Winning isn't eveything...
I ended the last post saying “whatever obstacles are in our way I’m sure we’re prepared to handle them.” I think I spoke too soon. The one obstacle that we are having trouble handling is the fog. I didn’t say weather here because we can handle almost all weather: cold temperatures (just make sure the engine is staying plenty warm and crank the heater up in the RV and in our pit spot), hot temperatures (don’t overheat the engine and turn on the AC in the RV), rain (wet tires and an umbrella), etc. We can’t handle fog. It started rolling in around 5:30 at night and an hour later we were in the thick of it (so to speak). Race control stopped all cars and we will resume racing once it is safe to do so.This is very tough to deal with. Not only can we not compete in the race but we have been on high adrenaline all weekend. There was nothing but sense of urgency among everybody here. Now all we can do is hurry up and wait. We look outside every once in a while hoping that it looks a little clearer. We eagerly await the hourly announcement form race control to see if maybe we’ll start back up that hour. I guess racers are eternal optimists. We all know what they’re going to say over the radio: “It’s [blank] o’clock and it’s foggy. No racing for the next hour.” Oh well. I guess we’ll learn patience one way or another.
The good news is that we are currently running in 2nd place in class after qualifying 7th. Here’s how we did it…
The car really came together after the testing session. This morning was a breeze. A lot of waiting for the race to start. This is also something we weren’t used to – there is always something to do as the minutes tick closer to the start time. (Yes, the crew is that good.) We even slept in a bit this morning confident that we accomplished our goals and executed our tasks the night before.
Rob Gibson started the race and immediately started putting down his fastest laps at Thunderhill. Since we were competing in the 6 Hour Enduro that is held the first part of the 25 Hour race we were striking a balance between pushing hard the first six hours and making sure we conserved enough for the remaining 19. And since we needed to win the race to win the Western Endurance Racing Championship there was even more pressure to not make mistakes. The only other team that was in contention in the championship came in for an early pitstop with a transmission problem. This gave us a comfortable lead of two laps.
After Rob’s stint, Dion Johnson got in the car and also put down impressive times but our competitor was closing in on us. All we could do was keep pushing and hope for the best. I got in the car for the last half of the six hour race. At this point Rob and Dion had gotten us up to first in class in the six hour race, and third in class in the 25 Hour race – very impressive indeed. With the championship in the balance I pushed as hard as I could while saving fuel (yes, those are contradictory). As the laps drew near we thought we might be light on fuel but decided to keep pushing anyway as we couldn’t risk losing the six hour race. One lap from the end the car sputtered. Luckily, this happens first and most severely on right handed turns and Thunderhill is predominately left hand turns. If I could just make it around those few right handers we would win and all I’d have to do is get around one more time to pit for fuel, tires, and a new driver. Needless to say, we won the six hour race and made it back on fumes. The fuel stop and tire change went smoothly and John Mueller was in the car for his first racing night laps. It was obvious he was having a ball and enjoying the challenge. His lap times were strong and he passed a competitor to move us into 2nd place in our class. That’s when the fog hit.
With the cars parked on the front straight and dense fog hanging around it looks like we’ll have to rename this event “The 11 Hours of Thunderhill”. Race Control will get us back into the cars as soon as possible.
We should all be well rested when that happens!