DUBWAR 2002 **** NOVEL ****

[skerocdriver@juno.com (Shawn c Meze)]

Well, gotta say you guys blew it yet again. For those of you brave enough
to make the long trek down, I hope you were not dissapointed with what
you saw. :)

Heres me story:

Friday 8-16. 

The events of my pops moving took away all of my spare time so I didnt
get to prep the cars as well as I had wanted to. I was able to get the
oil cooler kit together and bring it along with the idea that I could
install it at some point. The Suburban and 82 Scirocco were mated via tow
dolly. The 84 was being driven by a friend who up til now hadnt driven a
Scirocco and he has always bugged me to let him drive one. What better
way to get someone to drive a car for you eh?

We leave Santee around 10amish. Get up to pottermans place before noon.
Load up his race tires then BS a bit and we get on the road ahead of the
Potter peeps (im slow and towing they will catch me.). Much to our
amazement, we hit traffic on the 5. Stop and go, this is gonna be a long
drive up. At some point Matt (driving the 84) calls me on the talkabout
and says "I cant keep the car running and im stopped". GREAT! Were in the
#2 lane and Im directly in front of him so I park it right where it is.
Run back, check the FPR nadda, pump is running but it cranks, run, dies.
Its gotta be the fuel pump and guess what, I didnt bring one with me this
trip. So, I tell him turn hard right and ill push you off the freeway. he
does and the kind LA people let us thru to the right side shoulder. Now,
the shoulders in LA arent that wide to begin with and for some odd
reason, they decide to plant these really stout bushes there too. 

I get the Suburban off the freeway but I cant get the back of the 82 out
of the slow lane so I decide to just drive INTO the bushes. They're soft,
they'll grow back. Um, NO. Its like hitting a brick wall. The back of the
roc is still a little in the slow lane, if i get hit, its my fault. A tow
truck driver was cool enough to block the slow lane while I try to back
up a car on a tow dolly. If you know anything about tow dollies, they
dont back up well. The pivot plate turns one way, the rear wheels goes
another. You got maybe 8 feet of backup space before you jacked. I got
lucky and I backed it up a good 20ft! Pulled it over and we start to drop
the 82 off the dolly and load up the 84. As I back the 82 off I learn
that I hadnt disconnedcted one of the chains I had around the lower
stress bar. It ripped the driver side off the heim joint. Nothing else to
do but grab the bar and complete the proccess and rip the bar off the
car. Joy. 

New problem. There isnt enough room to get one off and the other on. I
need to get the 82 as close to the wall as I can so I drive it as close
as I can see, not realizing there are pipes sticking out of the lower
part of the wall just out of view. SCRAPE! I think its the bumper on the
wall. No harm there I think. We get the 84 pushed up on the dolly when
Matt says, Shit Shawn, look at the fender on the 82. Oh, nice. Atta boy
Shawn. Nice long dent and scrape on the fender AND as a bonus the right
Euro turn signal is crushed. Just enough lense in place to be legal but
its fragged.

Right about now we get a CHP pull in behind us. He walks up and asks,
"Who needs the report"? We look at him and say, HUH? Report for what? He
says, "you dont need an accident report"? I say, No, we didnt have an
accident, this car broke, we traded cars on the tow dolly and were trying
to get out of here. He says, "who's car is this"? (points to the 82) I
say, MINE. "Oh, who's car is that" (points to the 84) I say again, Mine.
he looks confused and I so cant help him. So then it all comes to him and
he says never mind, have a good day. We scramble to get back on the road
and I pull out into the slow lane (thanks CHP for holding up traffic for
us!) only to realize the parking brake is ON in the 84. I drag it a good
while before I stop on the freeway, jump out and fly back to the 84 to
release the parking brake. Fly back to the surburban jump in, put it in
drive and go. 

Meanwhile I call Potterman and ask him if he has a spare fuel pump, nope,
he brought the VR6 so no, no A1 parts. Just my luck since I ALWAYS bring
a spare with me just cuz. He pulls off the freeway behind us and tries to
locate one at a dealer. That, im told, turns into a mini car show for
their customers and salesmen as they oogle over his 24V VR6 with the
coilovers and euro bumpers ect. Car is clean and to the best of out
knowlege, the only red on in CA. They dont have a fuel pump but he scores
one elsewhere and someone who is comming up saturday will pick it up for
me. KEWL. 

We sit in traffic another 3 hours the 82 is running great but it has a
small hole in the valve cover and its leaking oil onto the alt belt. We
add a couple qts of oil and wash it down with brake cleaner. So it ends
up being a 7 hour tow up to Buttonwillow. The Suburban towed amazing well
considering it was loaded with 2.5 sets of race tires, tools, spare
parts, tools, spare parts and other race related items. The grapevine was
not an issue this trip. We get to the hotel, check in and crash. 

Saturday 8-17:

Ahh, what a great morning. We get up, have a good breakfast downstairs
with the Potterpeeps and head out to the track. We set up in the pits and
are allowed track time until 12:30. Its 10:30. I decide we can go ahead
and set the car up for the track and see if the fuel pump will run long
enough to get in a couple laps. Better to have a couple than none. 

We discover that we had left the key switch on in the 84 and the battery
is dead. Had to buy jumper cables. Jump it, it runs and we leave it
running so the battery will charge. So we load up the car with me and
Matt (Never been in a Scirocco before friday, never been in one in racing
conditions either.) We leave the pits and go WOT into turn
one............
bahh......hh.....hhhhh.hhhhhh.......................hhhhh...........h....
.... Shit. Fuel pump died again and I got 2.5 miles to get around the
track back to the pits. Somehow I manage to get back and we enquire about
the ETA of the fuel pump, he's in town! Great! So we procede to drop the
old pump out and wait. While we wait, we decide to drop the US bumpers to
save a little weight, maybe I can compete with the turbo cars and the
VR6's? 

So while im slaving away on the fuel pump, this guy is roming around
video taping me. It bugs. Go away. He wants to see my new helmet. Go
away, im busy im thinking but OK, I like my new helmet so Julie gived it
to him and he takes video of it. Hes a really nice guy, personable but
you know, im busy, go away. We get the pump in, Matt jumps in the car all
giddy like a little girl and it fires right up. Thats a good sign! 

We head out on the track (Running backwords for some reason on saturday)
and I pass the point where it died the last try and its still running AND
its fast. It just pulls like a ox and I keep on it. My first lap is a
recon lap because its been years since ive ran Buttonwillow backwards.
Going into the "bus stop" I couldnt see the course until too late, I did
a litte rally driving (you woulds been proud of me Scott!) and came back
on at the end of the bus stop. OK, now I know the course, time to get
quicker andf try a few lines. Next thing I know, im catching a 1.8T. OK,
now im passing him! WOW, this car IS fast. Matt is scared yet excited.
Especially when I tried to go over Magic Mountain at WOT ( Hey man, I
thought it would stick!) and we ended up in a very light 4 wheel drift
accross thetrack and sideways in the dirt again. Again, Scott woulda been
proud. All my time driving the rally cars in GT2 & 3 have paid off! LOL!!
Drive thru it and back on the track and Matt thinks im a god and thanks
me for saving his life. Shaddup dude. It was fun tho. :) 

So in practice I catch and pass ALOT of turbo cars. The Renner boys were
out in FORCE with their built Rocs. Philip Royale (EuroTuner mag,
"Project Scirocco") was there in his roc but I was never able to run when
he was out there. Practice was FUN! Matt wants to sell his Toyota Truck
and buy a Roc. 

Practice closes and we get setup for Sundays festivities. 

Sunday. DUBWAR. ITS ON! :

Yup, I woke up all by myself sunday morning like a 8 year old at Xmas.
Head downstairs for B-fast and were to the track. First up for me is the
autox. But first im helping with tech inspections ect. I get the 82 to
the grid and get ready to have fun. TTOD is a 63.6 so far. Dunno who set
it. I go out on my first run and find downed cones everywhere, so I get a
rerun. I pull into the pits to find Mr. Doty sitting there with his turbo
car at his first autox! He ran good too considering he was on street
tires and it was his very first autox event. I think he got down to a 64?
He seemed to have a very good time there.  

So back to the action, I go oit on my firtst run and take TTOD right
away. Then I improve on it by a little. Next thing I know, Potterman in
his VR6 takes the top spot from me by like .7 with a low 62! Thats alot
and I dont think I can find that much more time out there. Then Hal
(Potterman co-drives his relatively setup G-Stock VR6 GTi in SD events.)
beats us both! I got one more run gotta make it count, gotta flow the
course. So I did, banzaii'd the course and some how got a 61.5. Im
feeling pretty good about it until I see Bill Cadenhead kill me in his EP
Rabbit with a TTOD 60.xx. (The classes were messed up, there were 2
classes, GS and HS. Somehow we all got put into HS.) 

So I ended up with a 2nd place trophy in HS. It was a fun course! 

Next up is hte burnout contest. How do I make it better than the previous
year? Hmm, what to do... Well, I have the set ofrace slicks from last
year out in the backyard. They've been baked in the sun for a year so
they're probably really hard by now, they will smoke well. Next tip for
you is to fill them to 50psi. Yup. So I mount up the tires and head over
to the burnout area. I watch a bunch of people tryingtheir hand at it.
Therewere a couple really good ones too, they tried to duplicate my
previous years tire deflation immitation. Know whad im sayin? Was all
good. I thought ahead this year since last year it almost made me puke in
the car. I brought with me a respirator from work. HAR! 

So everyone else is kinda done. I line up and people notice the
respirator and laugh. Was funny. Rev it up and dump the clutch, rev 1st
gear to get them hot, shift to 2nd and hold it to the floor. The video
speaks for itself really. The 50spi really helps to give the people a
LOUD pop when it finally blows. It wasnt lound in the car but the video I
have outside the car, it was LOUD. The crowd goes nuts and I drive away
so they can take pics of the blown tire. People love that shit. I dont
get it. The respirator paid off as im breathing comfortable while the
smoke pours thru the car and im fine. KEWL. 

So, yeah, I got the burnout King title now and I get to come back next
year to defend my 2 time tittle. whoo. 

Next up is the road race, the real reason im here! The expert class goes
out 4th. Beginner , novice, intermediate groups go out first and run a 10
minute race. fastest overall lap from 2 sessions wins those groups. For
the expert class, its all about position. The first expert class session
broke alot of really fast cars. Eurosports 1.8L 20v car broke a tensioner
and man, HE IS FAST. Bill Cadenheads EP Rabbit broke the header in the
autox and he tried to make it work for the RR but it wasnt happening. So
for the main event im lined up 9th on the grid but because the other cars
are broke, im 5th. 

Green flag and the Rabbit on the pole doesnt go, so Potterman and greg
(In his red 325hp 2.0L 20vT Cabrolet) pass therabbit on the right, I dart
left and we gang bang the rabbit into turn 1. I manage to slide up in
front of the Cabrolet and get behind Potterman. Much to my surprise, im
able to hang with Potterman. Im on his ass the whole first lap. By lap 3
I pass him going into the bus stop. He gives me room. I start to feel a
power loss on the fast 5th WOT sweeper and I see Potterman darting around
behind me. Its redlined on the coolant temp and I cant even see the oil
temp. Its pegged. I know I need to protect my line but if he is going to
make a move, I will let him have it. Up and over magic Mtn I take the
slow line trying to protect but hes got a good run on me. I pull over to
the left giving him the inside line and thats pretty much how it ends.
Potter got 1st and I hung onto 2nd. At one point on the 2nd lap the Turbo
16V Renner Scirocco was on my ass and I figured id try and hold him off
for Potterman. For some reason he fell way back. I could see that we were
WAY ahead of the rest of the group that I could back off and not blow up
the car. It was just too hot for the 84. The oil cooler would of helped
but you know how it goes. I rather thought Potters VR6 would run hot
since they ALWAYS run hot. He never slowed. Great drive for him. I was
extremely happy to finish 2nd. Virtual World cars did very well
yesterday! 

The car was amazing. For being a little 1.8L 8v....... we showed how its
done. 

To top it off, the drive home was only 4 hours last night! What a great
ending to a great weekend. Cant wait til next year. 

On a side note, there was not a SINGLE SCIROCCO in the car show. u guys
suk. Im so dissapointed in that. Sokay tho, your loss not mine. Im
thinking next year we make this the event to attend. There were a couple
visitors from the Washington area (No, not that whiney puss Fenton, he
had to do his nails...) who surprised me with a visit! Ill let them chime
in with whatever comments they might have. Mad props to them for making
the trek! 

Anyways, hopefully video will be available soon and I think they're also
making a DUBWAR 2002 video sort of like the WF video only it will have
cars and racing action in it, not bugging people about "when are you
gonna do a VR swap" crap. (Like I saw on their 98 video.) I heard the
video crew has well over 11 hours of footage. Cant wait! We ran into the
crew at Denny's after the event and I was talking abouthte dude who
pretty much followedm e around everywhere I went (it seemed). Dude in the
booth behind us puts on his yellow hat and smiles at me. I said NO WAY...
its him. They were told to videotape sorta incognito. Worked, I didnt
know they were working. but I did notice 5 guys with really nice video
cameras. :) 

Anyways, thats my weekend and my cars run. 


Shawn Méze 
86' Jetta GLi 8V   88' Corvette -SS 30- 2001 SDR Solo2 Champion
82' Scirocco GTi -FSP 54-   79' "Project FSP Scirocco"  84' Scirocco 8V
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and best looking Scirocco(s) in all of
San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm



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