We rewind the clock to the weekend of October 13-14, 2012.  I was invited to participate in a crapcan race in Joliet, IL., “24 Hours Of Lemons/American Irony 2012”.  The race was held at the Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, IL.  We were “Team Resignation” (Facebook page).

It was a cold, rainy, windy weekend.  We were driving a ’91 Ford Escort.  We had an animated Richard Nixon head on the top of the car.  It was a complete and unbelievable adrenaline rush.  I had a coolant leak while out on the track, and even though I was a complete rookie, in the rain, blinded by water and fogged up glasses, noticed the “Check Coolant” warning light.  Throttled down and made it back into the pit and said,

“Hey, I got a ‘CHECK COOLANT’ light.”

Kiko said, “good thing you came in.  The radiator is empty!”

Later in the day, I’m flying down the track and I notice the air intake box lean over about 30 degrees.  Say, “well that can’t be good.”  Back into the pits and good thing because the air box was being held on my the MAF sensor wires.  Thankfully, I was not driving later in the day when the brake line was abraded through by the right front tire, and Alan had a complete brake failure going into turn one.  The tire wall stopped him with minimal damage.

It was a terrific and exhilarating weekend.  I was amazed at how handy the people were, and realized that this is not rocket science.  I’ve always wanted to be able to do this kind of maintenance on a car.

Alan’s caution to me was, “I have to warn you that this may become addictive.  You’ll be scouring the roadside for $500 cars.”