Bittersweet Raceday

The day started out great May 27th. I woke up and it was very sunny, with no chance of rain for the day. I looked out my downstairs window and saw the hauler ready to go. I was up late the night before making sure every last problem was fixed and everything was tweaked and ready to go. I knew it was race day.

We arrived at the track around 10am and parked the hauler where we usually do. I registered the car for the day and mounted the transponder. At 12:30 we fired up the engine and went out for the first practice of the day. The practice went great, the car was a little loose coming off the corners but I pulled off the track very happy with the car. We were were .2 seconds away from being the fastest car during the session. I brought in into the pits and made a wedge adjustment. The next session I was with 1 tenth of the leader. I knew this would give us a great shot at having a top three finish that night.

Next up was the heat race. I started second, but dropped back to 3rd in the first turn. Coming out of turn four on the first lap, the leader and second got together, causing second to spin. It looked like he was going to end up in the infield so I went high, but at the last second the car swung the rest of the way around and sandwiched me between him and the wall. The whole left front of the car was ripped off, and the hood flew at least 10 feet into the air. I was really disappointed and thought we were done for the day. After the tow truck dropped the car at our pit stall, we began putting the car back together. After a new tire and wheel, spindle, upper and lower control arm, and sway bar, the car was ready to get back onto the track. The alignment was way out of whack, but I decided to go out and run the feature anyway. I ended basically turning right going around the turns. The car was VERY loose, but I managed it up until lap eight when the drive shaft broke in half. It must have been jarred in the initial accident and snapped coming out of the turn. After coming to a sliding stop in the infield, I knew the day was done.

Overall it was a pretty good day. The car was the fastest it's ever been and we took a lot of data and I believe we can go back next weekend and have a really good chance of winning it!

Thanks for reading! Make sure to check back weekly, I'll continue to post my race reports on here.