We just wrapped up our third race, and had our best finish ever! Huge smiles could be seen on all of the team and our supporters after the checkered flag dropped. Out of 132 cars that raced, we finished 29th.
On Friday we practiced on the 1.6 mile road course (NHMS). The weather couldn’t decide what it wanted to do. So we all had an opportunity to get in some dry and wet laps. The wet laps were very exciting. Cheatee’s torque had us all being much gentler with the right peddle in the wet. We had no off track excursions all day, and Cheatee ran great. Once again, tech and BS inspections went smoothly. The spinning pinwheels on Cheatees wings made our theme that much more of a spectacle. Everyone loved the look including the BS judges and we were placed in class “A” with zero penalty laps.
Saturday started with Mark at the wheel. As luck would have it, the green flag waved slightly after he’d passed the S/F line, soooo after lap one we were in the 112th position. As the day progressed we continued to climb in the standings. We’d gain 10 or so spots on a drivers stint, and then lose 3-4 places when we were stopped for refueling and driver changes. We had no black flags until my second stint. Being a bit to anxious to get by a car that’d been holding me up. I skidded off track in a left hand downhill turn. Fortunately there was a lot of run off no damage was done other than having to face the judges. Unfortunately we’d been in 31st position when I tried to break the laws of physics. My excursion off track, and another black flag for leaving the penalty box to quickly, dropped us to about 42nd place. Due to smooth driving by my teammates, we climbed back up to 37th by days end. Saturday saw improved personal lap times, and we had a new team fast lap of 1:29.3 (1:30.3 last year). Saturday evening was spent enjoying some cocktails, and Mark entertaining us all with the video of my off road excursion!
Andrew drove first on Sunday. Mark was to drive the second stint, but wasn’t able due to a few to many cocktails the night before. The “illness” Mark was stricken with will be forever known as “Pulling a Robertson”. As Mark recovered. Andrew, Bob, and myself maintained the driving duties. We’d climb to the low 30’s and then fall back a few spots during the driver changes. Andrew came in with backfiring issues at the end of his second stint. Luckily the problem was easily found and repaired. Part of the intake system had come loose. We found the bolt under some plug wires. Tightened things back up, and the problem was fixed. By 1:45pm some of Marks color had returned, and he climbed into the car for a heroic drive. He was able to run an extended stint which allowed us one less driver change. I jumped in for the last stint and we finished the day in 29th place!
Video links will follow once they are uploaded.
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