And I Thought I Was a Cool Racecar Driver - Ha!

Leading up to this day, I spent quite a bit of time gaining experience driving on a race track and bought a tow dolly to transport my car. This was the day before my first SCCA competition school and was to be the first time using the dolly to tow my racecar; not exactly an ideal situation. To make life a bit more interesting, I would be towing with a four cylinder Jeep Wrangler. As you would expect I was very nervous about attending the race school and the almost three hour tow from CT to NH with a less than ideal tow vehicle.

I began my journey and not even a mile away from my house, I felt like the car wasn’t properly secured on the tow dolly. I pulled into a parking lot and saw that one of the straps holding the car on became loose. Not like I wasn’t nervous enough before, but I’ve already encountered my first issue. I took a deep breath, repositioned the racecar, and told myself that everything would work out. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway entrance ramp. I never had towed with the Jeep and knew that I was pushing its limits, but getting it up to speed was more challenging than I anticipated. Oh well, what should have I expected? I’d take it nice and easy, after all I’m no huge rush as the school wasn’t until the next morning. A couple of young guys pulled up along side of me in a pimped out car, waived a few times and gave a couple of beeps. I smiled, waived, and though “yup, I’m pretty freakn’ cool towing my racecar.”

Not long after the tow became increasingly difficult and someone else beeped at me. I can’t possibly be that cool, can I? Hmmm. I should probably pull over. I got out of the car which was a bit scary as there really wasn’t a significant amount of room on the side of the highway. You’ve got to be kidding me! I have a driver’s side rear flat tire on the car. Fortunately I was smart and bought along a spare tire just in case. I moved as fast as I could to change the tire, and repositioned the car back onto the tow dolly. It was pretty intense as cars and semi-tractor trailer trucks went zooming by on my side, but I got it done. I shook my head in disbelief, and tried to calm myself down. Onward I went once again. Less than five minutes pass by and a tractor trailer beeps at me while pointing at my racecar. By now I’ve learned I’m so not cool, and immediately pulled over to see smoke coming from the rear of my Prelude’s wheel. In my haste during the last tire change, I pulled the emergency brake on my racecar so it wouldn’t roll away on me. What I failed to do was release the brake after securing it on the tow dolly. Doh! At this point I’m only 15 minutes from my house, had to pull over and reload the trailer, and then change two separate flat tires. What now? I strongly think about using this as a sign that it just wasn’t meant to be and go home.

My wife isn’t exactly into the whole racing thing, but nonetheless she gave me a card where she wrote “dreams are for doing.” I had dreamed of racing ever since I was a young kid, how could I let a few flat tires stop me? I put a racing tire on the back of the Prelude and continued my journey to NH. I wonder if that counts towards a heat cycle?

The trip tested me to the limits, but was well worth it. In the end the school was a blast, I made several friends who remain close to me to this day, and recognized that just because a few things go wrong it doesn’t mean I should throw in the towel. Besides, it made for a memorable experience where I now look back and laugh; eventually it lead to me creating this resource.

We all face these types of obstacles - it’s how we react to them that is most important.