CAM Challenge at Grissom: cracked wheel hub

So this weekend sucked. I drove out to Indiana for the CAM challenge, about 3 hours away. Driving there was uneventful other than kinda uncomfortable in the car. I get there and they are doing the test and tune. $10 for 3 runs, but cash only. Who carries cash in 2025? I drive to the nearest gas station to get some cash. Realize I don’t have my ATM card and try to use my CC for a cash advance. Of course I can’t remember the PIN. I don’t remember the last time I used my CC that way. The CC can’t help me over the phone, but says I can do it at a bank. So I’m in the middle of nowhere Indiana hunting down a Farmer’s bank and roll up in a corvette liveried like a race car.

Anyhow, I get the cash and go buy 6 tickets. The first 5 went well, but the last one I hear a loud clunk on the 2nd to last corner. The car is making weird noises over the bumps on the way back to the paddock. I head back over to the hotel and by the time I get there it’s making a scraping noise. Oh great. So I’m having nightmares all night of the car blowing up and a $1000 tow to get back home. I’m thinking best case- a rock got jammed somewhere. Worst case I broke a hub and it’ll have to be towed home.

In the morning I throw my suitcase in the car instead of leaving it so  I don’t have to come back and head to the site. I manage to get someone to loan me a jack and impact and take off the wheel to inspect and find this-

Well, that was unexpected. Better and worse than I was dreaming. Other than a little clunking the car feels pretty stable and the knuckle is going to be trash anyways, so I decide to drive it home 3 hours. Relatively uneventful drive back and I get it up in the air to inspect and see what I need to order part-wise. As soon as I get the rotor off I’m greeted by this cracked wheel hub-

Well, so it went from bad to even worse than I thought. I wouldn’t have driven if I had known this was broken as well. That must have been the loud clunk I heard of the hub cracking. 

So good news, I’m not dead. I would have likely lost a wheel if I had tried to compete. Bad news is there is even more to fix. Luckily I already have a set of MPI hubs sitting in my garage. I ordered a pair of c5 knuckles off ebay that should be here mid-week. I’ll change both hubs to be safe. I have another event next saturday so not a lot of time to turn this around. At least the new cam and tune felt good.

I’m not sure if you can hear it, but 2nd to last turn on this run is where I think it happened.