[thstone]

I wanted to mention more detail on the "mechanical" issue that I had all weekend - it wasn't really mechanical but electrical where strange things kept cropping up;

First, the engine wouldn't reliably start when I turned the key. Sometimes I'd turn the key and get ... nothing. Then cycle the key off and back to start and it would start. I never had to do this more than twice but it still created anxiety each time that i need to go out to grid and especially before each of the races. More worry, stress, and tension isn't what you want just before a race!

Next, my fuel gauge was displaying erroneous (and somewhat random) fuel levels which resulted in putting in way too much fuel and carrying a lot of extra weight. My goal was to start each race at just under 1/2 tank so I'd finish with fuel at 1/8 - 1/4 of a tank. Instead, I wound up finishing races with 1/2 tank which meant that I was carrying an extra 50 lbs. Looking on the bright side of things, I suppose that putting in too much fuel was better than not having enough and running out during a race!

Last, I have a dash switch that turns off traction control (TC) that I hit every time before I go onto the track. The early TC was fairly simplistic in its implementation (as compared to today's PSM) and as such, it doesn't allow much sliding of the car which in turn, slows the car noticeably in corners and kills lap times. The problem was that despite using the switch at least 30 times, the TC wouldn't turn off.

The only option left would have been to turn off the engine, re-start, and then try turning off TC to see if power cycling the ECU would have helped. However, i felt that this wasn't a safe operation in the middle of a race (plus remember that I was already having starting issues so the last thing that I wanted to do during a race was to turn off the car!).

So I raced with TC on until I put the left rear wheel off into the dirt at the Turn 4 exit where there is a huge pothole. This bent the wheel which caused me to come off the track before the end of the race. For what its worth, I drove it home on the bent wheel.

I am not sure what caused all of these electrical issues at the same time, but I figure that replacing the ignition switch can't hurt so I'll be doing that over the next few days to see if that might be the cause.