World Challenge Race - Round 8
Laguna Seca Raceway
7-9 September 2003

A Wrenching Weekend...

Ya know, just because I jokingly refer to them as "twisty-tighteny" things,
doesn't mean that I don't expect my technicians to know how to use a wrench.
OK, that's a bit harsh, but the World Challenge race at Laguna Seca was a tough
weekend for me. Reminds me of that old saying about the horseshoe nail.

For want a nail, the horse was lost;
for want of a horse, the rider was lost;
for want of a rider, the battle was lost;
for want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,
and all for want of a horseshoe nail.

All I wanted all weekend was for all the nuts, bolts and various wires on the
car to stay snug and secure. Alas, 'twas not to be.

It was tough even getting the car to Monterey that weekend. After the
incident during testing at Road America, we'd had to thrash to get the car back
together in time for Ford to display it for their Revvin' with Ford deal during the
Woodward Dream Cruise in Michigan. The car wasn't running when it was
delivered to Ford, but it looked gorgeous and they were pleased with it. I signed
hundreds of autographs and talked to countless people about my racing, World
Challenge, Ford and their Mobility Motoring program.

For those of you who are unaware, Mobility Motoring is the program Ford has
to reimburse customers who buy new, Ford products and have adaptive equipment
installed on it. For instance, when I bought my '95 Mustang GT street car, I
had standard push/pull type brake/throttle hand controls installed by an
aftermarket company. That sort of thing usually costs around $600. Ford reimbursed me
for that cost. They will also pay for things like alerting devices for people
with hearing impairments, lumbar seats and pedal extensions. Things that will
make the car more accessible to people with disabilities. It's a program that
I took advantage of before I ever began racing and one that I'm pleased to be
s spokesperson for now that we are being supported by Ford.

So, like I said, I had been excited to be included in our sponsor's event and
Ford was pleased with the result, but it was still hard on the rest of the
crew to get the car to Detroit, then back to the shop to finish getting it ready
for Laguna and then up to the track in time to make that race. They did it
though, just like they always do.

For crew, Paul had brought in Wes, a young guy who had interned at HP
Motorsport years before. He's a great guy, good with his hands and never stops
working. He was always buzzing around the car, getting stuff done. Whether it was
torquing wheels, double checking the electronics or just wiping the car down to
make it pretty, Wes just got things done with little supervision. And he's
funny too. Just the kind of guy we like having around.

I know this track pretty well, having raced here more often than at any track
other than Willow Springs, but I hadn't been there in about two years. On top
of that, I admit that I was a bit apprehensive after the incident at Road
America. I rather expected to be jumping at every noise, every smell and every
vibration coming from the car. I was right about that.

The morning test session on Thursday was nerve wracking. I was far too
preoccupied with making sure that the car was running well and that I didn't do
anything stupid and bend any newly straightened panels to be able to drive fast.
In other words, I was slow. Slower than I had been in the Ferrari and that's
saying something. Basically, I didn't trust that the car was going to hold
together under me, so I decided to throw Paul in and have him shake her down. If he
told me that the car was solid, then I'd believe him.

Well, Paul jumped in and quickly showed how good a shape the car was really
in. Overall, she handled great. There were only a couple of problems evident,
but we'd known about those already. The first problem that we found was that
the pulley for the supercharger was slipping. That meant that as the revs
climbed, the belt for the Vortech supercharger would slip. When the belt slips, you
get less boost. Less boost means less power. Less power, means slower lap
times. Now, even though Paul's "slower" lap times were faster than mine had been,
they still weren't as quick as we needed them to be in order to be really
competitive.

The other problem we'd been having with the car had to do with the
differential slipping and causing the inside, rear tire to spin on corner exit. Not
being able to get the power down during cornering kills your top end speed. The
only thing to do for that problem was to manage it for this race. Ease off the
throttle when you sense the wheel starting to spin and then get back on the
power as soon as the tire gains traction. It's a balancing act.

Once Paul reassured me that the car was holding together as it should and I
didn't have to worry that every creak and whiff of fumes signaled impending
doom, then I could concentrate a bit more on driving. Not that one isn't always
monitoring the car for changes, both positive and negative. It's just that I'd
been a bit paranoid when I didn't need to be and Paul's assurances got me past
that.

Although, just because the car wasn't in danger of imploding on itself didn't
mean that there was no chance of anything going wrong. Even the minor stuff
can end your session early.

The third and last session on Thursday did just that. I ran a few laps,
picked up some time and then, as I was downshifting and braking for Turn 2 at the
end of the long, front straight, I felt the car lose power. I got back on the
throttle, but coming around the corner, the car lugged and still felt like I
only had half the pistons firing. As I said, I was a bit paranoid at that time
and figured it would be best to pull off track immediately rather than risk
breaking anything major. I eased off into the gravel just past Turn 2, radioed to
Paul that there was a problem and waited for the tow truck.

Back in the paddock, the guys looked the car over, free revved it on the
stands and ran thru the gears. They didn't find anything wrong.

OK. Well, that doesn't mean that there isn't work to do. Paul and Wes spent
the evening looking the car over, taking things apart and putting them back
together. It all seemed very technical to me. One thing they found that was
puzzling was some damage to the impeller in the supercharger. The blades all looked
chewed up as though a rock or something had gotten thru the filter. We
couldn't figure out how though.

Friday morning dawned bright and early and I was looking forward to getting
back out there and really digging in. We got to pregrid early enough that I had
time to get impatient waiting to be waved on track. Eventually we were
ushered down the pit lane, but then had to wait another few minutes there. Finally,
the green flag waved and the line of cars moved out. Unfortunately, I didn't
get very far.

I was half way down pit out when the car lost power again. I tried down
shifting and revving the motor up, but it died completely just as I turned the
corner onto the track proper. I was stuck with my nose sticking out onto the track
just past Turn 2. I tried restarting it and while the starter worked, the
engine just wouldn't catch. Talk about frustrating. Paul told me that the tow
truck was on its way over and I hoped that they could tow me off track and we
could get the car running in time to make a few laps near the end of the session.
Didn't happen. They towed me into the gravel between Turns 2 and 3 and left
me there to watch my competitors circle the track for the next half hour. Dad
told me over the radio that this would be a good opportunity to study the line
from Turn 2 to 3, but after about 10 minutes I'd had about enough of that and
started wishing I'd brought a book with me or that we could pipe music thru my
headset.

When the session finally ended and the car got back to the paddock for the
guys to look over, what they found was as simple to fix as it was frustrating to
discover. It seems that when the supercharger had been taken apart and then
reinstalled, one of the hose clamps had not been tightened down completely and
a hose had slipped off the bypass valve. This created a massive intake leak
which the computer read as the wrong amount of air and so was flooding the motor
with fuel to compensate. A quick turn of the wrench fixed that problem, but I
was running out of time to get up to speed for the race. Only one practice
session left.

Back on track in the afternoon and this time I got in the full session. My
times came down to within a few seconds of Paul's, which is what we were looking
for, and the car was running great. We were all set for qualifying on
Saturday morning.

I managed exactly three laps during qualifying.

After I crossed Start/Finish for the third time and began braking and
downshifting for Turn 2, I felt a change in the car again. It felt like the car lost
power or wouldn't catch a gear. It was difficult to tell which gear I was in
because the digital gear shift display had gone on the fritz sometime the day
before. That can make your life difficult in this car because the gear changes
are sequential and if, for instance, you request a number of downshifts at
once and the car refuses at some point, you may not realize it until you put the
power back on and the car lugs because you are in too high a gear. Having that
digital readout to glance at can make life much easier.

As I was coasting around Turn 2, at first I wasn't sure if the car was low on
power or if I was just in a high gear. The car was moving, but not very fast
and the engine wouldn't rev above 4000 rpm or so. That was when I realized the
car was in "limp mode." I remember that from my old car. It meant that there
was something wrong with the transmission and the computer was in a protective
mode. You can't engage a gear higher than third and it won't let you over rev
the engine. So you can literally only limp the car around, which is what I
did.

Once back in the paddock, I was incredibly disappointed. My best time in
those three laps had only been a 1:43 and that wasn't good enough to qualify. Paul
and Wes starting tearing into the car to figure out what was wrong and came
up with an answer pretty quickly. The gear select actuator was out of
alignment. Why? Loose bolts.

The Mustang is able to complete a gear shift in less than 250 milliseconds.
That's less than the blink of an eye. If the mechanical bits aren't in perfect
alignment, which the computer can tell via multiple sensors, then it will go
into limp mode to keep from having a catastrophic failure. That's what happened.

             

Since we didn't have the proper parts with us, we had to hunt down a specific
bit of hardware in order to realign the actuator. We also had to get on the
phone with Ford to have them walk us thru the procedure. John and Craig were
both willing to spend time that night on the phone with us to get the job done.
I wouldn't have made it back on track without their help.

And back on track we were. Race day with almost no practice time again, but
hey! I'm practically a professional. Well, I play one on TV anyway.

My old tech, Junior, his wife and their friends were there for the weekend
and Junior's wife was nice enough to help us out for this race. Since she is a
few months pregnant, I told her that she didn't need to wear the usual belly
shirt and lowrider pants on grid to match the other "Flag Girls."

Wes rode along for the parade lap and then Paul was there helping me cinch in
tight for the race. I wasn't worried about the car, but I was a little
confused about how to best handle the standing start in this car. I hadn't done one
in months and had momentary brain fade over whether I should hold the brake
and rev the motor up or... and then the red lights that had been quietly coming
on at the side of the track suddenly blinked out and the green flag was
waving.

It wasn't a good start, but I didn't fall back too far. That is, until Turn
9. My tires didn't have enough heat in them and I lost it coming around the
corner. It was a stupid mistake and it cost me a lot of time. All I could do was
gather the car back up underneath me and begin the chase. There was a silver
BMW out there with a fuzzy, bunny tail on its bumper and I needed to catch it.
It took about 5 laps, but I finally got by him. Unfortunately, one of the
Corvettes had a problem just before the corkscrew and there was a full course
caution just as the leaders began lapping the field. The cars that I was after
were able to catch up with the tail of the field behind me, effectively putting
them out of my reach. After that, all I could do was struggle to stay ahead of
them and avoid being lapped by as many as possible.

Mark Kibort and I battled it out for a number of laps before we got tangled
in traffic and he squeaked by me. Before that, we had a few interesting moments
with Davis in his Saleen. He got past the two of us in Turn 7, but must have
had some problem with his car going down thru the Corkscrew at 8. I was hot on
his tail, trying to keep what Paul is always telling me in mind about staying
close and tight when following another car, when I realized that I was
getting really close because his car wasn't accelerating away like I expected. In
fact, he had a major bobble coming out of the Corkscrew and Mark and I had to
dive off track into the dirt to avoid hitting him. Whatever happened to his car,
he recovered quickly enough and passed us again.

I ended the race two spots up from where I'd been gridded which isn't my best
finish, but it's a finish and that is always good. The car was in one piece,
my times had been consistent, and the car had run the distance. I think the
Ford fans in the stands were pleased with that. At least, all the ones that came
up to me after the race seemed pretty thrilled.

There was a group of about 6 or 7 young, teen boys who were cheering and
screaming compliments about how cool my car was as I was driving it back to the
paddock. I lost track of how many guys came by to say how great it was to see a
Ford out there competing with the Vettes and the European cars. And then there
were all the women who told me how much they enjoyed watching another woman
go bumper-to-bumper against all those men on the track. So my car may have lost
a bolt or two, but I think Tiger Racing gained a few fans anyway.

For more information about Ford's Mobility Motoring Program, please visit
their website at: Mobility Motoring Homepage