Another great weekend of racing!
For the record;
Race #1: Started 6th of 13. Running 5th with two laps to go when shift cable broke. Finished 13th.
Race #2: Started 7th of 11. Fell back to 9th, moved up and finished 5th.
Overall, a good weekend! The weather was hot as hell so I used my full cool shirt system (shirt with hood and pants) to stay comfortable in the car.
The shift cable broke (about 5 inches from the where it snaps into the shifter) as I was shifting from 2nd to 3rd. I let out the clutch and got neutral, re-clutched, shifted to fourth and was still in 3rd with the gear shifter flopping back and forth. I put the clutch in (unsure what exactly had failed) and let the car coast thru two turns and pulled off in a big runoff area. Got towed into the pits after the race ended. This happened around 4pm on Saturday afternoon. Since I live reasonably close by (45mins) AutoClub Speedway, I left at 5pm and went home for the evening with my son who came in another car.
Luckily, I had Tyson Schmidt and Brad Keegan from Pro Motorsports in Burbank, CA providing track support for me and they found a new set of shifter cables (late on a Sat afternoon) and installed them Saturday evening at the track. So, when I got back to the track at 8am on Sunday morning, the car was fully repaired and ready to race again!
Overall, it was a solid racing weekend for me and I feel that I am maturing in my race craft. One goal that I was successful in achieving this weekend was becoming more patient to set up a car in front of me for a pass rather than being impatient and then somewhat forcing the issue.
It was explained to me (by points leader Alex Bermudez) that I should be looking for the easy, high probability pass rather than trying to make the more difficult low probability passes. He explained that there was no reason to make things harder than they need be; but it takes planning, patience, and skill rather than just going balls out (which at times can feel more fun but the risks of making a mistake and being at fault are much, much higher).
I hope that you'll be able to see this in the coming videos.
I'll close this initial post with a screen shot from my video showing six Boxster's (in front of me but there are also two next to me) on the NASCAR banking; three rows going 3-wide at over 130mph! This is about as exciting as it gets and I feel so lucky that I get to actually be out there racing like this.
