The Wagon and the Race (lowell)

I skipped lowell last year. The year before we came to the line for the last lap and saw one to go for the second time. WTF? Seriously? And either that year or the year before I don't think I even got scored, or G-ride didn't. Total bush league official scoring history at that race.

The race is getting as big as Suckerbrook, pony up and hire someone, it will make a huge difference. Waiting around for 2 hours to see a sheet with just race numbers on it with no times, no way to know who was where, who you finished around, or if the timing even closely matched where you think you finished is crap. How can you protest if you don't know what's going on? Anyway. The end of the race was a cluster and was one more distraction from racing balls out to the end.

The first distraction was on the drive up. Curtis bailed on the race, he had swim practice in the morning and just didn't feel like racing, and my oldest didn't want to spend a day with her sister, so I loaded up the tent her bike and my stuff and we headed out on was really was a most awesome father daughter day. We left 20 minutes later than i had planned, and I decided that maybe this was a morning to get some coffee. Stopped at the Coffee Exchange to fill up my mug with a nice PERU french roast brew, and we were on the road.

And then:
I start hearing a new "wind noise" at highway speed. What the hell? No extra smoke, still have power but that noise is new and that gives me pretty damn close to a full blown anxiety attacks. And I don't race well after them (cue the drive up for the road race at WMSR sitting in traffic). Having my oldest in the car with me probably actually now that I reflect a bit helped keep me from a total melt down but it wasn't that much of a factor given that we were already a little late and time wasn't something I had to spare. She was unaffected and maybe her faith in her Dad's ability to fix anything or my assessment that we'd have no problem getting there kept her relaxed. But there we were on 95 with extra wind noise. We hit 128 and I seemed to be able to punch it and there wasn't really much smoke, but the noise was definitely engine/exhaust/boost/air related. Passed the first emergency turn out and I thought that's what I should do. Looked for the next one. And pulled in and hit the brakes. Got out left the engine Idling and popped the hood, I can hear something. Where is it. Feel around, no leaks on the intercooler piping. But oh the coolant line has come out and the screw between the boost lines worked loose. Grabbed a screwdriver and fixed that. And looked around trying to find the source of the sound. Definitely coming from behind the engine.

Oh, there it is.

Air (exhaust) is blowing out down by the turbo. Shit maybe the flange between the header and the turbo is leaking. Too hot to tell. But it is exhaust and I seem to have some power - if it is the flange there's still enough air driving the turbo.

So we make it to the race, and at some point it got louder.

After racing I grab G-ride to maybe aid in investigation, popped the hood and started poking around. Only to find the down pipe completely detached and resting on the completely rusted studs and nuts. So that explains the 'sound' and that is good and not good. Good in that it is a diesel, exhaust isn't that hot (yes it is hot but not turbo gasser hot) and there's plenty of cool air out there now to keep underhood temps from skyrocketing. And it is drivable mostly. The turbo does a good job of making it pretty quiet and with no pipe attached there's no resonance tuning making it even louder. But the bad is i've gotta find an inexpensive/affordable replacement. Not to mention there are 4 studs going into the turbo flange. This is really going to suck trying to get them off/out of there. And some may have remembered my head gasket exhaust flange saga with the broken bolts and the busted stud. These are 4 studs and 4 rusted nuts going into the turbo. The easiest thing to do would be to buy a new turbo, new oil lines and a whole new down pipe from TDIparts.com but that bill would be a couple thousand dollars. I've got time but I have no money. But I'm dreading trying to get the flange off.

Hey the Cat is probably plugged based on the slightly lower fuel economy and mileage on the vehicle, well no more putting it off.

Looks like I may have figured out what to do on Friday this week. Not much point buying the pipe yet until I can get the flange off the turbo. Really nice timing though, leading into the last two verge races. Sort of like how the season began.

So that's not even the race yet. But the near anxiety attack and the situation really killed much of my focus on racing.

But despite the car and the race, I couldn't have had a better day with my daughter. We had a blast.

Oh on the way home she asked how the engines worked. So I had here pull out some paper and she diagrammed/sketched with my instructions a cylinder (direct injected diesel of course). Pretty cool. She's getting older and we've got plenty of battles to come but yesterday was one of the days I will cherish. And on that whole side of things, the raffle tickets to support Harry Lam's recovery were the best $$ spent. More on that in a bit, or not. Maybe I should just keep writing. It is a Sunday right?

But LIVE now: Superprestige Cyclocross Elite Men live video feed from Hamme-Zogge: http://www.vt4.be/super_test/superprestige.swf

I'll write later

heddwch
G