It was a dark and and stormy night ... sorry, wrong update.
It was actually a hot (100F), clear, sunny day to be racing!
For the record;
Race 1: Qualified 13th of 18, finished 10th
Race 2: Started 10th, was running 6th-ish (?), mechanical issue, DNF
About 85% of the way into Race 2, I go thru a quick right/left sequence (Turn 12-13) and see the ol' James Bond white smoke screen out the back and the engine burbles for a moment, so I come off the throttle and exit the track. The engine seems to be running fine and I drove it home with no additional symptoms. I am assuming AOS and will do a vacuum test later today to try and confirm.
I also had my rear bumper cover come off during qualifying. It was my best attempt to slow the qualifying lap of Branimir (who was directly behind me). Sorry dude. I'm not sure what happened, it just flew off. All of the mounting holes were ripped through so there was no way to remount it so I just raced without it. The safety crew recovered it but it was heavily damaged (torn in four places) so I'll have to get a replacement.
Despite these issues, there were a lot of things that went right:
- My driving was pretty decent and definitely improved in some areas
- Since becoming much more fit, the high heat didn't affect me at all like it used to
- Mental focus was consistently strong though both of the races without any late race fade
- Car handling has greatly improved
- New shift lever worked great and I really liked the positioning
There was a ton of great close racing and despite the mechanical issues, I had an incredibly good time.
I have a lot of photos, video, and even some heart rate data to share.
Pre-race photo...
I went with a red shifter to match the harnesses...
Does this make my butt look ... smaller?
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