For a variety of factors, I decided to go up for only one session of Open Test day - the last one. So I left late morning, and arrived in plenty of time to park the trailer and et the car ready for the last session. 45 minutes of getting my mojo back. By the end of the session, I was back to turning times competitive with the last time I was here - a whole two weeks ago.
Before I went out, I met one another paddock resident (who also lines up cars as they prepare to go on track (called "grid")). He mentioned that there were going to be four or five people form Canada here for the weekend. Really? That's a long way. I didn't even want to go up to Portland for the major this weekend. Oh well.
When I come back form the testing session, I have a two new paddock mates that have pulled in next to me. Turns out, they are some of the folks from our Northern neighbor. I had imagined that they would be from Vancouver (cuz that's the closest), but turns out they are from Calgary, Alberta (abbreviated "AB"). They had two more friends showing up as well, and we all pitted together. It was an interesting combination of "Welcome to our track" and a reciprocal "Welcome to our group". Great folks all!
Saturday morning, during one of the practice runs, the car in front of me came around T8 and his back end just drifted to the right. His front end didn't. As he spun to driver's left, I went into the dirt to avoid him, but was fine. (video) The next lap, I notice that it has gotten slippery on the entrance to T8. I got a little loose, but recovered. And, saw a car off track shortly thereafter (didn't notice him first pass because I was busy avoiding the guy who spun in front of me).
Turns out, that was one of my pit mates from Canada. He threw a connecting rod. Note: if you do that, you're going to have a bad day!! (Note the hole in the side of the engine.)
So, he went off to find an engine that he could swap in. HA! Good luck. Turns out, my error. He found an engine that used to belong to one of the best racers at a local shop. So, they brought it down and proceeded to begin the engine swap. I've never witnessed a full engine swap in the paddock before, so I took some pictures of the progress.
They started at 10:30 and by 6PM it was complete. Impressive (at least to me).
During one of the qualification runs, an S2000 didn't fare that well in one of the turns.
Because Gerard hadn't been able to qualify on Friday, he started the race at the back of the pack. This meant that he had to battle his way back to whatever position he would have normally been able to attain. Several laps into the race, going into T10, there was a waving yellow flag, which normally indicates a problem. But all I see is a dust cloud. As I pass, I look to the left and indeed there is a car in the middle of that dust cloud. Shortly later, the course goes full course yellow (no passing, while they clear a wreck). After a while, we go green and the race resumes. I finish 30th out of 48. Much better than some of my previous finishes. And, I set my best lap time at Sonoma - 2:01.45 - which means I should be "mid-pack" in the future.
When I get back to my trailer, the other folks from Canada are there. Everyone's car is there, except James's. So, I ask him where his car is. He says "Oh, they towed it into the pit lane." (Oops... Foot in mouth. Didn't realize that it was his car that went into the wall in T10.) (video)
At one point in the second race (STL), I was behind someone lap after lap. I was really faster then he was, but not fast enough to get a clean pass. So, I waited for a good moment and when he went wide in T7, I ducked inside, figuring that would force him wide - which means a longer arc and at the same speed, the one on the longer arc loses position. What I didn't know was, this guy wasn't paying attention, and he hits me in the second part of the turn. (video) Neither of us filed a protest, but I probably should have. Honestly, you really should be more aware of your surroundings if you're going to race.
One of the nice things about SCCA is that they announce the racers at the start of every race, just like a professional race would - name, home town and sponsor. During one of the race announcements later in the day we hear: "<name> in car number 17 from De Winton... AB... not sure what that is... I guess it must be Alabama." <REALLY?> My Canadian pit mates were reasonably incredulous. Turns out (I didn't know this) De Winton is a very small town about 10 miles S of Calgary. So, no issue with not knowing where De Winton was. But not knowing that AB meant Alberta? <sigh> Oh yeah, and this was Canada Day.
Every once in a while, a driver acknowledges what their car really is... A real PoS... (and I don't mean Point Of Sale).
Just like the Majors, I decided to run both Spec Miata and STL. For me it was an uneventful race. But, my mechanic also has a Miata rental business, and one of his renters decided to explore the limits of the car's capabilities vis-a-vis his own skill and ended up driving straight into the tire wall in T8a. Here's how it looked as I was passing him. (video) And, here are some pics I took after it was towed to back to the paddock.
This car will never see the track again. Note, the driver was completely unharmed (except for, perhaps, his vastly deflated ego)
Meanwhile, back at the paddock, it's about 5PM and the effort to restore James's car begins. About 11PM, everyone knocks off, but before I get up the next morning, work has resumed. In the end, here's what it looked like:
Good enough to race again. And, he did.
The first two Sunday races for me were uneventful (in a good sort of way), but very fun as I find I have graduated from "staying alive" to actually racing. One car I had been trying to pass for a while decided to help me out (video). What caused him to do that, I have no idea, but if he wants to let me pass that way, I'm OK with it.
In the last race, I passed Doug (one of my other pit mates - silver car below) and he spent the rest of it trying to get back in front of me. We were very evenly matched and it turned out to be supreme fun for the better part of 20 minutes. In the end, no, he didn't get by me (OK, once for a few seconds, but then I battled back and took the lead again).
Before they left, the four Canadian amigos lined up their cars for a picture.
Then, after some final wine, cheese and beer, it was time to go home.