Ok, I have to start by admitting to a bit of a bait and switch with the title of this post. The Labor Day MARRS double was a blast. The weather held up and while threatening to go over 90, it behaved and stayed slightly cooler than past events this year, and a lot less humid.
Friday Practice day started with Flipper being taken out to check that it was still holding all together and that the engine was still working. I have become quite paranoid about that lately. One session with old crappy tires proved the car to work fine and tires to be done for. Not worth trying to get any type of real practice out of them. I switched to the new set of Hossiers SM7 and went out for one practice. That made such a huge difference and lap times instantly started to come down as I found more grip to be found. Parked the car, had a beer and waited for saturday...
Saturday came, and so did my favorite fans Beth and Sam. I was in group 3, a comfortable mid morning time slot, before the weather gets too hot. Qualification went ok but I only managed a 14th place out of 23, even with new tires. Race time, I did a bleh finish of 14th out of 23rd. I was complaining about how I wished the car would turn right a bit more and grab more quickly in turns 1 and 6 when Bret from RP suggested setting up a "wedge", something others on the paddock also put in my ear (thanks to all, especially Owen Schefer, Bret de Petro, and Mhyar Alzayat!). 1/2 turn change to coil overs (checking and double checking and triple checking that I was doing it right) and parked the car, had a beer and waited for Sunday....
Sunday came and I went out for qualification and found the car to behaved quite differently. It was not longer on rails and much more agile in turns, with the rear stepping out ever so slightly in right turns. It made a huge difference in turns 1 and 6.. Turns 3 and 5 (left handers) did not seem to be too compromised. Ended up shaving 0.75s off the lap times and setting my fastest lap time ever with a 1:28.045s, which put me in 9th place out of 23. Unfortunately, because, you know, there should always be some kind of drama at a race track, my car was weighted with 6 pounds underweight (2244 pounds with a minimum weight if 2450). I should have used my cool suit which adds about 20 pound to the car and should have known better than guessing that I would be ok... This meant having my qualifying time invalidated and I starting the afternoon qualifying race at the very very back of the grid. Race however proved to be a blast with some real passing, and defending, and a 2 laps fight with Chris Blough who pushed me hard... Full video can be found here.. I ended up 15th of 22, which made me feel like Raikkonen :-). I parked the car, waved goodbye to Beth, and had a beer and waited for Monday...
Monday came with the last race of the weekend, a longer 20 lap race. Sam, as always was very helpful in getting the car ready and my car was ready with freshly painted windshield whippers. I started the race in 13th position on the grid. From the very start of the race, I pushed and I finished 9th of 21, my best finish ever. This involved quite a bit of passing as well as dealing with some less than cooperative black markers who just would not get out of the way. The highlight of the race (full video here) was the finish, three wide across the finishing line (managing to get a bumper width ahead of one of them) ....
