RJRacing

Just another day at the office

I’ll have more detail later but wanted to give some final thoughts to keep everybody updated (although a couple days late…).

The team put in a huge effort. Our budget and team resources were very limited (especially compared to other teams) and we were able to finish 3rd on track (out of 17 cars in our class). The 2nd place team was later penalized by NASA and moved down to 3rd place. One of the 2nd place car team drivers said this was due to unsportsmanlike conduct. We were then awarded the 2nd place trophy (the one lack of planning on our part – we didn’t really have space for a 6-foot trophy in the truck). Runner-up position in our first attempt at the race? It’s almost too good to be true. This will certainly make us work that much harder to make sure we don’t disappoint next year.

Our small crew was phenomenal. Norm and Bob were jumping from cooking food to wrenching the car (I didn’t want to think about whether they washed their hands or not but I’m sure they did!) to getting more gas to telling us some great stories – sometimes all at once. Tim seemed to be everywhere. On the radio, taking splits, organizing the next pit stop, coordinating strategy with Rob, dumping every can of fuel in record time, etc. We had some of the smoothest and most professional pit stops on the grid. Tire changes and brake pad changes were done with ease. Amazing stuff. We need to make sure to film more of the action next year (though I don’t know how I feel about teams seeing our secrets or getting to know who’s on our crew and trying to steal them!).

The drivers (Rob Gibson, John Mueller, Mark Powell, Dion Johnson) were fantastic as well. Everybody put in very consistent times and all of our times were within shooting distance of each other. It was like going to the shooting range and having all your shots covered by a quarter. Fast, consistent, and clean racing was the order of the day. The car literally had only three scratches on it after the race and none of these were the fault of our drivers. We could wash it, change fluids, and put it back on track for the next race. That makes me very happy as a team owner. Usually the off season is spent tracking down cheap fenders, tie rods, suspension pieces, and/or doors.

The guys gave me the honor of finishing up the last 2+ hours of the race and I made the most of it. We were able to track down and pass the 3rd place #14 Autoville car in the last half hour. I can’t tell you how much fun it was to get split updates over the radio knowing I was closing in on the car at a rate of anywhere from 4-9 seconds per lap. In fact, my fastest lap time of the race was the lap I passed the 3rd place car! Very satisfying especially since I only made one small mistake during that stint (locking up the right front into Turn 10 while two battling E0 cars were passing me – I was still able to keep my line and didn’t really lose any time).

Overall a great weekend. We satisfied all of our goals and expectations and walked away with results that even we didn’t realistically fathom. We’re already planning next year’s foray and potentially a two car effort. Stay tuned for updates at rjracing.net