NNJR Watkins Glen II August 14-16, 1998

Steve's Second Track Event

Well, after my first event in May I was hooked. I was supposed to have all kinds of track events lined up for the summer. But between car trouble and a work commitment that suddenly saw me working every Saturday in June and July, things didn't quite work out...

So my second event wasn't until August, when PCA's Northern New Jersey Region Returned to Watkin's Glen for another three day Driver's Ed event. In some respects this would be my first "real" event, since Watkins 1 had been forecast for heavy rain and overlapped the Mothers' Day holiday.

Once again my overwhelming organizational skills and careful preparation triumphed. I left Central Massachusetts before midnight, but it's a longer trip than from Manhattan. At least this time I knew exactly how I was going to get from point A to point B, but this didn't help me when I got to my room at the bed and breakfast and realized I had all of 15 minutes before I had to get ready to head to the track. To quote Dr. Smith from Lost In Space: "Oh the pain, the pain."

Day One

So I thought I was doing pretty well this time as I caught a 914 on it's way to the track at 6:30. Figuring I'd get there at 6:45, I was looking forward to getting a garage spot and some shade against the hot summer sun. Had I only known, I never would have stopped at the B&B. When we got within sight of the front gate, we were still a quarter mile down the road from the entrance. There was a huge line of cars and tow vehicles waiting to get through sign-in. This was my first clue that this would be a very different outing compared to May...

I didn't quite get the exposure right, but this was sunrise over the rear lot of the Paddock area.

After literally signing away my life (or their liability, at least) I headed up towards the Paddock. I had been looking forward to this for weeks, especially since it came close on the heels of my thirtieth birthday - what a present, three days at a great race track! No matter that I had missed two track days at the beginning of the week while my clutch and control arm were replaced. This was it, at long last.

Well, not only was the garage full, so were all the clear patches of the lot immediately surrounding the garage. I had to head into a separate section of the compound, where a road leads past the Garage to the footbridge across the front straight (you can get an idea from this map), and even that had a lot of people, cars, and trailers in it. Attendance at this event was a lot higher than I had thought.

I heaved everything out of the car and zipped through tech inspection, then went back and tried to organize my gear before we were called to the drivers meeting. I spent a lot of time waiting, because the PA system doesn't extend outside the garage -- I found out the meeting had happened when I noticed folks had their run group and instructor assignments. So I started looking for someone who could give me my card, which took a while...

Eventually I discovered my instructor was to be Bill Gilbert. Bill's a great guy, and I enjoyed having him in the car with me. The only downside was that Bill likes to still have a voice after several days of instructing, so rather than shout he has this motorcycle intercom system were you can work this little speaker/microphone boom into your helmet. This was fine, except the wiring had worn and at the worst times possible my helmet would be filled with a raucous buzzing noise instead of Bill's calm and helpful instruction. Ah, technology...

But Bill is a very good instructor. I was comfortable with the track, so the first thing we worked on was my consistency. Bill showed me a slightly different line through many of the turns, and we were working out the simple vocabulary issues that can crop up when two people describe the same thing. But when we got to work, the goal was to have me hit the braking, apexes, and turn-in points the same way each time through. We made decent progress on this throughout the day.

Staging the Red/Black run group. The end of the group was somewhere around the other side of the garage.

Day Two

The next morning things went a little more smoothly, even though I overslept a bit what with catching up on the previous night's sleep. I made it to part of the drivers meeting, but I had missed tech inspection. I was prepared to miss a run as a result since I had blown it, but Bill came by while I was waiting for an inspector to show and got me inspected before that had to happen.

This time out the focus was on my braking I wasn't using anything near the full braking power available to me, and as a result I was frequently still braking when I went to turn in. This can be done as an advanced technique, but not the way I was doing it. So Bill had me really using the brakes hard earlier in the braking zone, and this would give me plenty of time to set up for the turn. It worked pretty well as I got used to it, and I wound up doing a better job getting through the off-camber left at Turn 9 as a result.

Bill was also paying attention to how I was taking the toe of the Boot (Turn 7). He drives a 944S2 coupe, so while he has a bit more power available than I do, he fully appreciates where you have to make the most of your car's abilities on this track. The more speed I could carry into this turn, the faster I'd come out of it and up hill into the sole of the boot. We definitely pushed my limits on this turn, and I think on one or two occasions we were getting close to the car's limits as it was set up at the time. I didn't "soil my linens" as the saying goes, but I had some moments where I definitely had to fight the street-induced urge to lift off the throttle. Thank God I kept my wits about me and didn't do that.

I was also making progress with other driving habits, like watching the mirrors, sweeping the guages, and following my own line despite what was happening with the car in front of me. Bill also kept a close eye on how smooth I was when moving the car through turns. All good stuff, and it all felt good. Too bad it didn't last longer.

Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls

Well, during one of the afternoon sessions I had a very large and heavy piece of misfortune land squarely on my back. I thought I was doing fairly well, and I'd been keeping an eye on my guages when I had the leisure to do so. I'd been hitting the rev limiter when I was stuck in traffic and unable to shift up out of third gear in some spots, and I wanted to make sure I avoided that. Because of this, I knew I had dropped down to around 80MPH as I entered the braking zone for Turn 6, the turn just before the Laces of the Boot.

As we made that turn, I heard what sounded like a chainsaw being used close to the track. I tried not to pay attention to it lest I botch the turn, but as I was apexing the sound was getting deeper and louder. If it was Opportunity knocking, It wanted to get in real bad. As I was about to ask Bill what that noise was, I noticed smoke coming out of the front wheel wells of the car... What came out of my mouth instead was "Where's the line, what am I doing?"

The car stayed balanced and stable, and I brought it over to the right side of the track out of the turn. The brakes were still working, I discovered. Smoke was now pouring out of the front of the car, and even coming into the cabin through the ventilation ducts. Fortunately I did not hear the squealing sound of somebody loosing traction on whatever I had just deposited on the track.

Here's what can happen when a 944 looses a #2 rod bearing. If you aren't sure where the problem is, there's an arrow on this version.

Yup, I had added a new inspection port to the crank case. Well, my mechanic tells me that's actually part of the oil pan, but I'll find out for myself this weekend - I intend to remove that pan and use it as a wall decoration somewhere in the house. For the amount of money the repair is costing me, I want visible, tangible results aside from a functioning car. Maybe the old engine block can become a coffee table base...

Needless to say I spent the rest of the day wandering around in a daze. I laughed a lot about it. I mean, this was a really nasty piece of work, and I was genuinely happy that nobody had been hurt. The best I can figure, all the hard cornering I had been doing as I got faster through the turns was causing the oil pickup to starve. This is something that got addressed with more oil pan baffles in later designs, but not in mine. And if there was a marginal bearing to start with, a lack of oil wasn't going to help any. That may seem like an odd thought, but I hadn't had the car for four full months yet and we'd never really worked on the bottom end.

Rescued!

Later in the afternoon I was asking around for advice on how I was going to, for instance, get home. Bill Gilbert suggested I make an announcement and ask if anyone was heading my way, and if I could catch a ride on their trailer. This seemed like a lot to ask, but Bill and others assured me it was done from time to time. Besides, worst thing that could happen is no one offers and you have to hire Bubba and ride with him for a day.

Much to my amazement, someone answered my announcement on the garage PA almost immediately! I had thought I'd be making that announcement all the next day, but within five minutes Ken Coburn and his wife Karen were offering to drive their 911 and trailer my car on their way back to New Hampshire. I couldn't believe it. It was as much of a shock as having the motor blow in the first place. This was incredible kindness, and they were just matter of fact about it.

This made it much easier for me to enjoy the rest of the night. Robert Kamen had already offered to give me a ride to the dinner that night, and then into town afterwards. Dinner was being prepared by the course marshall, Bob, and hosted by the irrepressible Paul Pellegrin, all around guy what's in charge at the Glen when it comes to the track, flaggers, et cetera.

This was a great idea and a wonderful time. The food was great, the beer was cold, and I had a great time talking to different members of the track crew. I got to talk to a couple of the flaggers who'd seen me going up in smoke after the Bus Stop, to different members of the fire rescue team, and I don't know who all else. A great bunch of people, and everybody seemed to have a good time. At least, until the beer ran out ;-)

Day Three

Well, the third day looked like it was going to be nice and slow for me. I was still in shock that my car had spilled its entrails all over the track. I was beginning to wonder when I would have the money to put the car back together, since I was also in the process of buying a house and cash was going to be scarce. And it was a nice, hot, sunny day, perfect track weather.

I wound up working staging or pit out most of the day, and frequently running from one to the other to cover when someone didn't show up for their work assignment. Thank Heavens for Barbara and Chuck Dougherty. I guess Barbara had noticed that I was slowly getting redder and redder standing out in the sun all day, and finally got me to put some sun block on. Before the morning was over I'd also taken her up on the offer of a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes and off my head. Many thanks to them for their kindness, and for the hat.

Eventually all the runs were over, everyone was packed up, and it was time to go. With many thanks to new friends and well wishers, I got into the truck beside Ken and we started off. We stopped for dinner in Elmira (I think), and eventually settled in for the long haul home. With only a couple of stops, we reached Northborough by about 2AM and offloaded my car. I felt awful thinking that they still had another two hours to drive before they got home, but they insisted they were up to it.

I can't begin to thank Ken and Karen enough, as well as Robert, Barbara, Chuck, and everyone else who gave me a pat on the back after the bottom blew out of my weekend. In one respect it was awful, in that such grievous damage had occurred to my car. But on the other hand, it was wonderful. I got to see the kind of support and fellowship that really makes the PCA a strong and worthwhile organization. There is no doubt I'll be at future events, and no doubt I'll bring this car to another DE as soon as I can.

And I look forward to seeing you there.