What's the dumbest thing you've ever done at the track?

[cosm3os]

^^^Is there anything you Spec944 guys haven't done to get a penalty?

[Silkworm]

Forgot that brake cleaner is flammable. Cleaning out a roll bar tube before welding using blue paper towels soaked in brake clean. Throw the towel in the 5 gallon bucket we were using for a trash can, then promptly started grinding it to fit. Instant flash and fireball as the little bits of hot metal hit the towel.

 

Got under the car on jackstands to clean off some paint to prep it for welding (keeping the paint from catching on fire). Using chemical stripper. Gravity. No eye protection. Not a good combo.

 

At the track itself, I can't think of anything particularly stupid that jumps out at me

[edhunter]

Similar to silkworm, in that I was cleaning some metal to weld, only using acetone. Cleaned the metal real good, dropped the hood and started welding. I don't remember if something sounded funny or smelled fully, but I stopped welding and lifted the hood. Both of my gloves were on fire from the acetone....

BTW, I read an email that said using brake clean before welding releases extremely (fatal) toxic gasses if the liquid brake clean ignites, phosgene if I'm remembering correctly....

[boomn29]

Unload my car at a new track last year for a Friday test day before a weekend of TT. I had the street tires on it; no need to waste hoosier heat cycles just learning the track. First session went ok, car felt very squirmy going into the corners and I couldn't tell if my street tires sucked (nearly new) or if the track was greasy or what.

Just before the next session I go to double-check my lugnuts are tight. Discovered I never tightened them from the previous night when I bled the brakes. Somehow all of them stayed on!

They were more than hand tight - as much as my crappy cordless drill (not cordless impact) got them. That next session felt a lot more responsive!

 

....Only I cracked my exhaust mount and my muffler came disconnected 2 sessions later - wow was that loud. Back into the pits dragged the muffler on the ground since it was connected in the rear of the car by a different mount still.

 

Went on to a good weekend though with ZERO problems Sat & Sun in competition!

[kbrew8991]

ohh I did remember a good one I pulled

 

Had brand spankin new R888s on the car for MSR-Cresson last March. First session out was kinda wet, cold & nasty. Managed to loop the car 2 full revolutions just after turn-in on the pit out to track connector road at probably ~20mph. Apparently mold-release is slippery on its own but absolutely diabolically slippery on wet pavement. Oops! Nevermind that 20mph is probably an optimistic speed given the width, radius, and angle of the turn in those conditions

 

Now I make sure to either get the mold release scrubbed off of new tires or at least be extremely careful if there might be any still there. I'm also a bit less agressive on brand new to me tracks, especially areas that you don't see in video...

[jvetthead]

Nevermind that 20mph is probably an optimistic speed given the width, radius, and angle of the turn in those conditions

"20mph is probably optimistic" Now that is funny...

[kbrew8991]

Joe we outta trade cars for a DE session so you too can feel my pain

 

another thread in the SE section sparked another memory - cell phone use while "on track"

 

so how many walls has that 944 visited up close & personal?

 

oh and btw - I've kinda sorta been there & done that got a borrowed RX7 buried in the sand at Roebling entering the off-camber carousel right at the beginning of a Seat-Time.com session. I knew I'd be there a while so I pulled my cell phone out, called a good friend in FL to chat, and shoved the phone between my face & helmet (safety first!).

 

I've also called T&S (since they use 2 or more people, its ok!) once before to see if they could tell me why one of my TT sessions that I was in charge of was red-flagged. Mike seemed really surprised to hear from me since he knew I was on track at that moment...

[jvetthead]

Joe we outta trade cars for a DE session so you too can feel my pain

 

another thread in the SE section sparked another memory - cell phone use while "on track"

 

so how many walls has that 944 visited up close & personal?

 

oh and btw - I've kinda sorta been there & done that got a borrowed RX7 buried in the sand at Roebling entering the off-camber carousel right at the beginning of a Seat-Time.com session. I knew I'd be there a while so I pulled my cell phone out, called a good friend in FL to chat, and shoved the phone between my face & helmet (safety first!).

 

I've also called T&S (since they use 2 or more people, its ok!) once before to see if they could tell me why one of my TT sessions that I was in charge of was red-flagged. Mike seemed really surprised to hear from me since he knew I was on track at that moment...

That is not such a crazy idea... Well maybe not.. Actually the last sesion i kept feleing something under my feet.. it was my shades since the sun was not out i forgot to put them on .. needles to say they where wasted..

[jvetthead]

Actually... that rainy day at Cresson.. I was pointing EVERYBODY by.. The miata chick did a lovely slomo 720 right after a point by. I would not even have gone out except for the fact i had never been on that track.. let me get my tow eyes on and I will trade out with ya for a session

[Alan_Wolfe]

Don't feel too bad. You MUST run the wet line on the 1.7 - around the outside of every turn. Through rattlesnake it seems like a waste covering all that extra distance, but you will be faster. The new part of the track for the 3.1 configuration is still new enough that all you need to do is stay about a half car width out from the apex.

[kbrew8991]

I found the rain line very quickly with the mold release slowly coming off the tires... it was like ice on the dry line

[Joshua]

Dumbest thing I've ever done at the track? That's easy, don't forget to engage the hood pins!

[obzezzed350]

Dumbest thing I've ever done at the track? That's easy, don't forget to engage the hood pins!

" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

I remember that day...I was in that session as well. I pulled offline to make a pass and was about 200 feet from that thing before I saw it

 

 

On another note, anyone ever hit their knee on a tow hook? I was fumbling though the garage last night with the lights off trying to get to the freezer where I keep the food for my saltwater reef. I have a bruise the size of a golfball

[sscguy]

I ran out of gas in my brother's car...on the 2nd lap of a parade lap session

 

Even got a picture of me making the walk of shame back to our paddock spot to get my wallet, while the car sat at the pumps

 

I also drove myself into a wall at an indoor kart track. Checked behind me, my hands followed, *PLOW!* into a wall, then a metal support pole, then T-boned by the guy who (it turned out) was RIGHT behind me. Will NOT be making that mistake again

[cranknpiston]

The short story is make DAMN sure your brand new bad ass motor is getting full throttle position before you pull it out of the car and put the old one back in out of frustration. I had a new motor built that had a different spacer plate under the carb which didn't quite clear the linkage as well as the old one. It took a race or two of sorting to try and figure out why the old one was 1/2 second faster. It was a lot of effort for a 10 minute fix.

[amondc]

ohh I did remember a good one I pulled

 

Had brand spankin new R888s on the car for MSR-Cresson last March. First session out was kinda wet, cold & nasty. Managed to loop the car 2 full revolutions just after turn-in on the pit out to track connector road at probably ~20mph. Apparently mold-release is slippery on its own but absolutely diabolically slippery on wet pavement. Oops! Nevermind that 20mph is probably an optimistic speed given the width, radius, and angle of the turn in those conditions

 

Now I make sure to either get the mold release scrubbed off of new tires or at least be extremely careful if there might be any still there. I'm also a bit less agressive on brand new to me tracks, especially areas that you don't see in video...

 

Hey Ken I got you beat. We had just picked up our first Cup car and headed out to MSR-C, its was misting but not real bad so we attempted to go out on slicks......they were running backwards that day and didnt even make it off pit road before spining. That track is slicker than owl snot when it rains, and even worse on slicks with 400hp....

[JWL]

Mine was off track but in the paddock. My rookie weekend I went to put my car up on the trailer and realized quite quickly that I had not engaged the lock on the hitch as the trailer reared up and launched itself into the tailgate of my Durango. I quickly looked around to see if anyone was looking and then backed off as the hitch screeched down the tailgate back on to the bumper. If I hadn't of had the safety chains on I imagine the trailer would have ended up in the back seat.

 

-JWL

[Driver]

I had my first off at Mid Ohio this weekend, after all these years of driving there.

I went off because I braked too *soon* rather than too late, while the car was unsettled coming through 8, setting up for 9. Also my first time driving sideways through a gravel pit, though luckily no walls were involved.

[99cobra2881]

Worst was hauling into Hallett late one night. Checked into the roach motel on the left right as you get into Cleveland, Ok and went to bed. Get up next morning and I only have one contact in my contact case. The other is gone. I usually *always* have a spare set with me. Not this time. Drive the first two HPDE sessions with my glasses that are 7 years old at that time. Hear a ting during the second track session of the morning. The home depot spring clip on my PBR caliper caught a wheel weight and is trashed. I usually *always* have a spare set with me, not this time!

 

During this time my wife has been calling eye doctors in Tulsa that are open on Saturdays while calling my eye doctor back home to fax my prescription to the eye doctor in Tulsa. Lunch time we head off for Tulsa. Find the street we need but turn the wrong direction and go to the 12th block of this street before realizing we went the wrong way. We backtracked to 64th block of this street and turned left onto the side street where the eye doctors office was. Got my contact in and out the door.

 

Now for the spring clip, found a Sutherlands and went in they had nothing even close so 20 minutes of looking I had a pin setup cobbled together, drive back to Hallett and only missed the first afternoon session.

 

I now have a spare set of contacts on my "prep list", switched to Brembo calipers on the race car and my wife bought me a GPS last Christmas.

[jc8587]

I have a good one.

 

It was winter, in the garage with the door down, and I was installing new rotors and pads and had the car up on 4 jack stands with the e-brake off to get the rear rotors on. When it came time to let the car down, I did my normal check: make sure theres nothing under the car, make sure the lugs are tight enough to put the car down on, make sure I have the 2x4s under the front wheels so I can get the jack out from unde the car, ect.. Well I put one side of the car down, went around to the other side and jacked her up off the stands and set her down on the 2x4s.

 

All of a sudden the car rolls back and BAM, runs right into the garage door, carrying all the momentum as it rolls off the front 2x4s!

 

The rear bumper is dented a little, but the garage door is worse.

 

Not really an on-track embarrasment, but just remember to set your e-brake before you let the car down D:

[ninetyfourintegra]

Not really an on-track embarrasment, but just remember to set your e-brake before you let the car down D:

 

E-brake? What's an E-Brake?

 

Similar, I trailer my car with the driver's side wheels on some 2x6's so the door clears the trailer fender. I get to Mid-Ohio last month and unstrap the car As I am climbing in the car to drive off the trailer I lean against the x-bars to slide into the seat and there is just enough force to get the car rolling but not enough for me to really feel. Then bang, scraaaappppeeee, "oh $^#t, wtf" jump in for the brake. Lucky the trailer is steel and the car isn't pretty to begin with. Still embarrassing.

[soundguydave]

After a session with a student, I was doing the debrief when I heard my run group called, and sprinted to my car. Tried to slip on my Defender head/neck restraint, but it got caught up in the intercom cabling that I use for instructing. Yanked the wires off, tossed the setup on the trunk of my car, and finished wrestling with the Defender, then dove in the car and flew to grid, just in time to roll out... Got an immediate black flag (Huh? What'd I do???), and by the time I got back to the hot pits, the intercom, my cable, and the other earbud/mic cable were scattered all across T8.... One lap later, the double-black came out after somebody rolled over the intercom on track and the parts went flying, and they shut the session down. OOPS!!!!

[jason]

Once tried to load the car into the trailer without hooking it to the truck. Almost made it. Almost.

[sperkins]

Almost made it. Almost.

[Cobra4B]

If were talking garage/loading stuff.... one time I almost went out to bed in brakes with barely snug lugs... got nearly out of my nieghborhood and it clicked that I had forgotten to do something important.