James OLC
05-04-2011, 05:00 PM
It's Wednesday evening (at least I think it's Wednesday... the days are starting to run together now) and we are on our way from No Problem Raceway outside of New Orleans to Birmingham, Alabama. The last 60 hours have been a marathon highlighted by a roller coaster of highs, lows, anticipation, frustration, disappointment, and resilience. With no breaks (or sleep) in between.
Since we started the day Monday at Carolina Motorsports Park we have been able to sneak 2 hours of sleep, eaten at MacDonalds more times than anyone thinks is healthy, and have fought back from what we thought was the end of our race thanks to the help of our friends in the Pro-Touring industry and community.
After our break down on Monday night we were able to tow the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro first to Gainesville an eventually to Sanford, Florida where the Prodigy Customs gang was standing by to help us get back on the road if possible. When we finally arrived at a hotel that morning I took a minute to drive the car around the hotel parking lot and after listening to and watching the car, Mary and I optimistically but cautiously agreed that it didn't sound like an axle, but was more likely a bearing or differential problem. Neither are a whole lot better than the other but they were problems that we could fix... And that we could fix quickly.
When we got to Prodigy Custom's brand new facility in Sanford Frank and Michael immediately started working on the car and found the problem as soon as the first axle a was pulled. The bearing was completely destroyed. It looked like the axle seal failed and the gear oil leaked past until it was nearly dry and then the bearing quickly ate itself. The passenger side being showed advanced wear so the decision was made to replace both. When we pulled the center section out of the housing Mary found what she considers to be way too much debris for comfort so the decision was made to change out the 3rd member with the spare that we carried in the trailer with us.
Once the new diff was in and axles reassembled and installed we made the decision to replace the front rotors with the ones that DSE brought us the day before. That was done in short order and barely 5 hours after rolling in on a flat deck we were heading out under our own power.
It was 7 pm and we had missed the one event that Mary and I had been looking forward to more than any other... Daytona. Definitely a disappointment for both of us but at least we were back in the game. After Daytona the race stopped in Gainesville for some quarter mile action but that was wrapping up as we were packing up nearly 200 miles away.
Having missed Daytona and Gainesville Mary and I evaluated our options. At this point we hadn't slept for 36 hours aside from a cat nap and although our lead in Vintage American was secure, we had effectively taken ourselves out of the running in the overall points. It was 7 PM and we were nearly 800 miles from New Orleans and 500 or so miles from Birmingham so we had two choices... 1. Head back to Gainesville, properly breaking in the new rear end and brakes, get a good nights sleep and head on to Birmingham, meeting up with everyone on Thursday well rested and ready to head for the finish line or 2. Try to make it to No Problem Raceway for the afternoon session, grabbing a few hours sleep on the road.
After a brief but silent deliberation, Mary and I looked at each other, smiled and said "I am game if you are" and we chose option 3... Drive all night, make 800 miles in the 12 or so hours we had, and rejoin the One Lap first thing in the morning!
To make a long nights story short that is exactly what we did, making a banzai run across the panhandle through the night and arriving just time to unload the car and get a quick look at a track map before putting our now "broken in" parts to the test...https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
Since we started the day Monday at Carolina Motorsports Park we have been able to sneak 2 hours of sleep, eaten at MacDonalds more times than anyone thinks is healthy, and have fought back from what we thought was the end of our race thanks to the help of our friends in the Pro-Touring industry and community.
After our break down on Monday night we were able to tow the OPTIMA Batteries OneLapCamaro first to Gainesville an eventually to Sanford, Florida where the Prodigy Customs gang was standing by to help us get back on the road if possible. When we finally arrived at a hotel that morning I took a minute to drive the car around the hotel parking lot and after listening to and watching the car, Mary and I optimistically but cautiously agreed that it didn't sound like an axle, but was more likely a bearing or differential problem. Neither are a whole lot better than the other but they were problems that we could fix... And that we could fix quickly.
When we got to Prodigy Custom's brand new facility in Sanford Frank and Michael immediately started working on the car and found the problem as soon as the first axle a was pulled. The bearing was completely destroyed. It looked like the axle seal failed and the gear oil leaked past until it was nearly dry and then the bearing quickly ate itself. The passenger side being showed advanced wear so the decision was made to replace both. When we pulled the center section out of the housing Mary found what she considers to be way too much debris for comfort so the decision was made to change out the 3rd member with the spare that we carried in the trailer with us.
Once the new diff was in and axles reassembled and installed we made the decision to replace the front rotors with the ones that DSE brought us the day before. That was done in short order and barely 5 hours after rolling in on a flat deck we were heading out under our own power.
It was 7 pm and we had missed the one event that Mary and I had been looking forward to more than any other... Daytona. Definitely a disappointment for both of us but at least we were back in the game. After Daytona the race stopped in Gainesville for some quarter mile action but that was wrapping up as we were packing up nearly 200 miles away.
Having missed Daytona and Gainesville Mary and I evaluated our options. At this point we hadn't slept for 36 hours aside from a cat nap and although our lead in Vintage American was secure, we had effectively taken ourselves out of the running in the overall points. It was 7 PM and we were nearly 800 miles from New Orleans and 500 or so miles from Birmingham so we had two choices... 1. Head back to Gainesville, properly breaking in the new rear end and brakes, get a good nights sleep and head on to Birmingham, meeting up with everyone on Thursday well rested and ready to head for the finish line or 2. Try to make it to No Problem Raceway for the afternoon session, grabbing a few hours sleep on the road.
After a brief but silent deliberation, Mary and I looked at each other, smiled and said "I am game if you are" and we chose option 3... Drive all night, make 800 miles in the 12 or so hours we had, and rejoin the One Lap first thing in the morning!
To make a long nights story short that is exactly what we did, making a banzai run across the panhandle through the night and arriving just time to unload the car and get a quick look at a track map before putting our now "broken in" parts to the test...https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif