Fast forward a week, and it's time to prepare for the next track event, two days at 'The Point', a driver education event with Metro PCA at Summit Point, WV. During the trip home from Pocono, driving on the 'wonderful' streets of NY city (the lovely George Washington bridge, the scenic Cross Bronx Expressway, and the always a pleasure Major Deegan expressway, etc.) had resulted in a strange clunking sound from the front suspension. The pre-track tech inspection, performed by my ace mechanic (that would be me) discovered the source of the noise - a loose ball joint on the lower control arm. Anyone familiar with the 944 series II (86+) cars, knows that the ball joint is not user serviceable, instead, the control arm must be replaced. Well, ball joint failures aren't exactly rare, and I had anticipated that mine would not last forever, so I had purchased spare control arms last year.

Unfortunately, when I purchased the used control arm, I had the bright idea of replacing the stock rubber bushing with a Weltmeister poly graphite bushing. The poly bushings are stiffer, and should result in better handling. Well, before the new bushing can be installed, the old bushing has to be removed. This is no easy feat (when it comes to working on Porsches, there is no such thing as an easy feat, but this is really a pain in the you know what), and I gave up and left the used control arms in my track tool box, along with the special new bushing. Now, when I needed to install the control arm, I had to first replace the bushing, because I had damaged the old one last year. To shorten this painful story, after 6 hours of work, the car was ready to go to Summit Point (while I'm not the best mechanic in the world, I'm not the worst either, and I did do some other tasks in that 6 hours).

The RV was back, and running better than ever. A new right side exhaust manifold had been installed, and the motor was purring like a kitten. Now that the engine was quiet, I was reminded of all the other squeaks, rattles, and assorted other noises an old RV makes.

So, Sunday night, at about 10:00PM, I was eating a Buritto in the Inwood, WV, Taco Bell. My friend Henry and I spent a pleasant evening in the RV, and we were at the track and unloaded by 8:00 AM on Monday.

On the track we go. This is my first time back at Summit since the club race there last October. I remember the track, and start to have some fun. I'm driving easy laps, making sure the car is OK. The control arm seems fine, the tires were working well (an old set of Hoosiers that were sitting in my basement) and life was good. The session was pretty long, and I came in early to check the car over.

Some memorable moments:
Second run on Monday - I follow Henry onto the track. Do the warm up lap, all is well. Into the braking zone for T1, downshift, turn in. I'm getting back on the power when I see what appears to be a wall of mud and water across the track. My eyeballs almost popped out, but there was nothing to do, too late to take evasive action. I lifted off the throttle and prepared for the slide. Not too bad, and I caught it without too much difficulty. For the next lap, I was ready for the mud, and drove through there gingerly. However, there was another set of mud / water tracks a little further up the road. I tried to steer to the right to miss it, but the back end kicked out pretty far. I caught the skid, but it took a while before my pulse rate dropped. I was recording video during that run, and it was pretty interesting to see. There was nothing from the flaggers for about two laps, then the slippery flag came out - too late to be useful. After I came in, I found that someone went off track and sent all the mud on it, then another car went off after sliding in the mud, and that brought even more mud on. Once you knew were it was, it wasn't too bad

Here's a shot after I ran through the mud. Normaly, my car is a lot cleaner than this! Photo credit Vince Ponzo

The last run of the day was the most fun. I followed Henry onto the track, and right behind me was another 944 TS. Mike Macaluso, whom I first met at Bridgehampton at my first track day back in April of '94, was there with his recently acquired 88 turbo S. Mike drove a normally aspirated 944 for a long time, and I hadn't seem him at the track in way too long. Mike is a great driver, and we've had lots of fun runs together. His car is very nice, the engine is chipped so that it makes about 300 HP, but he was on street tires, so I knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with Henry and me.  I was wrong. First lap out, Mike is all over my behind.  Henry is working up to speed slowly, and I want to take it easy and not wear out my tires too quickly. Second lap, and I give up and Mike gets the passing signal. He's now all over Henry, but Henry is now up to speed, and driving very well. Mike has the edge in HP, but Henry has a big advantage in handling. We tear around the back side of the course, Henry, Mike, then me. As Mike steams through the chute, I see his car start to slide. He catches it, then can't get slowed enough for the left that leads into the carousel. I figure that he's over-driven his street tires, and that he'll slow, and let me pass. Wrong again! He doesn't even lift off the throttle. I've got a ring side seat as I watch him wrestle the car around. The front tires are turning back and forth as he fights to keep control of the car, the rear tires are fighting for traction, the car is leaned over in the carousel, and I'm laughing in my helmet at the site of it all. As we climb the hill towards the last turn, Mike gives me the passing signal, but he doesn't lift off the throttle, and I can't catch him. Same thing onto the front straight. My sticky race tires give me a much better launch onto the front straight, but once his car makes full boost there's no way I can catch him on Summit's long front straight. He slides a lot more at the end of the straight, and I think that I do want to get past him before he goes off the track. I pass in the next corner, Wagon Bend, then take off after Henry. Forget about the tires, I'm having too much fun to slow down. I catch Henry, and he gives me the passing signal. That run was really great.

After it ended, we had some good laughs in the paddock. That is, until we looked at our tires. Three 944 Ts's, each one with a corded right front tire. Oh well, time to find some more tires, and get them mounted for the next day. We eventually found a place and got the tires mounted. I now had 3 mostly worn out Hoosiers, and 1 mostly worn out Kumho. Not the best setup, but good enough to run the next day.

Tuesday was another great day. Not too much memorable happened on the track. The car ran great, although I corded two tires after two runs. That's what you get for running hard on worn out rubber. Time for a new set of V700's. Anyway, the track driving was great, but the trip home was another story.

Henry and left the track early, around 2:00 PM. Should be a smooth easy trip home, and I hope to miss the NY traffic. We're about 5 minutes from the track, on the local roads, when we come to a 'T' intersection. Henry stops at the stop sign, I press the brakes and start to slow. Wait a minute, I'm not slowing very much. Press harder, I'm slowing, but Henry's Porsche on his trailer is getting real large in front of me. I press harder on the brakes, and I hear the sound of locking tires. I'm still not slowing very quickly, and Henry's car is like right there in front of me. I think that I can't hit Henry, but there is no way I'm going to stop in time. Time to take emergency evasive action, in a 24' RV towing a 3000 lb car on an 18' trailer. I get off the brakes, yank the wheel to the left and fly past Henry. I have to turn pretty far left to make the trailer clear his car, so I have to go across the left lane and onto the left shoulder. There's the stop sign, and I'm aimed right at it. Oh well, better to run that over than hit Henry. I try to get back to the right to avoid it, but crash, I get it right on the left front. The stop sign bends down, then proceeds to rip off my left side rear view mirror as I pass it. I continue through the intersection, make the left turn, and stop on the right shoulder. Thankfully no one was approaching the intersection, and I was able to make it all the way through. I get out and examine the RV. The front mirror mount is ripped off, the last 5' of the RV is scraped, and the back corner took a pretty good hit. Oh yeah, I have 350 miles to travel, and the brakes don't quite work right!

Henry pulls over and we talk for a bit. He was impressed with my 'car' control skills. I'm depressed that I have damaged the RV, and I wonder how I'm going to get home. To make a long story short, the brakes didn't work very well. I did drive home, being sure to leave lots of room between me and the vehicle in front. After I got home I checked the brakes and replaced the master cylinder. Hey, having brakes is a good thing! My theory is that the cracked exhaust manifold boiled the brake fluid. Pumping the brakes enough to make them work damaged the seals in the m/c. Oh well, it's fixed now.