July Race Weekend

July 9th 2006

Unfortunately, this weekend's race was pretty much a bust. Due to the Formula D drift event, the track was modified on Saturday to run "short 7" - taking away 2 long straightaways and turning it into a much tighter track. While the entrance was pretty wide, it got really tight in the middle. Qualifying was OK, but when the race finally got started, I got a little too ambitious in attempting to capitalize on position off the start. Due to the "accordian effect" of a long string of cars, I thought we were getting held up a little bit, so I tried to make a pass going into turn 4. Unfortunately, I didn't quite manage to pull off the pass, and hit another car just as he was turning in. My left front wheel, his right rear wheel, and my car got tossed up and back down. I couldn't get the car started after that, and that was it for Saturday. (Fortunately the damage was minimal - a very lightly damaged front wing, and a set of ackerman (steering) plates.

On Sunday, we got the big track back - Sears 7 and 9/9A. This was exactly the track we ran last month. Things went well during qualifying, I felt pretty good about the car, and the track, although I could still use some work on turns 2 and 6. Race started, and I was much more cautious this time around, and had pretty much settled into a nice rhythm chasing (oddly enough) the guy I hit Saturday. I was inches behind for about 7-8 laps, before I had my second "racing incident" of the weekend. Going into 9A (a tight right hander followed immediately by another tight left hander - it's pretty much a chicane to stop people from putting the car into the wall at 10) - I clipped the car behind me turning in. I think he was trying to make a pass, but from my point of view I didn't think he had it. Since I barely felt the contact, I kept racing, and finished 9th. Later on, I found out that his car had the left front control arm damaged, and my right rear shear plates (that attach the suspension to the frame) damaged.

In retrospect, I should have made a pit stop to have the mechanics check things out. But I was reluctant to lose my position (running 8th at the time). I ended up finishing 9th. Oh well, there's always next month...

During last month's race, one of the other racers with whom I was sharing a car let me use his camera during qualifying. He sent me a DVD, and I just watched it tonight. I was surprised to see how fast I was. I think negative progress has been made... :(

It seems like the really fast guys are either 15-17 years old, or retired. Grr...

Update 2006.07.11. I looked up the race results from last month. My best time around the exact same track was 1:52.9, this month it was 1:51.5 - so I take back the part about negative progress. Last month I finished 5th, this month I finished 9th - so I guess it was just a stronger field of competitors...