Scott McIntyre
DSM Wiseman
- 309
- 44
- Mar 15, 2002
-
Halifax,
NS, Canada
Scotia Speed World… my nemesis. While she did give me an FTD a couple years back, the past two times I’ve run at this oval track venue my car has broke. Last year it was a center diff and earlier this year it was my tranny & rear axle. But I wasn’t going to let her beat me… I was determined to break the curse and run there again without incident!
With the remnants of tropical storm Danny still in the air and the threat of rain, the course was designed with a minimalist approach and avoided any sharp transitions which might send a car spinning into the concrete wall. So this meant the course was simple, fast, and a ton of fun!
Danny was good to us though and no rain fell. In fact, the sun came out and it warmed up nicely. On went the big steamroller R-compounds. Muahahah!
Run #1: Big sticky R-compounds are…. well… sticky! If you venture off the asphalt like I did at the SoloSprint the week prior, they’ll pick up rocks, gravel, sand, grass, moss, everything you drive on. And this was precisely the state they were in leading into my 1st run… Completely covered in crap! So I knew my first run was going to be a throwaway, and just an exercise in cleaning off the tires. With that said, I took it easy around the track and came in with 106.336, which was quicker than I had expected considering provisional FTD was only about 3.5 seconds quicker.
Run #2: With the tires pretty much cleaned off from the previous run, I stepped it up quite a bit. Perhaps a little too much as the front wheels locked up in a hard braking zone and I overshot a gate, resulting in an O/C (off course).
Run #3: On this run, the car started making the same mid-turn clunking noise it did the last time I was here (when my rear axle popped out). This caused me to back way off and I came in with a 107.005. After the run I checked everything over and could not find anything wrong, so I decided to go ahead with my last run.
Run #4: Still preoccupied with the ominous clunking noise, I gave it a go, letting off a little in the two mid-corner sections where the clunking would occur. I hit a cone and came in with a 103.44 raw time which was only 0.698 seconds off FTD. All things considered, I was pretty content with that (well, expect for the cone penalty). I blame the cone on my shirt again. Every time I wear it, my best time is hampered by a cone penalty!
After the event I got thinking about that clunking noise and I suspect it was coming from my rear upper shock mounts. The GC rubber spring isolator was torn up a bit and an aluminum “disc†was cracked. I’ve since replace them and hope that’s the end of it.
So I made it through a Scotia Speed World event and got home under my own power. Whether the curse is broken or not is a matter of debate. But at least the car lives to race another day.
With the remnants of tropical storm Danny still in the air and the threat of rain, the course was designed with a minimalist approach and avoided any sharp transitions which might send a car spinning into the concrete wall. So this meant the course was simple, fast, and a ton of fun!
Danny was good to us though and no rain fell. In fact, the sun came out and it warmed up nicely. On went the big steamroller R-compounds. Muahahah!
Run #1: Big sticky R-compounds are…. well… sticky! If you venture off the asphalt like I did at the SoloSprint the week prior, they’ll pick up rocks, gravel, sand, grass, moss, everything you drive on. And this was precisely the state they were in leading into my 1st run… Completely covered in crap! So I knew my first run was going to be a throwaway, and just an exercise in cleaning off the tires. With that said, I took it easy around the track and came in with 106.336, which was quicker than I had expected considering provisional FTD was only about 3.5 seconds quicker.
Run #2: With the tires pretty much cleaned off from the previous run, I stepped it up quite a bit. Perhaps a little too much as the front wheels locked up in a hard braking zone and I overshot a gate, resulting in an O/C (off course).
Run #3: On this run, the car started making the same mid-turn clunking noise it did the last time I was here (when my rear axle popped out). This caused me to back way off and I came in with a 107.005. After the run I checked everything over and could not find anything wrong, so I decided to go ahead with my last run.
Run #4: Still preoccupied with the ominous clunking noise, I gave it a go, letting off a little in the two mid-corner sections where the clunking would occur. I hit a cone and came in with a 103.44 raw time which was only 0.698 seconds off FTD. All things considered, I was pretty content with that (well, expect for the cone penalty). I blame the cone on my shirt again. Every time I wear it, my best time is hampered by a cone penalty!
After the event I got thinking about that clunking noise and I suspect it was coming from my rear upper shock mounts. The GC rubber spring isolator was torn up a bit and an aluminum “disc†was cracked. I’ve since replace them and hope that’s the end of it.
So I made it through a Scotia Speed World event and got home under my own power. Whether the curse is broken or not is a matter of debate. But at least the car lives to race another day.
