Unfortunate News from Buttonwillow
The morning started out pretty normal. Ted, Ryan and John all met up with the team @ 8am to talk about the schedule. John took the car out for a shakedown and said it felt a little loose, and maybe a little rubbing, but couldn't isolate the corner. Thought it might have had something to do with the new brake ducting.
We decided to move the rig closer to the pit, so we could be closer in the case we needed to pull in to do some work. *omen*
Well in doing so, we were getting reset, and completely spaced on the time to go qualify, and missed the qualifying session altogether.
Oh well, we can start from the back. John even said he likes to start from the back. So we get out and are scrambling to start the race, and at the last second, we realize that the radios don't work. But also, more importantly, the instrument panel wasn't working. So we had to get Ted to pit so we could fix that fuse real quick.
Not too much later, Ted reported that there was no power steering. We had had this problem before, and thought it might be the same. Not so much. Pulled into the pit, saw the power steering pump in one piece, and fluid in the reservoir... then we saw that the accessory belt was toast!
We pushed the car into the paddock and over to the rig. We didn't have a spare belt, so Mark ran out to the autozone, about 20 minutes away to find one. A quick belt change, and we were back at it with Ryan driving. After some time Ryan noted some rubbing and that he thought we needed to retorque the lugs. He pulled into the pit and we got the driver front wheel off and noticed how loose it was. So again, back into the paddock and over to the trailer to swap out the hub and knuckle. When we pulled the hub out, the bearings just fell out. Not good.
While we were in there, rotating tires, we notices that there was something wrong with the right rear too. Very loose. Turns out one of the mounting bolts had worked itself loose and the whole assembly was way off. The tire was rubbing on the strut back there and had worn itself thin along the sidewall. Yikes!
So after another 45 minutes or so we were back out, with John driving. He had good hour and a half out there and said the car was just ****. Everything was running like it should. Hell, I was even able to catch a slight nap in the pit, everything went so smooth.
Come in with about 30 minutes left to race, and Ted was going to go back out and finish the race. Just up to me to splash in about 7 gals of fuel, and off he went.
For a couple laps the car looked great. Ted was smooth, and despite all our adversity, we were still looking like we could pull some points out.
Suddenly my brother (who was manning the radio at the time) says "Ted crashed."
WHAT??????
"He rolled it.
Is he OK??????
"He said 'Tell Mark I'm sorry.'"
Where is he?????
"Just past Magic Mountain"
Holy hell!
Mark took off on his pit bike toward that side of the track to see what he could see.... the rescue crew and pace cars were sent out immediately, and Ted was attended to very very quickly (props to the safety team for doing a BANG UP JOB yesterday!) and making sure Ted was OK.
The car apparently landed on its wheels after rolling over twice. Ted was OK and obviously able to talk over the radio... the medics brought him in and took him over to the rig. When I got to him, he was covered in a thick coat of dust and had a bit of a dazed look about him.
But, thankfully, he was OK.
He showed me his helmet which had some scratches on it from where his head hit the window net, while the net had been hitting the ground. That net is SO important, obviously.
The car is, unfortunately, destroyed. The cage did its job well, and the cockpit was kept together as it should have been. But the front end, as well as the rear quarters are just smashed in to high hell. Mark and Ryan were very stoic about everything, and they're headed back today with a flatbed to bring her home. They've already got a second car, and had planned on swapping in a 2.3L Duratec, but they may swap this engine back in. (its a strong powerplant.... they should!)
I took Ted home last night, and he seemed to be in good shape. Banged up and he'll be sore today, for sure. But otherwise..... pretty good.
Sorry team. Better luck next time.
Glad Ted is okay.
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