Race #3 is over. It was an interesting weekend at Summit Point. I paddocked with the "No Class" group - there were 4 ITA cars. Matt in the General Li (VW painted Orange, etc.), Sean in a fast Civic Si, A.J. in a MR2, and myself. I had a blast with those guys, I am calling their paddock home from now on. We were in the trees in the back of the paddock, it provided some shade, and it was relatively quiet. It was cool.
The Good:
with the car better aligned, I went faster with every session. I ended up running in the 1:32s during the race, which was pretty good for me. I started at 1:35s though. I had the unshaved Toyos, and the rear bar on full stiff (small front sway bar). Combine that with a brain dead driver, and I had a very interesting run through 10. I was at nearly opposite lock, foot on the floor, crapping my pants hoping to not end up in the pit wall... I apparently missed the apex by about, hmmm, 8 feet! That session was a wash. Set the rear bar to the middle setting, slapped on the 225 hoosiers R3S04s. With more rear camber, and the tires already worn on the edges, there's a lot less rub - besides, I want to finish off these tires before mounting the set of RA-1 in 225 that Phil Phillips graciously brought for me.
The second session saw some 1:33s from me, and I qualified 13th (again...) The car was more balanced, and I paid more attention to hitting my marks (look up!!!) The car is still a bit loose, but that may be the way it needs to be. I can left foot brake it into 6 to get a touch of rotation, but if I turn in too late for 7, I am sideways. More practice needed for the driver for sure. The car was running well if a bit hot. about 240 for both oil and water temp.
The race went very well. I got a decent start and started running with Alex Ratcliff on my rear bumper for most of the race. I was great fun. I had the horsepower advantage (his is an ITB car) but he is a better driver than I am. I pointed him by at one point 'cause I missed 4th coming out of turn 9, and I ended up battling with one of his rental miatas. The miata and I went back around Alex a lap later when he got held up in 10 - we both just motored right past him.
The miata kept trying to dive on the inside at turn 1 but I held my ground. Finally, he gave it one more try. I got distracted and missed my brake marker, locked 'em up and almost ran out of track. I checked my mirror, and he had gone too deep as well and spun right behind me - resulting in Alex (lightly) hitting his own rental car. Bummer. I went to talk to them after the race to make sure everything was cool and that I hadn't cause the accident.

The Bad:
on the next to last lap, my feet started getting warm. Intrigued, I look down in the front straight, only to see coolant squirting all over the floor board on both passenger and driver side. I checked the gauges, and the water temp had gone from 240 to pegged. The oil was still around 245-250. I lifted, flipped on the radiator fan, slowed down and made my slow way off line around the track to pit in. I had to point by all the cars I had passed.
By the time I got to the pit, they showed the last lap indicator. Damn it, I could have finished in 9th place. Once out of the car, I let out a long string of curses in two languages, threw a nice temper tantrum (I've been learning from my 3 year old) and was glad nobody else was around.
Once the car and myself cooled down, we found that I had popped a water hose from the back of the block, thereby emptying the cooling system onto the firewall. I replaced the spring-clamp that I had used with a REAL hose clamp to prevent a re-occurence. Unfortunately, once the car started, I could feel and see exhaust pulses coming out of the radiator, and the car only runs on 3.5 cylinders. Looks like a blown head gasket. I can only hope that I didn't warp the head.

The Ugly:
it was f***ing hot. really hot. It was actually miserable. The second qualifying session on saturday afternoon was the worst. I thought I was going to be sick for the first couple of laps. Then the adrenaline kicked in and I only felt bad again when I got out of the car. I drank like 7 liters of water on saturday, and only pissed about a cup. I sweated the rest. A cool suit in now on my off-season list. It was so hot that it took half the fun out of the whole weekend. It was truly miserable. I was talking with a lady who was at the Nelson Ledges school in the snow with me and we were trying to figure out which was worse, and I think we both decided that the near-100 degree, high humidity weather was worse than the snowing, wet frozen field of Ohio.

Anyway, thanks to my new paddock friends; Alex R. and his renter (I forgot his name) for a great race; Phil for the tires, advice and conversation; Gregg G. for his feedback ("Dude, if you would get closer than 8 feet from the apex in 10, it would be a lot less exciting!"), and last but certainly not least, all the coworkers who sat/stood/drove/rode/ran in the intolerable heat for two days to keep us safe.



anybody want to practice taking a civic head off?