Two Plus Two Older Archives - Upcoming car accident, with photos

Okay, well, I thank you all for your concern, I was not gravely injured. It was a somewhat disappointing night in comparison to my strong showing last time out but a good time was had by all nonetheless.

Everything was going fine beforehand. Here's a shot taking hot laps around the junkyard.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/~dcollin/hotlaps.jpg

Unfortunately, when I got to the track my battery crapped out as I was waiting to pull into the pit area. SOP is to put a new battery in the car (or have a battery you use for demos if you do a lot) and take it out at the end, but since this car seemed to have a good battery we skipped that. Bit me in the ass. I spent most of the night looking around for a solution.

What I ended up doing was jumping the car right before the event and doing my best to avoid stalling out. Not the best plan, but at least I got to run.

Here I am on the track as they were lining us up. Note the lack of firesuit, which they always give me [censored] about but never actually stop me from running.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/~dcollin/ontrack.jpg

No I wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Makes it that much harder to jump out of the car if it catches fire.

Anyway, I got a good start off the wall and some shots in, but took a big hit from a Subaru station wagon early on, stalled out and that was that.

Here's me looking apologetic about going out so early.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/~dcollin/knockedout.jpg

Chicks dig it when you put their names on your car and then smash it. Especially when they're drunk.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/~dcollin/lilycar.jpg

My buddy Brendan fared pretty well in the big block demo. The big issue in that was that a Chrysler Imperial was allowed to run. These cars are typically banned from these small-time derbies because they are basically tanks and near impossible to knock out. Well Brendan took it personally that this guy weaseled his way in and apparently hounded him and crippled him with a nice shot to the front end.

He lost a tie rod early on, making steering very tough. Then he lost his shifter which he had built into the floor and was actually reaching through the panel to shift by hand. Yeah, he's a tough guy. Finished around the top 5 in his division.

Here's a team photo.

http://www.simons-rock.edu/~dcollin/postdemo.jpg

Sorry if I have disappointed you, OOT, I will do better next time.

NT