Aug. 16th Autocross

Yesterday was another local autocross, this time behind the Boscov’s at Clifton Park Center. This was the first time we ran at this lot (last season, we had a smaller lot in a different location at CPC) and I was fairly impressed. From what I felt, there were none of the crashing bumps that reveal themselves at speed at our Adirondack Community College or McCarty Ave. parking lots. Small, but then I drive a small car, so I can’t complain about that too much.

Unfortunately, the MINI failed in spectacular fashion. First run of the day: I come into a single-cone turnaround pretty quick, brake, smooth downshift to first, coming out of it, time to apply some throttle…. Nope, somebody replaced the go-pedal with a “bag of rocks” pedal. The driver’s side axle I replaced in May broke, the outer joint shearing out of the socket, spraying ball joints across the parking lot.

I’m not entirely sure I got to apply any throttle at all. It was a vicious 180* turnaround, and the axle might have given loose as a result of the downshift adding a bunch of revs in the middle of the tight turn.

It had been clicking for a bit, becoming more noticeable after the last autocross and throughout my trip to Calabogie last month. My bad, shoulda been more proactive. I’m honoring the lifetime warranty, at least until I find or can afford something more robust.

Fortunately I was able to use AAA to get the car home, and it looks like I’ll only be out S&H on the replacement axle. Oh, and I might as well buy that large 30-something MM socket, as it looks like I’ll be doing this job more than once…

So without a single run, I finished DFL and DNF in Street Mod. Behind three Volvos!