As you might have heard, there is this thing called COVID going around, and it really sucks. So, when the opportunity arose to return to Adams Motorsports Park for an afternoon of Time Attack (this time with sunlight) I couldn’t sign up fast enough. Like most things in this current time, extra precautions were taken to ensure minimal germ transfer and ensure appropriate social distancing guidelines were followed.
The only problem is that unlike last time where we would be doing a warm-up lap, three flying laps, and a cool down before coming in; this four-hour-long afternoon session would consist of taking turns doing one warm-up, five hot, two cool, four more hot and then a final cool-down lap before coming in. Up until this point, the Craigslist Miata hadn’t been pushed anywhere near its limit for more than two minutes at a time. All seemed well on the first series of hot laps; however, when we turned up the pace for the following series of hots the car was not so cooperative.
There is a back straight at Adams that requires a quick upshift into third gear somewhere around the flagging tower, before coming back down into second before riding the roller coaster up and down long right and then a quick left-right section that brings you back 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Screaming down this fastest stretch of the track I shift out of second and then, nothing. As the lever shifts to where third should be it’s not going anywhere, something is blocking it. In the blink of an eye and nearly soiling myself, I wait for all the rotating assemblies to slow themselves just enough to lurch the shifter back into second.
The next lap, the same spot, same thing. Except now it’s not just third that is social distancing itself from the rest of the transmission, after disengaging second, the clutch didn’t want to help me find any of the other gears. Luckily track out was just around the bend, so I coasted through the gates in neutral and came to a stop where the car sat to cool down for about 45 minutes. Once the heat dissipated, the clutch came back to life, and we were able to drive home after just one session. While it wasn’t our best showing, the lap times we did post were faster than the last time, and when all was said and done she drove home under her own steam.
