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A long-anticipated trip "home" to Carolina Motorsports Park yields a hard-earned top ten finish for SPEEDtv.com Editor in Chief.
Joe Tripp  |  Posted July 17, 2008   Charlotte, North Carolina
Pulling into the pits after a successful run is always a satisfying experience, trophy or no trophy. (Photo: SPEEDtv.com)
Suited up for battle and baking like a potato in the hot Carolina sun. (Photo: SPEEDtv.com)

Editor’s Note: The following feature is the continuation of a series following the exploits of a middle aged road racing rookie (yours truly). The saga picks up 6 weeks later, with the author, provisional license in hand, heading to his first enduro with a pro co-driver.

I had been anticipating this past weekend at Carolina Motorsports Park for nearly two months. I left the previous event at Roebling Road in May with a provisional racing license, a huge amount of enthusiasm for stepping up the program, and healthy dose of respect for the competition. The car had worked fairly well, but as I drove home the "to-do" list grew lengthy... (more about that event here...)

The to-do list was still long as I rolled into the CMP paddock early Friday morning. I'd managed to install and adjust the rear sway bar, wire up my TraqMate data logger, and add some more stickers. Not an impressive list of accomplishments given the time I had. I figured it would sort itself out between practice sessions. A long pair of white, hairy legs sticking straight up and out of the driver's side of another E30 BMW indicated that someone else had saved a few to-do's for the track as well.

I rushed out to get in a practice session before Spec E30 fast guy and Setup Season 2 finalist Mike "The Machine" Skeen, arrived to help get things ready. I started the session swimming all over the track, but gradually dialed into the line and a reasonable rhythm...just in time for the clutch pedal to POP and stick to the firewall! The clutch wasn't slipping and I could accelerate, so I suspected a broken linkage as I limped back to the paddock.

Before long, my own hairy white legs were sticking up and out of the driver's side of my car as I struggled to see what the heck had caused the clutch pedal failure. I'm not exactly a yoga guru when it comes to flexibility, and my "lack of fitness" combined with full NASCAR-style door bars made getting up under the dash (not to mention getting back OUT), a real struggle. Track co-manager and racing mentor Jochen Tartak stopped by to chat, but decided against trying to speak to my less than attractive hind end poking out from under the dash. As it turned out two bolts had simply backed themselves out of the clutch master cylinder mounting bracket. It took some seriously ugly twists and turns with my face smashed up against the throttle pedal, to get both hands and a wrench into position so I could tighten them back up; but after doing so I had a clutch again!

Then it was time to get ready for the Enduro. Unfortunately, my co-driver was nowhere to be found. My strategy had been to milk as much setup and driving advice as possible out of him, as well as gather information on how well my car performed with a "real" driver at the helm. The Skeen is a man of few words so this was going to be no small feat, I figured it would take all day to break him down.

I didn't get all day. Like any self-respecting "pro" driver, Mike showed up with minutes to spare. We hustled to install his tires and wheels (his share of admission), fooled with the radio, and filled up with gas. The entirety of our discussion of strategy went something like this... "I'll start, drive until we're out of gas or I pass out, whichever comes first, then hand the car off to you, at which time you will regain all the positions I lost and win the race for us." Mike, man of few words, said "sounds like a plan."
The author delicately persuades a seized bearing from the drive shaft. (Photo: SPEEDtv.com)

My stint went relatively well. I wasn't setting any lap records, but more or less turning in respectable lap times and staying comfortably on the lead lap for our class. As the leaders started pitting around the 40 minute mark (on a two or more stop strategy), our position in class climbed. At 1:20 into the race, I was personally overheating and starting to make mistakes. I stretched it out for another 20 minutes, but by then the car was beginning to starve for fuel so I relented and pitted.

Mike took over and started picking off the competition. His times were several seconds better than my best time. I expected that, but it was still a humbling experience. I'm sure he was taking it easy too. Nevertheless, we were closing in on the class lead.

Then things began to unravel.

Mike pulled into the pits stating that the oil light was coming on. "Damn, I thought I unplugged that infernal thing" I thought. I sent him back out while my son ran to grab a quart of Mobile 1. We dumped in a half quart a few laps later and sent Mike back out. All too soon, he came back in. This time with a vibration and the oil light.

We concluded that it was best to call it a day. I didn't want to blow the motor up or tear up the driveline. I had about 16 hours to figure out what was wrong and get the car ready for Saturday's race.

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