[Fot] SCCA Road America & HProd Spitfire Excitement

[chris crisenbery]

Hey everyone,
 
Thought I might share last weekends adventure with you all and
also provide a PSA (Public Service Announcement) at the same time.
 
It's been
a real interesting start for 2013, I'll transgress a little bit as it may be
interesting to some.  
 
I've been racing my Triumph Spitfire in G and H since
1989 and have had some limited success over the years. In 2008 I took some
time off from racing as the economy was in the tank and I knew that even
though I had had the track record at Road America my Spit wouldn't be
competitive with the new tin tops at the Runoffs.  
 
So fast forward to early
this year, I had been working out for roughly 4 months 5 times a week doing
Kettlebell (a strength based aerobic workout) to get in better shape and to
try and return to racing for the 50th Anniversary of the Run-Offs at RA and
the last year at RA.  Unfortunately I ended up injuring myself during a
workout suffering what they call a Distal Bicep Rupture which means I tore my
bicep from it's mounting point on my forearm. This is the opposite end of the
bicep when you tear your rotator cuff.  You look up this injury and it says
it's fairly rare 3% compared to the rotator injury 96% and it's most common in
middle aged men.......OUCH! Kick a guy when he's down!
 
This injury has a
long long heal time 5-6 months and this happened in March so I figured my
comback was kaput!  However about 2 months into recovery the doctor said that
even though he didn't think it was a good idea to go racing he would leave it
up to my judgment...sounded like a YES to me! So I went racing after a 5 year
hiatus!
 
The Spit was carefully prepared....OK I lie, I put new belts in it
(I was required to), I treated the 6 year old slicks with Formula V, and put
some new fuel in the cell.  I also cleaned the rust off of the rotors.  Should
have changed the brake fluid, ran the valves, resealed the 4 piece wheels, put
new slicks on it and nut and bolted the car.....but hey it ran when I parked
it!
 
My first weekend out was the Major's at Gingerman and due to some
attrition and a lot of luck I was able to score a 1st and a 2nd, so scoring
enough points to make it to the RO was taken care of now I just needed 2 more
finishes!
 
Last weekend I headed to Road America with my top notch crew chief
my 14 year old daughter Sara!  BTW I did do some prep on the Spit between the
races I changed front springs and deglazed the brake pads! So hopefully it
would stop and turn in, something it didn't want to do at Gingerman.
 
Qualifying was pretty uneventful other than I was dog slow, but I also
realized that the goal of the weekend was 2 finishes so that I could make it
to the RO.  Our race was early afternoon and I cruised around in last place
watching the new Spec B cars dice, they look pretty fun but they aren't real
fast.  Our race was 12 laps long and once I hit the 6 laps to go I upped my
RPM's a little as I new I had the first needed finish in the books.  For those
of you that know RA I was working lap 6 headed down into 5 which is at the end
of a pretty fast section of down hill track.  The car turned in well and I
accelerated up the hill and under the bridge into 6 a left hand turn that's
medium fast.  For those that were waiting for the PSA here it comes, when I
turned in the steering felt a little funny as the car pushed (or seemed to
push a little)I chalked it up to the 6 year old Goodyear slicks. The next
corner is a fast right hander and the car turned in
 well and I rocketed down the hill into 8.....this is where it gets
interesting!  The down hill is very fast as I'm at around 7,500 rpms in 3rd
and you need to brake pretty hard to turn left at 8.  I downshifted started to
turn in and got back onto the throttle about mid corner when the car made a
violent right hand turn........I was pretty surprised as this was definitely
not a push, I think my first clue was the fact that when I turned the steering
wheel I found it wasn't attached to the steering rack anymore! My initial
thought was the wheel had come off the quick release and as I was rapidly
sliding across the track I took a quick look to see if I could reattach the
wheel, unfortunately it was still attached to the shaft.  I then focused my
attention towards my final resting point (poor choice of words!) It looked
like the car might pass by the nearest tire wall and have another 20 feet or
so to the next closest one, but NO the wheels were really
 turned right so it kept the car pointed towards the nearer wall......thank
goodness there was a pea stone trap between me and the wall.  The Spit finally
stopped roughly 5 foot from the tire wall with no damage but a lot of stones
EVERYWHERE!
 
I won't bore you with the tow back or having to push the car to
impound as I still finished 3rd, but I will share with you what actually
failed.  The notch that is in the tubular portion of the steering shaft that
allows the collapsible solid shaft to move up in the event of an accident had
developed little cracks and when I turned left into 6 it opened up giving me
the impression that the car didn't turn in but "Pushed" but in fact the shaft
just didn't turn the wheels as much as the loose nut behind the wheel had
asked and then when I turned into 7 the right it closed back up giving me the
impression all was well! until I asked for another left where it failed
completely.
 
I was able to get the shaft repaired by welding a collar over
the notch and was able to finish Sundays race with very little excitement
other than the B Spec that spun in front of me in turn 1 on the very first
lap.  I am now qualified for the RO and will start to prep the Spit from nose
to tail with all of the items I should have done prior.
 
I have no idea if
any of you find these stories interesting or would like any updates, but if
you do I would be willing to share a story every once in a while from my 20
plus years of racing and/or the prep I do for my return to the RunOffs.
 
Cheers
 
Chris Crisenbery
Rascal Racing
HP Triumph Spitfire