1999 SCCA Solo 2 (autocross) Round 9
Rookie Stock 1 Solo 2 Championship Points for 1999
My first real out-of-town autocross, this round held at McClellan Air Base outside of Sacramento. A much lower turnout due to the travel time for most people, I suspect.
The surface at McClellan is cement runway. As each car squealed around a corner, I could really see the tire rubber scrubbing off the tires in a cloud of rubber dust. And on the tarmac just outside the clean path of each corner, were the little rubber bits of tire remnant.
The only Rookie Stock 1 competitors were the father and son team of Stuart and Damien Teitelbaum in their C-Stock Toyota MR-2. More often than not, they have beat me in the previous rounds, and are ahead of me in points in the competition, with Damien in the lead.
My first run was 69.628 to take the lead by nearly 2 seconds. My second run improved to 68.955, over 2 seconds in the lead.
On my third run I screwed up a bit at the beginning. After the first little jog from the starting line, there was a slalom. I stayed in first gear a little too long and hit the rev limiter, losing a little time.
The finish line was in the middle of a tight right hand corner. On my third run I carried a little too much speed into it and I couldn't fight the need to slow down and brake. And we know what this means: spin. So I spun gloriously through the finish line, wheels squealing like pigs, tire rubber clouds all around. Amazingly, I stayed right in the middle of the course, not touching any cones. I heard whooping and applause, and proceeded back to the paddock with a 69.653, just a touch slower than my previous times.
I presume it was the spin, not the rev limiter (done that at Thunderhill already), but in the paddock I noticed the Check Engine light was on. This kinda freaked me out until I double-checked the manual which says it's OK to drive to the dealer rather than get towed. And since I know a loose gas cap gasket can cause it, I figured it was probably just a fuel system flag triggered by the spin.
However, I was spooked enough that I didn't really "go for it" on my fourth run, and worse yet, I didn't take the opportunity of any fun runs afterwards, which I'd never had the chance to do before.
Anyway, although I finished with the best raw time of 68.955, about a second over Damien, with the class indexing he beat me by .099 seconds to take first place, and Stuart just missed me by .014, so I got second place.
I got gas after driving back to Berkeley, and the check engine light went out. As I suspected, the spin must have tripped a fuel sensor. I'll bet the sensor is reset when you get gas, just like the electronic oil level indicator and the OBC miles-to-go readout.
