This year, my aim is to become a national competitor - at least someone who's noticed by those who are truly competitive in my class nationally. I want to be at least near the top third of my class at the National Championship, which is a tall order for a first time competitor at Nationals in a car that definitely isn't the popular car in FSP. In pursuit of that goal, I planned to make several National Tour and ProSolo events this year to ensure I got to meet up with some of the names I've heard, but never met before. The first step in this plan was a long trip to the Dixie National Tour. It's the first event of the year and the best chance I have to see how many seconds I've got to find by September.
I wasn't looking forward to the drive. My new aluminum race seats were custom made for me, but that doesn't mean they are comfortable for such a long drive. My concerns were of course right and unfortunately, I was probably a bit optimistic when I gave my measurements to UltraShield Racing to make my seats. In retrospect, I wish that was the biggest problem I faced in this trip. I struggled to have the car ready, with a new rear differential, new race wheels that barely fit over my new downgraded front brakes, etc. It was a stressful few weeks before leaving to get the car ready, but it was ready.
I left on a Wednesday, before noon, and intended to reach Maryland in time for a late dinner. I would visit a friend of mine I've known for decades, take him and his wife out for dinner, spend the night with them, and continue on my way to Dixie. I made it to southern New Jersey. While the noise level in my car is significant, the snap, crackle, and pop of a wheel bearing failure was very noticeable. I pulled over, saw smoke eminating from my rear left axle nut, and knew I would be delayed. I got towed off the highway, and the shop that towed me said they could get me repaired first thing in the morning.
I stayed at the Howard Johnson across the street and got online. Immediately, the gears started whirring as I updated my Facebook status and posted to the NASIOC thread about the Dixie Tour and updated people on where I was. KC started pinging friends in the area and finding suggestions for shops that could help me out if the shop I was at had trouble. I was only an exit away from RalliSpec and a NASIOC user in northern New Jersey offered to use his shop to replace the bearing if I could get up to him. Beaverbrook Motors in Runnemede, NJ was true to their word. The wheel bearing spewed out grease inside the drum, so it had to be cleaned out and rebuilt with new shoes. To keep things symmetrical, the other side also got new shoes. They got me in quickly and I was back on the road by the afternoon with a new wheel bearing and new rear brakes to match my freshly downgraded front brakes. I'm pretty sure they didn't even bill me fully for all the time they spent on my car.
I started driving south again. Along the way, I was paranoid of all sounds I was hearing. My new rear diff was chattering badly, despite Amsoil's promise that the 75W90 Sever Gear would have adequate LSD oil in it. With guidance from Bill (Scooby South on NASIOC), I stopped off and got some more additive at an AutoZone and a couple hundred miles later, the diff was quiet. I made it to the northern coast of South Carolina before I needed a rest. The Super8 I stopped at was extra Super. The condition of the room left a bit to be desired, and the wireless access prompted for a username and a password, but provided no instructions on how to get one. I decided it was best I just get some sleep anyway. I had a 3-hour nap, showered, and went to breakfast as soon as it opened. I got back on the road early.
I made it to the Dixie Tour and found the Subaru tent compound setup by the NASIOC folks. I arrived in time to register and tech, but not to get any Test-n-Tune runs. My competition runs were unfortunately going to be the first autocross runs I got to make since last October's Team Challenge. I told myself that didn't matter much, since I didn't come with the intention of winning. And it was good to start having excuses I could fall back on for when I was inevitable embarrassed by those that would beat me. I unloaded my car, fixed the positive camber I now had on the corner with the new wheel bearing. I was ready... to get dinner and sleep. I met many new friends that I'd only known before online.
Saturday came, and FSP, as well as my roommate in ST, competed in the first heat of competition. It was damp out from overnight rain, but we were all just happy it wasn't raining on us. The weather reports made it clear we could be drenched at any second all weekend. We got dry runs and felt sorry for the folks who'd be racing later in the day who were sure to have less enjoyable weather. In fact, they got dry weather too and even got some heat from the sun coming out. I got an embarrassing finish in FSP, 5 seconds behind the competition I was gauging against. Jinx pulled off a great 3rd run that first day and really showed me how much faster I had to start going. My G-Tech and cone counts seemed to demonstrate I wasn't even really trying. I was definitely out of practice and probably a little over-tired. I decided I'd gauge how close I was to the competition on the second day. My first two runs with multiple cones on Saturday were followed by a safe, but slow run, just to get a clean run on the books. I regret that "safe run" now as I really just needed to go faster and I wasn't exactly aiming for a trophy anyway.
I'm starting to recognize some of the National staff at events, but I wouldn't say I know any of them. I did run into Chris Travis though, trying his hands at a CM car this year. He's the only familiar face I ran into at the whole event, which was welcome since I hadn't expected to run into anyone I'd already known. The first thing he asked me was, "Why'd you come so far just to get beat by folks who can beat you at local events?" I smiled. He meant no ill by it, and it was actually a lot funnier than my retelling makes it seem. I explained what my goals were and that I was going to have to wait for Sunday to get the results I was looking for. He and others in the area of the scales were playing standing on the scales themselves to compete for who was a less appropriate driver. I called them lightweights, hopped on a scale, and they could barely stifle their laughing. As I went on my way, Chris suggested I should be driving a CP car. Chris is a great guy to be able to say the things he says and still put a smile on my face. ;-)
On Sunday, I did better. The weather was a repeat of Saturday's conditions, with damp earlier runs, but the day stayed dry and even got hot as the sun came out for the last heats. I coned my first two runs, again, but on my third, I didn't aim for a safe run. I went faster and got a clean run only 3 seconds behind the front of my class. I proved to myself at least, that once I get a real alignment, get the stiffer rear springs I was planning on, get my brakes properly adjusted, get used to my new gearing and shift points, and just plain learn how to turn again, I had a chance at catching up to the front of the class. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season to see just how well I can follow through on that.
I left for home on Sunday after my runs were complete and my car was packed again. I'm still amazed at how much gear I had with me in the SoloRu wagon. 4 Hoosiers, a bottle of windshield washer fluid, 5 gallon gas tank, a water pump (for tires), my camera, floor jack, suitcase, jack stands, toolbox, autocross bin full of everything else I could need, a chair, a grill, a cooler, my laptop bag, and a few small propane tanks. I was even using all the space inside of the wheels for more stuff, but I fit it all and still had good rear view visibility. I called my friend in Maryland and told him I expected I'd be passing his way again on Monday night and I'd make up for cancelling dinner on my way down.
After a couple hours, I got a new noise from the rear end of my car. It's hard to distinguish between my paranoia and real sounds, but this was definitely a scraping/squealing sound coming from my right rear corner, opposite my new wheel bearing. I pulled off the highway, into a Chinese food restaurant parking lot, and started pulling parts off to see what was wrong. It sounded like a brake problem, so I pulled off the drum. In the process of loosening the drum, I broke my Leatherman that I was using to move the adjustor nut and the piece that broke off fell into the drum through the adjustment hole. Ooops. Some creative use of a mallet and a set of channel locks helped me get the drum off despite being unable to loosen it any further. As I did that, I wasn't surprised to find the piece of my Leatherman falling out, but I didn't expect to see a piece of my ABS tone wheel fall out. A tremendous fluke, but the actual tone wheel snapped in two spots, enough to release a piece of it and leave it chattering around in the drum. I was sure that was the noise I heard, and so I re-assembled the drum, went for a quick drive, and confirmed it. Phew. I got some Chinese food and got back on the road for a few hours before needing a rest. I was nearly into South Carolina, so I knew I was far enough that I could still meet up with my friends for dinner if I got on the road early.
I had some breakfast, got on my way, and went about 2 hours before I heard a new noise. There was a scraping sound from the left rear corner, with my fresh new wheel bearing - I was sure something was wrong with the new bearing. Part of the rotating assembly was screwed up and rain was starting to fall. I drove to a nearby Hyundai dealership and asked for some help. They got the car on the lift, disassembled the drum, inspected things, and confirmed my suspicion - that another wheel bearing was likely failing. They said they couldn't get the parts and wouldn't be able to replace it even if they had the parts, but sent me across town to a Subaru dealership that said they could help me out. The Hyundai dealership didn't charge me for the 2 hours they spent helping diagnose my car and their generousity is much appreciated.
I started on my way to the Subaru dealership, but the noise was much worse now. The sound was no longer a dull rumbling, but a loud scraping even at low speeds. I was worried I wouldn't get to the Subaru dealership 20 minutes away if the noise was getting worse this quickly, and I called for a tow truck. They took me to the Subaru dealership. I left the keys with them, got some lunch, and came back to find them working on the car. They didn't hear a noise at first - not sure how they missed a continuous scraping noise so loud that I didn't feel safe driving the car, but I drove them around their parking lot and they agreed that it was a bad sound and got back to work. I got online again on my phone and updated the thread on NASIOC. Joe Oliveira (TireWarmer on NASIOC) offered some very valuable help - he was in the area and said I could crash with him if I ended up stranded another night. KC contacted him and made sure he saw the thread when he realized how close I was to him.
The shop techs found the new-ish scraping noise pretty quickly and determined the brake drum was warped from being bent, possibly by whatever the Hyundai dealership did to inspect them. They hammered out the shape a bit to get things back to normal and decided that there was in fact another noise under it, the noise I originally pulled off the highway for. They had a lot of trouble locating it, but eventually got the axle CV to bind up, opened it up, and found it in pretty bad shape inside. They told me they had 3 axles and asked me if they should go ahead and replace it. Then, they realized they had looked up the wrong part number and wouldn't have a replacement until the next day. We tried everything, from finding aftermarket parts nearby, from using parts of the front axles to rebuild the CV on the rear axle, etc. Unfortunately, I had to wait. I called up Joe and left him voicemail. I called up my friends in Maryland and cancelled again. Argh. I accepted the dealership's loaner car and went out to dinner while I awaited a call back from Joe. I drove a 2009 Outback with 2600 miles and I swear the rear end was making noises the whole time I drove the car.
I got dinner at Ruby Tuesday and the bartender who waited on me was very friendly. Her smile and polite conversation was very comforting. I think she could tell I was a little down on my luck and her efforts to cheer me up were very appreciated. Joe and his family put me up for the night and I can't thank them enough. I got on my way the next day by noon and actually called my friend as I approached Maryland. I was finally going to meet him for dinner and I made it this time. It was late and he'd already eaten, but we got to talk for a bit and I had some dinner. Then, I continued on my way. I was going to get home before I slept again - I was sure of it.
I heard another noise in CT. This time, I heard the equivalent of a pinball spinning around in my right rear brake drum. I was sure that another piece of the tone wheel must have come off, or something. I pulled off the highway, got the drum disassembled, and was quite disappointed to see that this was not in fact the problem after all. The drum looked fine. I got back on the road one exit and the sound was definitely still there. Then, it went away and only a grinding/grumbling sound was left. With a new wheel bearing and axle on my left rear, I clearly was now having a symmetrical problem on the right side. I was 18 miles from my mother's house, it was 5am, and I was tired. I was only 2 hours from home, but I got a tow to my mother's place and abandoned the car in her garage. She took a personal day and drove me home. I showered, changed, and went to work, 1.5 days later than intended. I asked for some help from NER for a trailer to bring my car up to Massachusetts and was flooded with offers. KC was first to call me back and will help me get the car this weekend.
All told, I had about $2000 of unexpected expenses on this trip. I had a great time at the event, but this was the worst road trip ever for me. I can't find any connection between all the failures, including any possible link they had to me installing a new rear end before leaving for the Dixie Tour. As far as I can tell so far, they are just flukes of failuire that all lined up according to Murphy's Law. The season is off to a rocky start, but it's going to be more interesting to see how it finishes I hope.
Many, many thanks to KC, Joe, Bill, the shops that helped me out, the bartender at Ruby Tuesday, my mother, my very patient and understanding friend in Maryland, and my even more understanding wife! I couldn't have completed this trip without you all to help me and I won't forget it.
Additional Notes:
- The technician at Beaverbrook Motors who worked on my car was a very small person. He couldn't see over the dash and had to pad the back of my seat so he could reach the pedals. It was a very funny image that I tried not to focus on when he took the car out onto public roads for testing the rear brake adjustments.
- As I turned into the South Georgia Motorsports Park and finally got to the Dixie Tour, my phone/stereo setup was playing Charlie Daniels - The Devil Went Down to Georgia.
- I got a Dixie Tour shirt. They had my size, which was lucky, but the wording on the shirt was, "The luck of the Irish can't help you at the Dixie Tour." It was right.
- When the Subaru dealership in South Carolina opened up the axle boot on the bad CV, they were amazed at how little grease was in there. No one knows where it went.
- I've decided some nice long ARP lug studs are in my future so that I don't need to do longer drives with permament 10mm spacers on the wheel hubs. I blame the spacers at least in part for the wheel bearing failure(s). Spacers will only be used now when I fit the race wheels.
- I lost a hubcap in Maryland. It was on the wheel that made the last sound in CT. I think it was an omen of impending doom on that corner, and a hint that I should get really long studs that will preclude me ever having hubcaps again, as in the last note.
