Race Report - NASA Championships at Circuit of the Americas
Its been a while since I've posted, and that's because life keeps punching me in the face. Work had been filled with challenges and I was burned out on racing. I've made some changes to the car and forced myself to get it ready for nationals.
Improved the trailer, loaded up and headed to Texas with
@mattlqx as the co-pilot. My wife would join us Friday (or so was planned)
Major Pre-Race changes:
Spring rates moved from 600F/300R to 500F/250R, dampening settings altered to reflect updated data from JRZ, Headers wrapped again (tired of melting stuff), New complete boss 302R arms from
@OPMustang Tim were installed (Thanks for all the support and hyper-fast shipping!). Everything else was gone over, cleaned up, oil changed, plugs changed, and the car was set for ride heights and alignment. There was more planned, however a couple vendors left me hanging (and Amazon went a bit wacky with packages)
Wednesday Practice - I spent the money on extra practice to learn the track. I didn't do much meaningful during the day, but did get a nice dry day to learn the track (or so I thought) and get plenty of laps in. I wasn't fast, but at least I was familiar. I did receive some very bad news, that my 10 year old chihuahua back home required emergency surgery and wasn't expected to make it. Initially I tried to find a way to fly back home, but nothing I could do would be in time. Thankfully she's made it through surgery and I stayed in Texas. More on that later
Thursday - Off - Took the day off to collect myself and help
@ArizonaBOSS through his troubles, had a front clip shipped to my hotel and we were able to push him back into the fold.
Friday Qualifying - I signed up for some coaching with Racers360 / Dion Von Moltke, who has a cool video-based program to help with coaching. Unfortunately, they couldn't review my video until after qualifying was over. It had started to rain, so I thought the second qualifying session would be a good time to have a spin going on the straight. Unfortunately, I cracked a rear rotor in the process, and that became an issue compounded by my forgetfulness to pack the appropriate spares. We had to order a set that would show up AFTER Saturday's qualifying race.
Saturday Qualifying Race - I did a bad thing, I ran that rotor for the race in practice that morning and the race. I set it up with some pads that were close to done so they could scrub through (with the thickest pad against the cracked face). I don't ever recommend this to anyone, but we were in a pinch and only the outer face had cracked. Again, this was a stupid decision I was lucky on. The race, well, got interesting. After everyone looked at their 20 different weather apps, we believed we had a dry race ahead. No sooner than we were released it started pouring, and most of the Group B classes were on dry tires. Most parked it after the first lap, and I stayed for the green, but after nearly losing the car 1000 times, I came in as well.
See this at 13 minutes into the video, and hang out to just past 14 minutes
I ran in to my paddock space, and took off and grabbed my wheels with wets. While it took a blistering F1-race-fast 7 minute pit stop to get them mounted, I was able to rejoin the race and score one more lap that moved me up several places for Sunday. The craziness paid off.
Sunday Championship Race - With the brakes now repaired, sticker tires placed and dry weather, I was ready to go fight it out. I had decent position at 14th in class, and I was confident I could drive my way up. The car was ready to go. However, on the start, the local GTR (second in the region) had a great run up the inside line going into T1, and I thought if I stayed middle and kept him inside, the slower traffic through that corner on the inside would hold him up. I couldn't have been more wrong as two corvettes decided playing grab-ass was more important than racing and parked their cars on the top of T1. I was stuck behind them at a full stop, and had to reverse to continue. I went from 23overall to dead last in a nearly 50 car field. I started working my way up through cautions as all the dead vehicles were picked up. I kept my nose clean and made it through some of the best racing I've done yet. The car is overweight and under powered for the class, as I was getting destroyed on the straights by my peers, but under braking and mid-corner speeds belonged to me. The coaching paid off as I was able to work my way back up to 23rd overall and 11th in class. I hit nothing, took no penalties, and was able to put the car on the trailer with no issues.
I then made the trip home safely and will continue on the rest of the season. My regional points lead stands at 59 points above the next competitor after drops, and 6 races remain with one being a double-points enduro race.
On Family, the Most Important Thing - as I mentioned above I had issues back home with my dog. I found out that it has hermangiosarcoma, a terrible, incurable and aggressive cancer of the spleen that had caused a rupture while I was out racing. This affected me greatly (and still does, I'm absolutely a broken and defeated person today) as the pup is just in the middle of its life expectancy; now instead of years, I have weeks left. She's not showing symptoms now outside recovery, but soon that will change. I carry a lot of guilt for being out racing and having fun when I should have been home for the dog that's always been there for me. I don't have kids, so the pups are family, and we had just lost our Labrador retriever a month prior.
My point is, racing is great fun, but don't forget what's important and cherish the time with loved ones (and furry little loved ones) as it passes far too quickly. I had great support from friends at the track (and a very motivational phone call from
@OPMustang Tim keeping me sane and that if I did stay, I needed to focus and be safe) and I wouldn't have been able to get through the weekend without it. I'm glad that I get a bit more time with the dog (and will make the best of what time we have left) and get to see her, as at the beginning of the event I was told there was a good chance that she would pass away on the operating table 1000 miles away from me; and I appreciate the support of friends and family to get through a real tough time.
I'll have more positive stuff starting with the next post, about what comes next for the car.