World’s Shortest Endurance Race

Driving a rented Mazda Spec-7 car for a scheduled Endurance race at Phoenix International with Arizona Sports Racing Association back in 2000.

Blown radiator hose at +100 mph down the front straight into turn 1 with water all over the windshield and the tires makes for a pretty sucky day.

Race Report originally posted on 12/15/2000

In light of the complaints dealing with no race reports here is my report from the ASRA (Arizona Sports Racing Association) Enduro held at Phoenix International the weekend before last. This was alluded to in my last post.

I normally run a vintage 1958 TR-3 or more recently a Formula 500 neither of which would be fun or safe to run in a endurance event.  For this event I rented a Spec RX-7 from HAsport (see their ad in SportsCar) and talked a friend who normally only runs Street Class groups with his Jensen-Healy into also renting a car for the event.

HASport delivered three prepared RX-7’s to the track for us (one was a spare incase we developed a problem – to bad it did not get used, more on that later!).  Since neither of us had been behind the wheel of these particular cars before we commenced to get as much seat time to determine a reasonable setup for the cars as we could.  Ron (the owner of HASport) was very helpful since he of course knew the cars and the track.  I spent the two practice sessions playing with tire pressures since it felt like the left rear was rolling over in T7.  I was never able to really find a setting that I liked and felt comfortable with.  That said I placed 23rd OA and 2nd in class.  My friend qualified a bit further back OA and 5th in class.

ASRA does a modified Le Mans start for the annual Enduro, which is very fun and exciting.  The grid starts on the front straight backed in at a 45 degree angle to the track against the pit wall.  We have to be buckled in with the motor off and we have to hold a baton out the window with both hands.  The purpose of course is so that the starter can see that no one has their hand on the ignition switch.  Each car then has a crew member standing against the outside wall and at the green flag they sprint across the track and grab the baton from our hands – only then are we allowed to start the car and the race is on!

I got a great start and picked up 4-5 places by T1.  A car further up the grid from me got a bad start and the line I took angling down the track kept them bottled up.

The were no incidents and the race got a nice clean start.  Unfortunately the day then went to hell for me.  On the 2nd lap as I was transitioning off the oval and in T1 of the road course I got a spray of water on the windscreen.  I thought “damn, that sucks” as I was headed into the sun.  I remembered a comment that Ron had made that the RX-7 may tend to port some water if the motor is over rev’ed so I thought no big deal it will dry quickly and should not present to big of a problem.  Going into T2 I felt the car break free and slide.  I was able to catch it and only lost about 2 places.  My mind then reminded me that this was a 100 minute race so don’t worry about losing a few places this early due to this slide and do something stupid trying to get those places back right away.

I got going again and T3, T4, T5 and T6 all went by without issue going into T7 however I got another spray of water on the windscreen and the car broke free again and this time it spun.  I came to a dead stop in the middle of the line through T7 and watched a really pretty Morgan 4+4 exiting T7 and headed right for me.  At this point you can clearly hear on the in-car camera my colorful comments.  He was able to get the pretty green Morgan stopped just short of my right front fender and once the rest of the closely following traffic had made its way around my rear end I backed off the track to let that still pretty Morgan proceed on his merry way.  Sitting in the car in the gravel on the outside of T7 I took stock of the situation.  Water steaming up from the hood.  I decided that I must have blown a radiator hose and that is what caused me to slide in T2 and spin in T7.  I got the car restarted and rather than deposit the rest of the radiator on the track surface for the viewing pleasure of the spectators and the driving challenge of the rest of my competitors I pulled the car across the track and parked it next to the wall on the inside of T7.

I got out of the car and waited for the nice SCCA workers in their comfortable crew cab rescue truck to come and act as my taxi/evac service.  While waiting for them to arrive I heard my 10 year old daughter inquire over the radio (one of those nice little Motorola 250 FRS models that has been discussed a few times on this very list, thank you very much) as to my whereabouts.  She must of thought I had gotten lost since I did not come back around the track with the rest of my friends.  I had to explain to her the need that a motor has for water and the requirement that this closed system remain closed.  She was able to provide this important bit of information to Ron, although that was little consolation.

The friendly neighborhood SCCA workers arrived and complimented me on my presence of mind to have moved the car to a position of safety so that they did not have to bring out the yellow and tow the car away.  They then proceeded to whisk me away to the far reaches of the track – out beyond T9 where I could watch the remaining 94 minutes of the race drinking bottled water and eating cold pizza with them.

I also got to spend a lot of time looking across the infield at my daughter sitting in a lawn chain in our pits next to the wall at T6 and talk to her on the radio.  The only down side to this of course was that she was sitting about three feet from the spare car that Ron brought out tot he track “incase their was a problem”.  Lot of good that it did me.

I did enjoy the time that I spent with the SCCA workers watching the race.  We could se most of the track sitting up there in the exit of T2 on the Oval.  We thought about taking bets on if this guy in an Orange Mustang that looked as if it had escaped from the Bondurant School was going to leave its mark on the outside wall exiting T9.  Fortunately for him, while it sure looked like he was trying to hit it he did just manage to avoid making contact.  The Bill Luke team brought out one of their Viper GTRs and it sure was fun to watch that thing rocket by everyone once it got onto the oval part of the track.

I hope this posting will warm your hearts as you sit huddled by the fire in those far off northern climes and await the spring thaw so that you too may once again venture out to play with your toys and friends.

enduro.wmv