[TPR] Oh! that hurts.

[Asa Jay Laughton]

Autocross today at Spokane County Raceway, not the usual course at Deer 
Park airport.  They've just finished re-routing the road course and our 
local autocross club managed to get a big chunk of it today for us to 
try out our driver skills.  This makes for a faster course as all the 
autocross elements are laid out in-line with the road coarse.

This can also be deceptive, challenging and dangerous if you're not 
paying attention.  Such unlucky fortune found it my way today.

First run of the day, cold track, cold tires.  Didn't take it easy 
enough.  Ran OFF track and nosed my Pantera into a ditch when I failed 
to negotiate a slalom.  The previously dented front valance now is 
dented severely to include new creases.  Well, I -was- going to replace 
that anyway.  And as further luck would have it, as I inspected and 
hammered it out just a tad, I found where that funny warm coolant odor 
was coming from. <sigh>  Looks like the Fluidyne radiator is weeping 
just a tad on the drivers side from some tube (I haven't found exactly 
where yet).  Not enough to leave drops on the garage floor yet, but 
we'll need to get that fixed.

Second and third runs went much better and by the end of the day we were 
spanking the course pretty darn hard.

Sooo....

- Glad I've not started a restoration project yet
- She's still pulling hard and driving fine (though the driver needs a 
bit more experience)
- Having fun despite the tiny setbacks.

:)
Asa Jay

-- 
Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
&  Shelley Marie
Spokane, WA
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