Hank, my Blue car, is still getting to stretch his legs. Competing in this year's Highlands Sports Car Club autocross night series series has been a great way to keep up with seat time and spend quality time with my daughter, @april_quattromani. This was her second autocross and she's doing great! She nabbed 2nd in Novice and I placed 3rd in Pro. I am enjoying sharing my car with her and getting to coach her around the course. I do, however, put the car in wet/snow mode when she drives, , and she hates that!
The event's start/finish was moved to the middle of the track just before Turn 14. My Garmin Catalyst only captures a little video before and after complete laps, which it considers start/finish on the front straight under the flag tower. Temps were roughly 90-100*F during the event. Unfortunately, I was fighting inconsistent braking issues, which we later found a cracked rear rotor. The cracked rotor was causing major shuddering in the steering wheel, diminished braking and ABS to misbehave. I had been fighting the issues the entire event and had to adapt my braking style. Even during this session, I had very little confidence in the braking. I did set a new personal best, down from a 2:33 to a 2:31, although I expected to be closer to the 2:28's. This was my second year at TTNats, and after fighting a bad wheel bearing last year, it was frustrating to fight mechanical issues again.
However, this event marked my 1 full year in competition with this car. Both the car and I have come a long way. Setbacks are to be expected. They help us learn and grow. Because we missed a cracked rotor, even after swapping wheels and doing a full brake bleed, we will start using checklists to be completed as soon as the car comes off track. The more we makes ourselves look over the car, the less likely major issues like this will be overlooked again.
Photo taken moments before a run up the Pine Mountain Hillclimb 2021
by 
, and she hates that!
Nice to see someone pushing these cars to their limits.
Posted by MPower on 10/12/20 @ 2:21:13 PM