,
Meanwhile, I was worried about the car and also that my season was over before it began. Missing this event in touring 2 would mean that I would not be able to complete six events. I did not need to worry long, as I had several competitors in my class (and outside of my class) offer me their car. What great sportsmanship. I accepted Ricardo’s offer and completed one run in his borrowed Subaru RS to place second in Touring 2. Katie and
 | |
| Thanks to Ricardo and his Subaru RS, I was able to complete the required 6 events to qualify for a class championship. |
I then spent the rest of the day assisting others and enjoying the view. Jon Weir, with ENMO Racing (Jon and his partner Will Chan placed 8th in One Lap of America in 2010. The car is mentioned by Wes Dumalski, MotoIQ contributer, HERE, helped us source a new rad. The success that Jon and Will had in Redline’s Time Attack events shows you the high caliber of competition here in our CASC-OR SoloSprint/Time Attack Series. With their help, we thought we were back in business and ready for the next event. We continued, however, to have overheating issues so the rad shrouding was removed and that seemed to alleviate the situation, but we still had to bring the car in for cooling after a fifteen minute stint on the track. While that may sound normal for your street car, our NX has a history of running for three hours straight so there was still something drastically wrong. There was indication that the water was slowly leaking from our newly sourced radiator. When we got to event 5 at the DDC the next day, where the driving burst is less than ten minutes, we were doing everything possible to cool the car. As we are both familiar with the track we limited our practice sessions and kept a careful eye on the gauges. I finished in second place and 0.44 seconds off of the class winner. Katie once again beat our class and, in doing so, set a class record for the track configuration being run with her time of 66.341 seconds. Time for another radiator, but we now had a six week break before our next CASC-OR race and three weeks before an ATTS (Attack Time Trial Series) Touge event.
 |
| Will Chan’s twin-charged Civic has broken track records in Redline Time Attack and CASC-OR events. Here it is back on the track after an unfortunate incident at Chicago’s Redline event. |
Once the new rad was in we pressure tested the system and this indicated that all was well and we looked forward to an uneventful weekend. I got the benefit of the lower class in the ATTS event, and that was unfortunate for Katie. This ATTS event was a Touge, placing two cars on the track with a staggered start and running ¾’s of the track distance. Winner was best out of three runs – based upon the leader increasing the gap or the follower closing or maintaining the gap. Katie drew a 300+ whp Subaru STi and a very competent driver. As good as she is, there was not a chance that the approximately 100 whp GA16 engine could be competitive against an STi with a competent driver. This was also the first time that Katie had ever attempted a race from a standing start. Good experience, but put out right away. Standing starts are something that I have practiced for years and, with cars of similar capability combined with my familiarity of the track, I moved my way through the ranks. It wasn’t until I drew a familiar blue Honda Prelude that I knew I was in trouble. Lloyd was good and the car had run much faster times on this same track. The only way we got to three runs was because he was off on his second run, but he clearly out-drove and overpowered us. My day was over and the Prelude ended the day second in class.
 |
| Lloyd eventually finished second and, as you can see he’s on my bumper, so he had no problem bumping me from a podium finish. |
Overheating had also reared its head again. I pulled the thermostat and cored it, thinking this might be the cause. You and I are both thinking the same thing – the head gasket – but oil looked good, plugs looked good, there just was not a sign to say the head gasket … yet! Unfortunately, as our weekend progressed and our mechanical failures continued, the view became less than enjoyable as frustration began to set in. The following day was a local club’s lapping day and I volunteered to coach for them in exchange for some lapping for Katie. I had my own lapping day following (three days at the track, what an amazing long weekend!) so we were enjoying camping out and campfires. Actually, other people enjoyed them, the trackside mechanics were working into the dark on the NX1600! It was pulling apart the cooling system and putting it back together to find out trackside what was going wrong. The third day started with optimism as I felt that I had done everything possible. Katie went out onto the track with a smile but was was back in disgust after five laps, the car visibly steaming. This time the problem was a clear as could be. The overflow tank was literally bubbling, the oil discolored slightly, and our car was done. No question now. The head gasket was blown.
 |
| I’m over 50 so I gave up tenting at the track a few years ago. However, mechanical issues mean that I don’t get to enjoy the campfire. |
