Snow in Dallas?? In MARCH!! Twice in ONE week with two 70 degree days in between?!?!? And here I have my first track date of the season, finally. The first one had to be called on account of a nephew being born. Like he would have noticed I was there anyway. The things we give up to keep family harmony. The second date planned, it rained and rained and rained, there I was with a garage full of Hoosiers. Then the third date is called on account of Jan coming to town to tune cars at my behest. I am going to miss the forth on account of 9 inches of snow in Slidell, TX, home of Eagles Canyon Raceway, a new 2.5 mile 11 turn track that just came on line late last year. My first visit to this new venue snowed out, in March? Thankfully no.

With the car prepped and fresh set of Toyo R888’s mounted I backed out of the garage 6.30 Saturday Morning…and slid down the driveway. The previous day’s snow melt froze overnight as Dallas suffered through temps in the mid 20’s. The MINI sputtered too, tossed a code and went into limp mode. Arrghhh. Carefully back onto the street and pull out the code reader. P301 Misfire Cylinder 1. Clear the codes and start her back up. Hmmm, running fine now. The sudden cold must have been a shock to the car as it was to me. Off we go.

The majority of the drive was uneventful. Once reaching the smaller Farm to Market roads Texas is crisscrossed with, there was some snow on the road. Needless to say I was quite cautious. Snow and R-Comps really don’t mix to well. Arrived at the track and prepped the car. In the drivers meeting we were warned about some ice on the track. I wasn’t worried, first time at a new track and I had no idea where it went anyway. Not about to try for a lap record during the first session. My group is called and we grid. This is a PCA event and the other MINI drivers there are all more advanced than me, none were in my group. A glance around saw some pretty heavy machinery. Two GT3’s, assorted Cayman’s and seemingly a brace of Turbos. Scattered among all this horsepower were a few older 911’s and a WRX. My instructor had left his radio on overnight draining the batteries. We were going to have to shout in our helmets. Off we go, it had warmed up to a balmy 29 by now, so with the heat cranked and both windows open I entered the track, slipping some on the icy pit out road. We ran 2 laps instead of one under yellow just so everyone knew where the ice was. Of course some was in the apex of a bowl type turn with another nice thick sheet at the end of the longest straight, just before the turn in point of the turn. There were some other patches but being offline they were inconsequential to me.

The session went well, my goal was just to get around and learn the track. It was very hard to tell how the tires worked. I was all over the place, was it cold tires never warming up, pressures off or a combination. Turns out it was a combination. Bumped up the tires some. Session two went much better, it was now in the Mid-30’s with full sun on the track. The ice was gone but there was water. Still having some issues with the tires. The rear being a bit happy wanting to come around. Felling better where the track went I started pushing it a bit more. Just had to watch the rear. All in Session 2 went well.

All this snow along with a new track where grass has yet to grow makes for muddy offs. The race Boxster was first. Back in on the flatbed, looked to have broken the front suspension. The Exige was next on another session. Off and stuck, up to the bottom of the sills. Must have been 500 lbs of Texas clay stuck to the bottom. Took them a good 30 min to power wash it clean.

Session three it all came together. The sun was out, temps now in the 40’s. I had figured out the tire pressures, only a few wet areas and one river and I could now drive the track in my head. There are some really funs areas to this track. Just as I was really getting into a great rhythm there was an unfurled Black Flag. My instructor asked me if anything was broken. No, it all felt fine. Waved to the flagger acknowledging the flag I slowed a bit and then we both noticed the next station was holding the Black Flag with a sign ALL under it. Whew, nothing on my car was broken and I knew I hadn’t pulled any bonehead moves. The session was unfortunately over, cut short by a Miata, in the mud.

Looking forward to session four, even with the high thin clouds that obscured the sun. A breeze had kicked up too, darn it was cold. The misfire was plaguing me all day as well. When I’d idle for a few minutes the MINI would stutter, then buck. Toss the P301 misfire code and go into limp mode. Restarting always fixed it. No problem when driving, the issue only manifests it’s self at idle. Session four was a blast. I was finding the limits of the R888’s. They do talk to you, singing when pushed hard. Five laps in just after passing another Porsche I was blasting up the front straight when the Black Flag flew. Looking up the hill you could see a Blue Cayman had lost it in turn 3 and went across the track before going off backwards and getting (every one now please) Stuck in the Mud. Another session cut short.

Being the last session of the day I beat feet out of there. Once home I tried to diagnose the misfire issue. First changing the plug in #1. Nope. Then changing the wire to #1. Nope. Next I’m going to try a different coil pack. But for now the car runs like a raped ape, just doesn’t idle well. I can deal with that.

Back out there again tomorrow (Sunday). I may write up that day too, we’ll see if the creative juices feel like flowing.

Track Map

 

Have those creative juices re-kindled themselves Gnatster?