The weather forecast was initially for rain but in the end we only got about 15 minutes of it during the first practice. I was hoping to use the first practice to scrub new tires and bed new rotors. Bob Gore missed practice because of an alternator problem and my car was showing low voltage in sympathy. I figured the battery was just tired. I got maybe 2 laps in before the voltage read 7V and I shut it off. At least I got to bed the brakes behind the tow truck. Turned out I had a broken electrical terminal on the alternator. Thanks to Isi I had exactly the right parts to fix it and I was back in business.
I qualified well and barely made pole. Jean-Luc Bergeron qualified behind me by a few hundredths of a second. Good thing he is not in my class. I was doing better than Ike who was out with a broken diff subframe on his GTR.
The race was almost event free for me. Jean-Luc got me on the start but I gained the position back quickly. Then I worked to put some distance between us - not sure why - but it seemed to be the thing to do at the time. Jean-Luc had backed off substantially while he tried to evade the noise police. Then something broke and I lost 5th and 6th gears. Everything was fine up to 4th. I'm sure the Spec E36s wondered why they were gaining on me down the back straight. But with my susbstantial lead I was able to hold onto my position and finished 1st overall. Not the most exciting video but here is is anyway...
Thanks a bunch to Jean-Luc for selling me his spare transmission, and also to GT Racing who made the time to install it, I was back in the game for the remainder of the weekend.
Sprint 2
Ike was back in the game with his repaired subframe and qualified a couple of seconds faster. Then Jean-Luc also out qualified me by a second. So I was starting 3rd this time.
Ike and Jean-Luc won the drag race on the start and I fell into 3rd. After a couple of laps I got past Jean-Luc and proceeded to chase Ike around for the duration. In my defence I would say I was not overdriving (mostly) but just pushing very very hard. I had the brand new tires on this time and took every short cut I could find. One dramatic moment was passing Dave Ryan in corner 10. I went down inside clipping the curb as usual. Except on the inside you are not loaded much and the right wheels must have been 18 inches in the air. Apparently I drove on two wheels all the way to the white line at the edge where the other two finally touched down. I did manage to close the gap again by the bridge.
Fortunately for me Bob got stuck in the gravel trap and they brought out a full course yellow. The race was running out of time but they gave us one last lap after the restart. From 2nd, I passed Ike in corner 3 and maintained the lead to the back straight. At that point he passed me back (like I was standing still). He doews have an extra 80hp... I cloosed back up by the bridge and we were almost side by side through Namerow. He of course won the drag race to the finish line and toook the win. I am really anticipating my new motor...
This is one of the most entertaining videos I have. Especially if you are a fan of Ike's bumper. He is feature prominently in the video. In fact they have me the Spirit of Club Racing award for putting on the best show for the spectators. It was serious fun. I think I used 60% of a set of tires in that one race.
There were no points for the 3rd race so I put on my older set of tires. I qualified 3rd again behind Ike and Jean-Luc - both of which had identical qualifying times!
Jean-Luc and I both got the jump on Ike at the start and for the next few laps I ran 2nd. Then Ike woke up and passed us both after 5 to 7 laps. I ran 3rd for most of the race until suddenly Jean-Luc got black flagged by the noise police. I finished 2nd, a mere 30 sec behind the leader.
Over all is was a great weekend for me. I had some of the closest racing I have ever experienced. I also came away with 3 First in Class wins and a nice award for being a show-off. Now if I can just find another 50hp or so in that new motor...
