Brentwood, TN - 13 September  03 - Spokes 'Lucky 13' RoadCross

This would be the 2nd time we traveled to the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home for the Spokes 'Lucky 13' RoadCross. Keyword for this event was "Tires". We had tons of tire trouble at the very start, but everything smoothed out after that.

It all started when we noticed the shoes on the RallyRanger becoming quite worn. We decided to run them as long as possible, hoping they'd hold out until the RoadCross. They held out, and we dropped by our local tire store to pick us out some new tires. 

We had the Spokes RoadCross to do (asphalt), but also possibly a couple more RallyCross events to do (dirt). So I was torn between tires good for the asphalt, and tires with tread made for grabbing fistfuls of dirt. In the end, sanity won out and I went with some regular street tires I found that were like a step below all-terrains. Store put them on order from me, and we scheduled the Friday before the event to have them put on.

6:50 a.m., Friday, 12 Sep, and we were sitting in front of the tire store, first in line to get our new tires. Couldn't wait to get them on and up to TBCH. We did pretty fair a couple months ago with half bald tires, so we ought to do super with fresh tread. 

Wanting to be first in line, we were sitting in front of the tire store at 6:40. At 6:55, I remarked to Kristian that "these folks sure don't come in early". At 7:00, I'm thinking the clock in my truck must be fast. At 7:05, no workers and no other customers . . . this is Friday morning isn't it? At 7:13, Kristian calls my attention to a piece of paper on the door. It's then that I notice the paper is posted right beside a black wreath. Walking up to the door we read that there had been a death in the family and that the store wouldn't reopen until the following Monday.

Saddened about the families loss . . but, but, . . . what about my tires? What about tomorrows race? If I took the current tires up there, it would be nothing but a spin-fest. There was just no real tread left to get any kind of grip under power. There was another tire store in town, so we quickly headed over there (of course, it was now almost 7:15a.m., so much for being first in line).

Well, lucky for us, this other tire store didn't open until 7:30, so we were still first in line. (However now we had to go thru the process of looking at all their tires and trying to pick out something that fit our requirements. We did this as they dismounted our old tires. I picked out the best they had, but I didn't like them as good as the ones I had picked out at the first place, plus the set run us $50 more than what we'd been quoted at the first location. Oh well, that's racing.

Things moved slowly and we didn't get home till after 9am. Finished loading the big truck, packing our bags, then loading the RallyRanger onto the trailer. Due to the limited size of our front yard, we just pulled the trailer out into the road and loaded the RallyRanger there. This was ok since we live on a dead end road with very little traffic.

As we finish tying the RallyRanger down, Kristian notices that the trailer has a flat. (Brand new tires, not 6 month old and only 3 trips on them). Darn, now we have to unload the RallyRanger back off the trailer as the whole trailer/ranger combo was heavier than anything I had a jack for. Then I remembered the 'better' way of changing a trailer tire, on a dual axle trailer. We just rode the front tire up on a block of wood, which raised the rear tire off the ground.

Grabbing our C02 tank we attempted to air the tire back up. This didn't work as the tire was off the bead and I couldn't get it back on. It was past time that I had planned on leaving, so we drove slowly back to the tire shop (2nd one) and removed the tire from the trailer there in the parking lot. They worked on it for about 15-20 minutes before they gave up on it, being unable to get the tire back on the rim. They recommended a shop in the next town over, so we unhooked the F-250 from the trailer and headed out with the tire.

Once at tire store #3, they found a nail in the tread, and in no time the nail was out and the tire was back on the rim. Then back to the trailer, tire back on, and we were finally on the road. Rest of the trip was uneventful and we pulled into our motel in Athens, AL after a nice meal at the 'Hungry Fisherman'.

Next a.m. we were up early and over to the McDonalds across the street for breakfast. Two of the guys were already there, and we ate and waited for the other two. Then off the convoy went toward Nashville, TN. We usually get a couple looks and waves as we head down the road, but this time, in a convoy of 5 other competitors, we got tons of looks, stares, waves, and horns. First in line was the trailered Formula Vee, then the roll-barred Miata, then the stripped down Sirocco, then the trailered Lotus Super 7 replica, then us bringing up the rear with our trailered RallyRanger. A very interesting looking line of vehicles to be sure, especially if there were any race fans traveling in the opposite direction. The place we got the most looks was after coming off the interstate onto Concord Road there in Brentwood. Every passenger in every car stopped at the lights there on Concord was gawking out the windows, I guess trying to figure out where all the race vehicles were heading.

The course was a little different, the cone on the basketball court was gone, replace by a series of tight slaloms in the parking lot where we had staged last time. There was also a small chicane at the entrance to the basketball court, to slow you down for the hard left hander. Everything past that was the same, the final 180 was a little looser with the cone being moved out somewhat and the last couple cones from last time being removed. Still folks had problems with that tight turnaround.

My runs were fair, the new tires performed well, even though I still had them crying thru most of the tighter turns. Around the tree into the hard left hander after the long downhill run was particularly exciting as the tires squalled from before the tree all the way till after I passed the telephone pole. Wish we had caught a couple of those passes on video.

Speaking of video, we did manage to get a small bit of video before the battery ran out. Couldn't find the spare, so tape time was only about 20 minutes (including filming some of the ride up). Also didn't take many pictures this time as there just wasn't a lot of time. Did manage to get some pics of Mark Rothermel's Formula Vee after his little head-on encounter with the tree. Damaged, but it didn't stop him as he went back out without a nose piece and posted another run or two.

This event we had some competition from another Ford Ranger. It was a 'Splash' model with the larger 4.0 liter engine (ours is the 3.0 liter). Due to his engine size, he actually classed above us in Class 8. Don't know how we finally did against him, but for a while, our times were comparable.

Lots of nice cars again at this event. Some I remembered from the earlier event, plus a good many  'new' ones. Kristian especially liked the Mini, which I must admit looked pretty sharp. (However I doubt the two of us would be able to fit comfortably in one). My favorite was the little Datsun racer. The Z06 Corvette that took FTD (or TTOD) was as sharp looking as he was fast.