Well, it was a long and tiring weekend. It started out on Wednesday loading the trailer and truck up with the golf cart, car and all my stuff. Craig goes with me on these events and he and I left around 6:30 PM on Wednesday to meet up with my other racing buddy, David. We met David somewhere on I-20 heading east toward Atlanta, GA. The race track we’re going to is Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA just north and east of Atlanta. We stopped in a rest area just past Vicksburg, MS to rest for a few hours and then headed out again at 4 AM for Atlanta. We also met up with Brian of Ben Keating’s race team. So, we were now 3 rigs running down the road toward Atlanta.
Somewhere past Meridian, MS, Bryan who was behind me noticed smoke coming from the right side of my trailer. I pulled over and we figured out that my wheel bearing was going bad. So, it took some time to find a place, get a wheel bearing, get the wheel off and do the repair there on the side of the road. Anyway, half the people with us were mechanics so getting it fixed up wasn’t a problem and we were back on the road again.
We get to Road Atlanta and setup camp. We arranged our trailers in a U shape as we usually do. It works out well for a place to put the cars and have a nice setup of living quarters.
Friday has us practicing in the morning with a 3 hour race in the afternoon. Road Atlanta is a scary track. There are many elevation changes and walls everywhere. The last thing I wanted to do was hit a wall so I was very careful. See some of the pictures of Road Atlanta I’ve included. I only ran for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the 3-hour race. I just wanted to get familiar with the track and work some kinks out of the car. All was good; for me. Brad, on the other hand, managed to hit the wall in turn 12. (see picture) So, Brad was done for the weekend.
Saturday, we had a practice, qualifying, and then a race. All was good. However, halfway through the race, I saw a puff of white smoke come from the right side of the hood and I then checked my oil pressure. It was at zero. This is a bad, bad thing. I shut off the car and coasted to the side of the track. Bottom line is I blew the motor. Fortunately, it’s only a rod bearing but it still requires a rebuild of the motor. I was done for the weekend since I don’t carry and extra motor with me in the trailer. Maybe I should! 
Sunday morning I wake up to lots of noise. David was scavenging my car. (see picture) Since I couldn’t race, he wanted to try my new brake pads. Frank wanted to try my new Michelin tires (slicks). So, they were all out there pecking away at my car like a pack of vultures. Well, I was a spectator for the day, so what the heck. We tried to enjoy the day but I was very disappointed. David did well in the Sunday race and he was all happy. The good thing, though, is that a wreck or blown motor is in his near future.
We got all packed up and headed home on Sunday around 3:00 PM. The ride home is very boring. We stopped somewhere along the way to crash, I mean sleep, for the night and headed out about 4 am on Monday morning. All was good until Craig and I got to Dallas. Coming onto the Dallas North Tollway from I-635, the left rear wheel on my trailer came off and careened across 3 lanes of rush hour traffic. Luckily, it didn’t hit a single car and I’m not sure how that is possible. We managed to limp home with three wheels on the right and 2 wheels on the left. Just one more thing I’m going to have to get fixed.
Bottom line, this was an expensive weekend. Ugh!!!
The smoke is a little hard to see in the video. It was quite obvious from where I was sitting at the time. Oil pressure was good before entering turn 1, I see smoke about at turn 3, and notice the oil presure was at zero in the esses and shut it down.
