Well I had a rather auspicious 1st race in my new ITR car. We were very happy with the cars power and with some adjustments I think we can get the car to handle like it should. But....

On the 4th lap of the race I grenaded my transmission, and more then likely my new engine

The shifter on the earlier Celicas is very close and on saturdays qualifying session me and my co driver stuck the car in the wrong gear (higher) twice each in our 4 lap sessions. During the race I was coming out of the banking onto the front straight and I put the car in 4th instead of 6th gear and as you can imagine the resulting noises were not good. The tranny gave out in a big way and the engine turned off. I was able to coast into my pit and had to have the car flat towed to our garage. The bell housing is cracked all the way around and there is now a large hole which allows the sheared off pressure plate to be visible from out side. I am not sure yet if the motor is a total loss but the transmission is definitely done. I should know more on Wednesday when I get a chance to take it apart. Who ever was behind me in the Black B13 ITA Sentra SE-R should have some pretty good video footage of me blowing up, he was right behind me when it happened.

Here is the car before the misshift.