Yesterday I closed up shop early and headed down to track day. I brought my wife with her car, talked a friend into cancelling a night out with his brother so that he could come down and almost talked another friend into bringing down his tubed '63 Chevy II (he still showed, just didn't bring his car). The reason I did this was that for a little extra money, you didn't have to wait in long lines and you had awesome track prep, this was after all, Tampa Racing's track day

When we arrived at the track, I was already having doubts about making my first 11 second pass in the car due to humidity, temp, and a hurricane force headwind. I had done quite a bit in the last week or so to get the car ready, so I knew mechanically it was capable, but I wasn't sure about the conditions. I bolted on my slicks and headed to the line with my wife for a friendly motor to motor pass. Short line, track was prepped, I drove through the middle around the water box and backed in to get the slicks wet just like I always do, my wife did the same.

What happened next is very difficult to explain, I don't know if I was the only one that experienced this phenomenon, but somehow during my blistering 14.46 pass, I must have hit a worm hole and traveled through time. I didn't realize it at first, when I got back, my slip showed that my 1/8th ET was a tenth faster than my previous best, but my 1/4 ET was two tenths slower. At first I figured that my 1/8th was due to the track prep and new things I had done to the car, but that my 1/4 was a result of the humidity and the previously mentioned hurricane headwind. Upon later review, I'd say somewhere on the big end I hit the worm hole and it took a few tenths to get to me to my destination.

My wife's time was off too, once again I figured it was the conditions, but it actually turned out she travelled through time with me. My friend Dave had managed to secure a spot to run because I had told him about our great track prep and running conditions. He pulled over into line once we got back while we were discussing our run. The temp was starting to come down, the wind seemed to be subsiding, and I began to think once again that I may manage to pull off an 11 second pass. About this time someone broke, and the lines stopped moving. We figured it would be a good time to grab some food, Dave decided to wait it out in line.

After what seemed like an eternity, the track was cleaned and cars began to run again, we headed back to our cars, ready for the re-match (Janien red lighted in our first race) in the back of my mind, I figured we would get to run a little later than originally planned because of how long the track was shut down as we have in the past. When we came around the building there was a pretty long line, but I figured it would clear out soon as these cars just got backed up from the track being shut down for so long. Dave pulls up and gets out with a stunned look on his face, "2.7 60'?!? Are you fucking kidding me?" is the first thing out of his mouth, it seemed no matter how soft he tried to roll into it, he just blazed the tires, I figured there was still some oil on the track and that they would tend to it quickly.

Janien and I headed for the lanes once again, we pulled up in the slick lane so that we didn't have to wait in the long line (which to my horror wasn't getting any shorter even now that cars were running) We waited for a little while, just BS'ing, I hadn't really noticed what had happened yet, but I was about to experience the shock of my life.....................

They tell us to load up, I get in and put on my helmet, it's only then that I realized what had happened earlier. I look at the line of street cars that they are waving out 4, sometimes 6 at a time, they are all driving THROUGH the water box!! "WTF is this?" I ask myself, and prepare to drive around the box and back in like always because I know the radials on the front of my car are big enough to carry water to the line with me. But no, there are cones blocking the middle and someone is standing there frantically waving for us to go around him, through the water box. At that point it hit me, I had actually travelled through time and ended up at a club 1320 event. I don't know how I did it, but there I was.

After that pass, I figured there was no point in even opening the bottle, Dave said "let me go ask what is up" I was ready to bolt the radials back on and head home but figured I would walk over and see what the answer was. Dave ended up speaking to Scott who replied something to the effect of "good point" and went over to speak to track personel, what happened next blew my mind. The track official said that they had to hurry up and get these cars through because there was rain coming, to which Scott replied, "oh ok, that's cool"

No, it's not cool, there's nothing cool about it. I don't care if it's raining three blocks away, you either call the event due to rain, or you prep the track properly, follow protocol, and provide a safe racing environment for everyone. That's why we were there, that's why everyone spent the extra money to run. I walked back over and bolted the passenger seat back in my car (first time I ever took it out, I told you I was looking for a new best, lol) While I was doing that, a couple of friends walked up that had just arrived, they could tell I was pissed (I don't always hide it that well, lol) and asked what was wrong. I told them because it was raining 10 miles away they weren't prepping the track, everyone was driving through the water box, and I was done for the night. Their response, "what rain? we just got here and we didn't hit any rain"

At this point I walked over to the starting line with hopes of things being back to normal, to my horror, not only was everything the same, but now the water boxes were dry, and Brian's dad was staging with his Corvette, "my God, didn't anyone tell him this was club 1320? He shouldn't be running that thing here!!" Sure enough, he's all over the track, then Brian does his burnout and starts to stage in the other lane, "noooo, stop the madness, didn't he just see what happened?!?" Sure enough, mid track you here the RPM's jump and he pedals it to a 10.0.

At this point I was so mad I couldn't see straight, I headed back over and put my radials back on. The staging lanes were closed, I figured it was 10:00 as it hadn't rained, and surely they didn't close early after the track being shut down for so long to clean it. We stayed and BS'd for probably 20-30 minutes and then headed out.

Somewhere on the trip back I returned to the current time, my first clue was when I looked at the clock in my car heading back on SR64, it read 10:05, this was after BS'ing for quite a while after the track closed, there's no way they closed early I thought to myself, so this just reinforced my time travel theory. After stopping twice on the way back, once for Janien to put air in her tires, the next for her to get gas and check her car because it was running poorly, we finally made it back to Clearwater, this is when I finally hit the rain that had made safety take the backseat at the track, it was 11:20, and it was raining at the intersection of Belleair Rd. and US 19, good thing those people at the track had the foresight to know about this

Now I am interested to see if anyone else went through this worm hole, or if we were the only ones..................

 

wow, that sucks. Now I am not so pissed that I didnt make it out. My car is in pieces still though.

 

I was there with you Bill. I even left early in hopes of avoiding the 'impending' rain since the Cobra doesn't have a top. I got home to Brandon safe, sound, and without touching a single drop of water.

I always thought the point of TR track day was to create the anti-1320 experience. Good prep. Short lines. Nobody running through the water boxes.

We started out with all 3 last night. Then the lines got long. Then they started running everyone through the water boxes. At that point, how well the track WAS prepared didn't matter.

 

wow ... wheres the cliff notes!

 

I would have completely understood if TRack Night was cancelled due to rain. I'm sure others would have also. A shortened night due to rain ,w/ a few good runs and good track prep is better than a long night w/ poor track prep in case of rain.

 

At the end, they had everyone going through the water box and I didn't see a whole lot of people doing burnouts either. Ah well.

It was nice meeting you Bill and it almost looks like Janien got the jump on you a couple times

 

Joe was having some fun with his car on it's maiden passes although he's happy with the incrementals he did get..

 

I was wondering why they were doing that. On my first run, I kinda sat there, thinking the guy directing cars would move the cones and let the cars go around. He just kept piling 'em in, making them go right through the water. Sorry to get the track wet, but thats how they were lining 'em up last night.

 

I would so some serious complaining to BMP. That is complete BS.

 

my car usually goes 6.84-6.88 in the 1/8 @ 102-105 and 10.66-10.70 in the 1/4 @ 128-131 on the bottle....with 1.49-1.55 short times...i couldnt match any of my "usual" times...best was a 10.79 @ 128 everything else was 11.1 @124-127... track definately stopped hooking after 7:30-8:00.