These Rays wheels are cursed.
At long last, we’ve reached the final installment of the Willow Springs trilogy. To be honest, part of the day was kind of a sore subject for me and I was reluctant to talk about it, hence the delay. Before I even got to the track, I had a bolt that holds my brake bracket back out on me, on the freeway, at 80 miles per hour. Actually I didn’t even know that part of my very nice, brand new, shiny, expensive, 6-piston brake caliper was partly dragging on the inside barrel of my wheel, until it was already too late.
FML. I cried inside, a little.
I saw a shiny piece of metal go flying out on the freeway too but didn’t connect the dots. I thought I’d just run over something and my tire might’ve kicked it out into the air. Little did I know, sad face. Honestly, I thought I was going driving home that day in the EVO to pick up the spare bolt in my living room, just to get the STi home. Vince was nice enough to get my car in the air for me, pull off the wheel, and evaluate the damage. Out of the lot of us, I’d vote Vince as best mechanic; he’s so clever and he’s quick at wrenching.
Ferdie's war chest.
As it turns out, there was hope, a ray of light from above! I’d thought the bolts in the caliper were the ones I’d lost, but we’d discovered I was only missing one bolt that goes on the bottom of the bracket. Here’s where it gets good; the bolt I need is actually kind of common. I didn’t know Ferdie carries a little pot of Subaru gold with him to the track; all these little miscellaneous spare bolts, nuts, washers, screws, you name it. Random crap, and I do mean crap.
Our little camp.
We found the bolt I needed, somehow. There was only one from what I could tell; that’s just how lucky/unlucky I was that day. Lucky in the sense that we’re going to fix this sucker, unlucky in the sense that we have to fix it to begin with. That’s racing for you! I actually ended up pulling off the other 3 wheels to check each bracket, now that I had very good reason to be suspicious. What the hell, all the other 3 corners were fine! FML.
Another angle of our base.
Well, we got my car up and running and it was a great day after that, for me anyway. Ferdie’s car had an issue with his control arm the day before so he was out for the count. Jon lifted his headgasket and had coolant pushing out of the overflow tank like it was Christmas. Looks like he’s going to have to pull the heads, get a new headgasket, ARP head studs, deck the heads, you know the drill. He’s smarter than I though; his solution will not involve a new engine.
Vince's car sitting at turn 2.
That’s not all! Ferdie lent his GPS data acquisition device to a fellow Subaru road racer, Cassie. This is maybe the second or third time we’ve seen her at a Speedtrial event, driving Gushi’s GC Impreza with a WRX swap. It’s a full on rally car, weighing in at only 2500 pounds packing over 300 to the wheels. Ferdie got a ride with her and says she has insane car control, demonstrated by drifting every corner. I’m very interested to get a ride with her if I see her again. Drifting is not really something any of us do, so I’d love to see that, not to mention get a ride in a 2500 pound car.
With our luck and all, the magnet that holds the GPS whatever you call it flew off in turn 2. After the event, Ferdie, Vince and I hopped into Vince’s car and walked turn 1 and 2 looking for the device. It was nowhere to be found, but we ended up walking turn 3, 5, 8 and 9. Perhaps not really walking, more like getting out of the car, looking at the road surface and surrounding area, then driving off. It was a good way to end a day that started horribly, I think.
