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Driving down/meeting Nate at motel
Miserable weather (damp, cold, cloudy) on Wednesday; frustration with wet track, lack of grip, hard old tires
Talking to the board of directors about implementing enhanced blue flag/black flag policies; their acceptance of my suggestion.
Bill calling me aside before the instructor's meeting to discuss this; my outburst in the meeting; then the irony of being slow and having to wave everyone past...and having the world's slowest student too!
Cautious student; mad flagger; my frustration; flogging the Integra and having fun
Finally some speed; then darkness
Clear and crisp weather on Thursday; brightened spirits. ARB ajustment.
More confidence; chasing Ralph's Viper; shocking 1:03's! Going deeper into Big Bend; tires chirping on the concrete all the way around; the awesome feeling of hurling the car into the Uphill and West Bend on full throttle; carrying more speed into the downhill. More speed to come?
Bruce Allen does 1:02's, then asks me: "You only have 225 horsepower?"
"Yes," I said.
"You must really have that car handling well if you're doing 1:03's with 225 horsepower!" :) :) :)
2nd to Bruce in the time trial with a 1:04.9; Bruce gets FTD.
Mixed feelings about running in the open track session afterwards; making the wise decision to save energy and get an early start back, and also avoid risking the car; pang of regret as other cars take to the track
Windy drive home; glad to be home, glad and sad the season is over; Gary's call about building a Daytona for the track.
The desire to build a Daytona, but unwillingness to sell the roadster. Hank's crate motor: 750 miles, $3000 for a $5000 engine. The cost of a roll cage, hardtop, brake upgrades, etc.
Bruce Allen's championship-winning Crossle Club Ford for $14,000; $2000 winter, $500 midseason, $600/set of tires that last a season but go off slightly after 8 heat cycles. $14,000 for a Spec Miata. The ancient van and utility trailer vs. John Spain's Cadillac and race car trailer.
My slowness and inexperience as a mechanic; enjoying development, but struggling withe mechanical work, even though I find it satisfying. My frustration at lacking confidence to commit to faster corner entries; wondering if the lack of a roll cage has anything to do with this.
I'm not sure how much I'll be racing next year. From the way I got so sick and exhausted this fall, it appears that I really overdid it last season. Seven events, with all the work on the car that I had to do between events, was just too much.
Also the frustration in the last few events really overshadowed the fun. It's really awful to spend so much time preparing the car (in my case, virtually all my available active time), and scraping the money together to run it, only to spend much of your track time stuck behind slower but more powerful cars. Or else it rains and you're bog slow.
When I step back from it, I have to admit that the truth is that I don't have the resources to run the car properly (add a roll cage, upgrade the engine, get rain tires, etc.) Without the proper resources, it's bound to be frustrating.
Anyway, I haven't decided what I'm going to do next year. I might just run the NHIS events where they run the chicane-chicane configuration. I don't like running on the oval anyway. And maybe I'll run one event at Mont Tremblant, with the BMW club if COM doesn't get a date there. That's the least expensive away event, and it's also my favorite track of all the ones I've run on.