that little voice.

Today you get to hear about that little voice in my head. I dont often hear voices. Sometimes I even ignore people when they are talking to me. This weekend though I heard that little voice in my head and I surely should have listened. You all should know by know that I road race a corvette. It is truly an addiction for me. Ive always wanted to race cars and know I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity. Its on a very small scale, club racing, but it's still the most fun I've ever had.

This was a race weekend. One that I was really looking forward too. New shocks, New brakes, New tires, and racing at Phoenix International Raceway, I really like it there the infield is challenging for me and I have to work at it to go fast. This is also one of those tracks that is surrounded by walls, tire walls, concrete walls, walls with safer barriers on them, etc. I think the walls are somewhat like the rails in an arena. If you dont look at them, they dont really exist and you wont catch your pleasure driving cart on the. The walls are the same. You look at the walls and you run into the walls, I never look at the walls, until this weekend.

In the first session, I was just going to be cautious, lots of new things about the car, just find out what it going to do and learn. Well I learned I loved the new shocks, I really like the race brakes, and I hated the new tires. They were slick, you see race tires usually are a little slick, but most of the time they have more grip than street tires. Well these were like driving on ice. I had been running a used set of race tires on the front, and a really wore out set of nitto street tires on the back, so I was really surprised when my new set were so bad. More information here. They actually werent new. Just new to me. I purchased them from a friend of mine who had used them twice, and he purchased them from a friend who had only used them a couple of times himself. They were an old set of viper racing league tires, and I actually dont know when they were made, but they are hard as hockey pucks. After the first session. Which I was slow as an elephant in. They never warmed up and got any grippier. When I checked my tires pressures at the end. They were the same as when I started. Not good, I dont think. They were REALLY slick. I know myself well enough that when the little voice in my head says, your not going to like these tires, just buy new ones. I should listen. In the past when the little voice talks to me, it is ALWAYS right. ALWAYS. It would have been easy to buy a new set, because the tire distributor was at the track and I could have had them mounted and balanced, no shipping charge. Just go and buy them. I convinced myself to give them one more session. After all it was warming up outside there had been more cars on the track, I was slow so I was going out almost last if they were bad, I'd just get new ones.

Well on the warm up lap I was now pretty sure that my little voice was right. I still hated them. The brakes were great. The new shocks did exactly what I thought they should. I was liking the car except for the tires. Still like driving on ice. The green flag waved and I was going down the front stretch at 120 mph. That is not fast for my car a nice comfortable speed. You see at the end of the front stretch you have to turn left, there is a big bump and the middle of the turn where the track transitions from the banking of the speedway to the infield section so the closer you are to the wall, the smaller the bump. I know this. I love to stay close to the wall its a rush for me, great fun. I slowed down early because I knew the tires sucked and my little voice had already told me again that this wasnt going to work, and when I slowed down I looked back to see where one of the club members was because he was following me and I didnt want to get in his way, well by the time I looked back forward I had missed my mark to turn in. Not by a little, but about 6 feet. That put me right in the middle of the big part of the bump. This is when the part of my brain that I actually listen to said "you have F------d up. I had. You see when you miss your mark in racing, it is a lot like missing your mark when your riding your horse in jumping or some pattern class. Its not going to be good. I remember looking down at the speedo when I headed off into the turn and it said 75, i though well thats pretty slow, I have bialed off into this turn at over 100 before so I might be ok.. WRONG. I really hit the bump, the first time I've ever really felt it. Hard and the car really bounced, and the back end snapped around to the right. It's truly amazing how the brain works, I had my eyes open and I remember everything I saw and did. I turned the wheel to the right and thought the car might straighten up. It always had before, nope no grip it just kept coming around to the right, I saw Darrel in front of me spinning thru the grass and I though well at least I'm not alone, as the car continued to come around I saw the other Darrel behind me coming to a stop so he wouldnt hit me, and I looked back out the right side window because know I was spinning backwards and to the right and I saw the wall getting closer. I was looking right at it and I actually thought "I am going to hit the f-----g wall." I did. Backed right into it and an angle breaking the rear wheel right off the spokes. The sound of the impact was a lot louder than the impact felt, and then the right front snapped into the wall, also breaking the front wheel. I turned the steering wheel to the right and the car moved off the wall and came to a stop facing the right direction on the other side of the track. The rest of the story is only worse. The safety guys got there while I was taking off my helmet and gloves and releasing the safety harness. I had to wait in the car until the ambulance got there because your not supposed to get out of the car unless its on fire. You see you dont want to get hit by the other drivers coming by going oh shit, Dan hit the wall. Driving thru silver c5 corvette pieces laying all over the track. AT this moment, actually getting stuck by another car and getting killed would have been a lot less embarrasing. I got in the ambulance because they dont let you walk around and look at the car before they haul it away and I took the obligitory ride to the care center where they look at your pupils, take your pulse, listen to your heart and lungs, take your pulse, and check your blood pressure which ws 150 over 80, the emt guy said that was really low for someone who had just smacked the wall.
By the time I had signed the release forms with the ambulance, and then filled out the incident report with the track officials, I finally got to go back to the pits and get my bike and find my car which was at the other end of the track in the impound yard covered under a tarp. It looked really bad sitting there like that. I didnt actually cry until we had it loaded into the trailer at the end of the day. Its really not busted up all that bad. Doesnt need any body panels just a crack in the fender, two broke wheels, some drivetrain parts and the right front headlight bucket. Which was coming out anyway.
The point of this whole story is Listen to that little voice in your head. Sometimes it just might be right.
Until next time.