The next race weekend is at another one of the iconic tracks in America – Laguna Seca. This is only my second time at Laguna, but I’m feeling pretty confident that it’s going to be a good weekend, despite the forecast for a chance of rain.
First run on Saturday is warmup. On the fourth lap, I get a warning light that indicates I’m losing water pressure form my radiator – an indication that I’m leaking coolant.
Crap!
I pull back into the paddock and take a look. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong, but this is a warning light that (according to the previous owner) that would have helped him not ruin his engine when it developed a coolant leak. After a short cool down, there didn’t seem to be any water missing, so I put everything back together. Later, during qualifying, it came on again after only two laps. Double crap!! I wasn’t out long enough to get a decent qualifying lap, so that meant I’d start at the back.
I came in again, checked out the car, but again nothing seemed wrong. The water seemed down a little, but not enough to warrant a light. But, I noticed a slight bubbling near the radiator cap. I wasn’t sure how much it could leak out, so I filled the radiator (not much gone), and waited for the race.
Normal start to the race. Of course, I’m at the back. As cars are let onto the track to begin the race, the idea is that everyone bunches up on the first lap (known as the "out lap"), and then everyone is in a nice tight group as they approach the start/finish line. Then, when the green flag is waved, the race is on. Apparently, I wasn't catching the group fast enough, so the guy behind me gave me a little "kiss" (bump from behind - because we have no horns). OK, I get it - go faster!
The race starts, and after about 4 laps, the light came on again, and after doing another lap, I came in – electing to not finish rather than possibly destroy my engine. This time, there did seem to be some leakage around the radiator cap, but no one had a pressure tester, so I couldn’t determine if the leakage was for real. That night, I went into Salinas and bought another radiator cap, and put it on.
Sunday warm up got the light (and an early exit) too. This was getting frustrating. The mechanic that maintains the car also races, and was there that weekend, so I asked him to take a look. He said it all depended on the temperature and pressure that the sensor was set up to detect. So, I called the former owner of the car. He was equally perplexed, but offered up the suggestion to check the fan and make sure it was running. Turns out, it was not. Apparently, there was a problem with the thermal activation switch for the fan. So, in typical racing style, we jury-rig it – we disconnected the fan power form the thermal switch, and hooked it directly to the ignition power. This way, it would be on whenever the ignition was on. The downside was that the car wouldn’t warm up as fast, but the upside was that it wouldn’t overheat.
I took the car out for qualifying, and got most of the way through the session before the light came on again. When I came off, this time there was absolutely no water loss at all, so we decided that I should probably run the race and assume it was a bad sensor.
Remembering yesterday, I am really attentive to keeping my speed up on the out-lap. I haven't caught everyone by the time I get to the corkscrew so I'm going really fast down Turn 8. As I come around Turn 9 (which is a pretty blind turn) I ralize that I have indeed caught the pack, and I'm going to hit the last guy if I don't do something quick - like hit the brakes. However, if you are going fast and in a turn, and then you hit the brakes, you are going to have a bad day. I did. I spun off the track to driver's left.
CRAP!
That means I'd get busted for spinning. Back to square 1. I expected a black flag (to bring me in) but didn't get one so I ran the race anyway. Everything seemed to work mechanically, and it was the only session of the weekend in which the light never came on. Go figure!
When I went to pick up my "rookie book" (where you get creidt for the races you've run), the lady asked me my name and when I told her, she said "Really? On the out-lap?" I explained what happened and then to my surprise she said "Well, the race hadn't started yet, so it doesn't count against you."
What? YAAAAAAAY!!
I was surprised to see that the race folks had also given me credit for the Saturday race, but I wasn’t complaining. Three races down. Five to go.