autocross story (long)

[Mark Williams <williamh@xxxxxxx>]

A short while ago at  an autocross course, I was a passenger
in my friend Bob's car.... This was at a large autocross course 
which utilized an airport runway. A familiar setup for many of us 
who autocross. The runway location provides plenty of runoff room,
and lots of room for creativity on the part of the organizers....
Since I had already done my morning runs, I was along for the ride
with Bob to possibly give pointers, but mostly just see another line. 

Off we go from the start finish...shift to second for a right hander 
and then into a 180 degree left hand turn.. accelerate up to third
gear and then down shift for turn three which is a 90 degree right
hander. Wind it out in second for a 60 degree right hand turn and 
then it's up to third gear for the run onto the LONG backstretch..
A flick to the right for a kink on the back straight and the upshift
to fourth where we reached 95mph and then it's brake HARD and 
downshift to second for the hairpin turn six where we make a 180 
degree left at 35 mph and  head into seven which is a sweeping 270
degree left hander.... Then it's wind out the car in second and 
hold it there through turns 8 and 9 which are a long 180 degree 
turn that winds out onto the front straight where you upshift to 
third and hit the timer...

So now that you've got the line, Bob does his first lap.. then he
does the second lap... I'm saying to him you can brake later at the
end of the back straight ( I did myself earlier, and I have the same
car).  He continues and does lap three and brakes earlier (nope..
not later...) for turn six.... Well no biggie... hey  I'm just here
for the ride.... We do lap four... more of the same...  We scream
down the back straight and here comes turn six... he goes in at 
100mph and then brakes EVEN EARLIER (again, I say, NOT later) 
than the previous lap....  and nothing happens... I mean pretty
much NOTHING (!) and we are running out of track... 

Lessee here... it's a 180 degree hairpin and we are heading straight
ahead... lotsa  trash bags with unknown contents dead ahead... Here's
the corner and Bob turns slightly. Now dead ahead is a tire barrier
and it's obvious we are NOT going to come close to making the corner.
He then turns it a bit more to the right and we leave the course
but there is only another 50 feet of pavement and we are still going
WAY fast.....  Now, dead ahead straight off the end of the pavement 
is an UPHILL slope of rough terrain... Bob turns further to the right
and wisely chooses the level terrain and we leave the pavement going
at least 25-30mph.. THUD.. goes the undercarriage.... bump,  BUMP
goes the car as we surf through brambles and weeds for 100 feet and
we finally come to a stop.

WHEW....we do a pants check..  All ok... No one's hurt and the car seems
ok and is still running.. he did a great job...Took the car off straight.
Didn't try to make the corner or we would have smacked the bags or tires.
"What happened?" I ask..."BRAKE FADE! he replies.. and he backs up.. and
What's that?  A  FIRE in the grass!!!!  Bob stops.. The flames are only 
a few inches high and the size of a basketball.  I yell KEEP MOVING!!!! 
as I realized the fire was started by the center exhaust  under the
car.. Bob quickly does a quick three point turn (the mound of dirt we
hit was now directly behind us)  and he finally pulls it back on the 
pavement. Meanwhile the corner workers go running  to the fire to try
and stomp it out..... no way... This is dried brush..They call for backup
and others rush out with the fire extinguisher and water and put it out. 
There was a ten by ten patch of burned grass by then,  but there was no 
problem extinguishing the blaze........ WHWEWWWWW!...what a ride!

All turned out well and the car was unscathed, all due to Bob's heads
up handling of the situation and the preparedness of the corner workers.


Mark Williams
(some details have been changed to protect the guilty)

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