a nice guy named Dieter. Dieter helped me find the line and I pulled a 74 second first run. Not fast, but not the slowest. The plan was for him to ride with me again, and then to set me loose on my own. Second run was a 69. Much better, but the seat back actually disconnected from the bottom on one side. Luckily this is a Miata so it could only move back about 1/2". Fix that, get staged again, jump out and adjust tire pressures, driving to the start line and I hear a weird noise. Jump out and my LR tire is flat. Completely flat, and I had just moved maybe 200 feet from where I did the tire pressures. Pull back around and Dieter offers his air tank. Put air in and you can hear it rushing right back out, FAST. Uh oh. I took my spare out and left it at home, and just brought a can of fix-a-flat. We're running out of time to run the cars, so Dieter asked if I would like to drive his Cobalt SS. SURE! So I drove his car (very different than a Miata, FWD, turbo lag, torque steer, much higher center of gravity, much bigger car) and did a 69 and a 67. Last time around on the second to last turn I went for the brake and hit the clutch and the brake at the same time. At the last turn I moved my foot further left thinking I had hit the gas and brake, and got just clutch. Missed the turn completely, sent a course worker running, but didn't damage anything. I think I probably could have pulled a similar time in the Miata, but just never got the chance. Grabbed my fix-a-flat and put it in the tire and the hole was so big it just ran right back out and was flat in about 2 minutes. Told others what was going on, had a guy with a plug kit offer assistance. A couple more guys swarmed on my car, and pretty soon I'm standing there holding a flashlight while 3 guys are pulling the tire off. That didn't suck. They pull it off and the tire has a gash right in the middle of the tread. It looked like someone slashed the tire with a knife almost perpendicular to the tread. We tried a plug. No luck. Tried another, no luck. 3 plugs got it to a slow leak. Turns out the gash was about 1" long! The guys put the tire back on, torqued my lug nuts and sent me on my way. I went to the gas station to fill up and it was full serve only (weird). I figured I'd play it safe and bought another can of fix-a-flat and. The gas station attendant said he could hear my tire leaking, so I put it in right away, but now it had the 3 plugs in there and it actually worked instead of just pouring out on the floor. I was quite thankful for my successful 2 1/2 hour drive home. It would have sucked to have to call AAA and wait out in the middle of nowhere for a tow to next to nowhere and a motel room to get the car fixed. Saw one of the guys from the autox on the road home, turns out he lives relatively close to me, so he stuck with me just to be sure I didn't have troubles. Luckily these tires had about 300 miles and 2 autox runs on them, so I think if I replace the one tire it's not going to be a big deal. Kind of a bummer, but the help from the folks at the race was much appreciated. I owe some people some beers. Autoxers is good peeps. Edited May 21, 2012 by JMortensen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluDestiny Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 That sucks. But yeah my first AutoX experiences this year were definitely and that helped me keep coming out. The instructors are always friendly and love talking about how to get you faster. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Jon, racers are an amazing group and it always does my heart good to help someone else because I believe in karma so what goes around comes around. I was at Daytona a few weeks ago running a PDX with the local SCCA and one of the students boiled his brake fluid. His instructor was a friend of mine and with my jack, tools and brake fluid we had him going again. He tried to pay me for the brake fluid and all I told him was to pay it forward some day. So next time someone needs help now it's your obligation to be there. I know you know this already though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logr Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I've raced with and known Dieter for 4 years now. He is like most of the autox community, willing to do all they can to help in every way possible. Glad everything worked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Pay it forward... Glad you got home and its strange how a big gash got in the tire. I had someone unload their street registered WRX of their trailer, load my broken car on, and then haul my car to my house while I followed in their WRX. Did the reverse at my house, offered to buy gas, he said no, so I hid $50 in his glove box. A year later he told me at an event that he lost his wallet at work and was on fumes driving home. He opened his glove box to search for change and found the $50 hidden under a pile of papers. It took him a few days to figure it out but he said he was very, very grateful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 21, 2012 Author Share Posted May 21, 2012 Pay it forward... Glad you got home and its strange how a big gash got in the tire. I had someone unload their street registered WRX of their trailer, load my broken car on, and then haul my car to my house while I followed in their WRX. Did the reverse at my house, offered to buy gas, he said no, so I hid $50 in his glove box. A year later he told me at an event that he lost his wallet at work and was on fumes driving home. He opened his glove box to search for change and found the $50 hidden under a pile of papers. It took him a few days to figure it out but he said he was very, very grateful. That's a good story John. Apparently Packwood is an old lumber mill, and there are lots of 4 inch long spikes hanging around and it's not too uncommon for someone to pick one up. Nobody knows WTF happened to my tire, I suppose it could have been a spike that just went in at the perfectly wrong angle, but it was right where cars had driven through several hundred times already that day. It was a pretty freakish thing. Still managed to have a great time though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) Good to hear you were able to get back home. Definitely not fun to be stuck out in the middle of nowhere. 69 second runs sound great! The longest runs we see down in Oregon is like 50 seconds on some very tight, low speed, courses. I really need to get up to Packwood... Edited May 22, 2012 by h4nsm0l3m4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
logr Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 The Oregon Region puts on some great events there. There are normally less racers and more runs at the Oregon region than the Washington region events. http://www.oregonscca.com/content/view/1286/288/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted May 23, 2012 Author Share Posted May 23, 2012 Where I used to run in CA it was 3 runs, if you were lucky you got 4. This time was 5, so I was already feeling pretty good about the number of runs I got in. What are the OR guys typically doing? Would be cool to get 6 or 7 runs at an autox, but that kinda sounds unlikely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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