Three days of track, part 1
Over the Memorial day weekend, some friends and I decided go have some fun at the track. Thunderhill was hosting a Champ Truck competition and needed some people to keep the track hot between heats. Of course I was down to help!
This also equated into two cheap track days! I wanted the Miata to be up to the task so I bought an aluminum radiator with Mishimoto fans, AWR front sway bar mounts, and silicone radiator hoses. The radiator upgrades were necessary because back in April when I ran Thill West, my car started to overheat! The AWR front sway mounts just required that I remove the radiator, so why not!?
These were in addition to the Russell steel braided brake lines and SBGarage clutch line I installed for Thill West. Here’s a picture of them installed.
For the Memorial day weekend track days, we were only running the East loop of the main track. This looked a lot like the short track at Suzuka. Although it was fun, I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to run the full track.
Well, as with all track days, there were problems. First one of the Champ Trucks tipped over on turn 2.
Then I sprang a coolant leak and almost died! (@3:20, youtube doesn’t let me time link for some reason.)
Well, not really all that dramatic. But I did track down the leak to one of the hoses going into the oil cooler sandwiched under the oil filter. Fixing that was fun, then I had to burp the radiator.
At the end of the day, nothing was broken on the Miata. I think that’s a plus in my book!
The second day was a lot less eventful. I got to drive Richard’s WRX around the track though. So we all went home unscathed.
