We wish we had better news and a lot more to say about our time on the Shenandoah circuit at Summit Point, but unfortunately our day in the sun was over just as fast as it started. Having said that, the weekend started out great overall. We managed to get an early start on Saturday tackling our list of To-Do items prior to the event. We opted to swap out the two front ball joints this season which was a suggestion by our good buddy, Olaf at Atomic Motorsports. We also swapped in the new battery and did a second pre-track safety inspection which included, among other things, checking and re-tightening the rear wheel bearings.
After a day of packing and preparations we finally got on the road around 9pm Saturday night and made our way down to Summit Point in West Virginia to spend Sunday running with our new friends at TrackDaze. We arrived at the track around 2am, popped the top on the van and grabbed some much needed sleep.
7am, we were up and ready to pull the car out of the trailer for tech. We introduced ourselves to the guys at TrackDaze, put the car through tech, registered and were ready to tackle the day. After the driver’s meeting and some last minute preparations, Jason was on deck and ready for his first session. Since neither of us had ever been on this track before, Jason opted to do a lead-follow with one of the veteran instructors, Frank, and his badass, Dastsun 240Z. To kills two birds with one stone, I got the oportunity to ride in Frank’s car at the same time he did the lead-follow with Jason, showing us both the racing line. We are happy to report, both Jason and I made it out alive.
Thirty minutes later it was my turn. Admittedly nervous, I buckled in, forgot my earbuds, fumbled with not having both of my gloves and ultimately getting out on track a few minutes late, I did manage to actually complete my entire session without serious incident.
At this point I’d like to take the time to say how much we enjoyed the guys at TrackDaze, their professionalism and their schedule. They pride themselves, among other things, by how much track time they provide and they sure did deliver. Sadly for us, although the schedule looked great on paper, we broke after only one session each and didn’t get to take advantage of all that time on track. Jason went out for his second session shortly after the lunch break and radioed in mid way through his warm-up lap that he had brake problems. Fortunately for us, the power assist portion of the brakes failed at a relatively slow section of the track so he was able keep the car under control and nurse it back into the pits alleviating the need for a tow and subsequent yellow flag, which of course, would have potentially delayed the session for the rest of the drivers out on track.
After a quick diagnosis, we determined that the brake booster system had failed. We had hoped it was the one-way vacuum line check-valve from the manifold to the booster, but feared it might be more. We made a mad dash to the nearest Autozone 15 minutes away and determined to not be put out of commission by a $6 check-valve, we bought two just in case. We made our way back to the track and upon installation of the new check-valve we realized that the brake booster itself had failed. Our day was done.
There were a few good things that came out of our trek down to Summit Point. We made some new friends, put a few faces to forum screen names/emails, introduced ourselves to a new track and kicked off our season earlier than we had in previous years. With this hiccup out of the way we look forward to a strong rest of the season.
We’ve slightly altered our schedule again. We are shooting for NJMP Lightning Circuit on Saturday & Sunday, June 23 & 24 with TrackDaze once again. Our hope is to get down there Friday night between 7 & 10Pm, set up camp and enjoy the weekend! Hopefully we’ll see some familiar faces.
As always, thanks to our good friends at TyrolSport for all of their support. The rigidity of our car as a direct result of the cage they built was evident at such a technical track like the Shenandoah circuit at Summit Point.