Friday--We had a busy weekend. Race went to the neighbors on Friday and I loaded up the Race Car on the ramp truck and took it to Infineon Raceway for SAAC-35. Shelby American Automobile Club's National Convention. Race had a great day playing at the neighbors and I had a great trip to Infineon. ONce I arrived the bad part of the weekend began. There was no room in the paddock. Every bit of asphalt was filled with race cars and haulers, that's cool, or personal passenger cars, not cool. I ended up setting up on the opposite side of the grandstands in what was posted as a fire lane, but was already being parked in . OK, try to make the best of it. I unloaded the car and got through tech without any mishaps. That was all that I had to do until my track time started on Saturday, so I got in the ramp truck and headed for home. But, the ramp truck wouldn't shift into gear, so I pulled harder and the gear shift lever moved. Wow, it had over 2 inches of play in it, something had broken. Fortunately when I forced it to move it ended up in drive so I headed for home. About two miles from home the truck just stopped running. Dead, I managed to coast off on the side of Willow Pass Road just before the bridge in the Weapons Station and called home to whine to Elizabeth. I hung up and started to call AAA when, on a whim, I turned the key again and the truck started. Fortunately the truck doesn't have a neutral safety switch and will start in any gear. I made it almost home when it died again. This time a just waited a few minutes and the truck restarted and I made it to my driveway. I shut the truck off in gear and walked away from it.
Saturday--Race and Elizabeth stayed home and went to Adopt A Street with the Mustang Club to clean up Diamond Blvd. Then they went to see cousin Lea dance at Heather Farms. After that they walked over to Walnut Creek's Family Fest where they ran into Cindy Cecchini from Race's class and her dad, Joey. Race and Cindy rode the rides together and generally had a great time. They even got stopped at the top of the Ferris Wheel,m big excitement.
While the rest of the family was occupied in Concord/Walnut Creek I headed up to Infineon for a great day of open track, beautiful Shelby's and conversation with friends. The parking situation had actually gotten worse in the paddock, though, and caused the only annoyance of the day. While I was on track for my first session, some jerk actually took the space behind my truck to park his Explorer. Not only did he not have a paddock pass, he actually parked right next to my tools. What kind of moron comes to an open track event and doesn't realize that a tuck full of tools probably has a race car that goes along with it. Grrr, oh well, I had fun regardless.
We got back together for a great Mexican meal at El Tapatio with the three of us meeting Cindy and Joey Cecchini for dinner. When we got to the house Dennis, next door, loaned us his car trailer to bring the race car back with. I aired up the tires and checked the lights, all ready to go for Sunday.
Sunday--I got up early and headed up to Infineon with Denis' trailer in tow. I was fully convinced that I was finally going to have a perfect day at the track. Elizabeth were going to come up later in the morning to hang out with me and I was looking forward to seeing our many friends in the automotive hobby. But, alas, the gremlins were still playing mechanical havoc with me. I had a trailer tire self destruct on Highway in a most spectacular manner, throwing huge chunks of tire tread into the air and shaking the trailer and truck violently. I managed to get pulled over into a Vista Point (I still don't know what the heck people would stop to look at on Highway 37. It's just tidal swamp, but I'm glad there's a Vista Point turnout.). I went ahead and just unhooked the trailer (after and whining to Elizabeth) and went on the the track so that I didn't miss the driver's meeting and lose my track time. I even managed to move my car into the main paddock and finally felt like I was really a part of the event (at least I was close to the rest rooms finally. That's becoming more important as the years pass). At home, Race went over and asked Dennis if he had a spare tire for the trailer. Yeah, he did. Elizabeth and Race loaded up the spare, found the trailer at Vista Point, called AAA (I assume they spent some time admiring the tidal swamp while they waited.) and had the tire on the trailer changed. I have a pretty cool family. They made it to the track in time for me to head out for my second track session. I was having a great time chasing a Shelby around the track when, you guessed it, the car broke. The driver's side front hub bearing failed in a raucous manner that left my ears ringing from the screaming of tortured metal and the banging as the hub bounced up and down o the spindle. The tire began locking up and releasing adding its squealing to the cacophony. I managed to slow the car down and, fortunately was just coming up on pit entrance. I made it back to my paddock spot banging squeaking and squealing all the way. Oh well, my day was done, we loaded up the truck and headed to Vista Point to get the trailer, went back to the track loaded up the car and headed for home. Fearing that another tire might fail and, with the weight of the car on it, that the trailer might be damaged, we took secondary roads all the way home for a leisurely drive through the country. We made it home OK and, after breathing a sigh of relief that the weekend was over, called it a day.
Ooh, I almost forgot. We went across the street to the Van Dyke's for a great meal of pulled pork, home-made cream of broccoli soup, salad and french bread with a vinegar and oil dip. Yummy.
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