I need an instant replay. Or at least a video tape I can review later. I know what happened, after it happened, I just missed a big portion on it. I was there. I was definitely involved. I must have blinked... or something.
I was at the last Auto-X of the season. I had the championship all sewed up. After 4 years of second place, me and my Elan had finally achieved first place in the A-Street Prepared class. So the pressure was off. I was running just for the fun of it. Maybe I could improve my overall index point standing and get a lower number for the next season. It's an ego thing. The course was very fast and very wide open on a very big but narrow parking lot at the Hawthorn race track. I was on my second run, having goofed up the first run, I now had the course down in my mind now and was applying the power. And I pride myself on the power available out of the little Twin Cam. With the help of Bill Truesdale at Apex, a couple of Dave Bean Parts, my money and my assembly and tuning, I had a a very nice toy. Quite responsive at any R.P.M., pulls real strong in any gear all the way to... whatever I need. So I had just come out of a high speed slalom, and was negotiating a set of chicanes. Foot to the floor, well into third gear, pulling strongly over 5 grand. Now the part that bothers me is that I don't remember losing it. All I know is that all of a sudden, I was heading backwards towards a brand new curb and wrought iron fence that outlined the narrow part of the parking lot. My reflexes had done something, so I wasn't spinning wildly out of control. My relexes work well after the fact. Unfortunately, I have a LOT of experience with spinning. I don't know if it is my equipment, aggressive driving style or lack of driving style, whatever, I do my share of spinning. But this time, there was not enough room to stop. I was heading straight. Straight for the curb. I did not have the brakes locked up, because this usually makes things worse. My reflexes were applying smooth even braking pressure so when I realized that I was about to ram the curb at a high rate of speed and that I should lock those babies up... it was too late.
The left rear wheel took the brunt of the impact, bending under, mangling the lower wishbone and all sorts of other stuff in the process. Somehow, the car flew into the air, banging the newly installed iron fence with such an impact that it bowed it out a good 8 inches. The brand new concrete curb had a big crack right next to the impact mark. There was a tire scuff mark that said "HOOSIER" right next to the crack. I don't know if it was the fence or the curb that ripped the nose off the car, it really doesn't matter.
When I came to rest, my reflexes were still working. I raised my hand and waved to signal that I was all right, then I instinctively re-started the engine and tried to drive away. The engine started right up, but the drive train couldn't turn the mangled debris. The corner workers were there in a flash. One of them said, shut it off, you aren't going anywhere. All of this took about 5 second, start to finish.
I got out and took off my helmet. Anti-freeze was spewing out of the smashed front end and destroyed radiator. I opened the hood and checked the trunk to make sure there were no fuel leaks. Everything was OK. Now the embarrassing part. Here come the crowds. Sue apparently was kinda bent out of shape. Running and screaming at the top of her lungs. I told everyone including her that I was OK. I wasn't hurt at all... physically.
My friends and racing co-horts were great. Making sure that I was OK. Comforting Sue, who was definitely more shook up than me. Helping load the wreck onto the trailer. Frank Filicchia was using his road racing corner worker emergency training on me. Looking deeply into my eyes, talking to me constantly, keeping me alert, etc. All the things you do to make sure someone doesn't have a concussion and/or go into shock. I really appreciate everything that everyone did to help out.
All this leads up to a postponement in working on the Cortina. I now have a major repair job to do on my Elan. Fortunately, for those of you who like to read this column, I have about 6 articles as they say "In the can". So hopefully, by the time I run out of written articles, I can start working on the Cortina again.
