Originally posted by GregAmy:
...The IT7 crowd looked to be having a blast...
I don't know if anyone else is going to address this, so I'll throw in my $0.02.

I was crewing for the purple&yellow (Plum Crazy Racing) #15. We were one of two cars entered in that class. The other was the black #91 (sorry, but I don't know them even though we shared a pit stall with them. They weren't there much. More about THAT later....)

Each of our 6 (yes, S-I-X) drivers had two turns in the car. Since we have the stock 14-and-some-odd gallon fuel tank in the car, we weren't going much more than an hour between stops.

Unlike Kirk-and-company, we had to change brakes once during the race. We did so just before the mandatory double-yellow. By the looks of the old pads, we waited just about as long as we could. One pad had almost nothing left. Of course, my heart goes out to the guys in the Mini (they pitted just in front of us). Somewhere just after it got dark, they came in and the front right caliper was literally on fire! There was a brief scramble for an extinguisher, but after replacing a few parts, it seemed there was no permanent damage.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Within the first couple hours, the 91 came in with the rear axle bent. (I'm assuming there was either contact or a significant "off", but didn't get any definite word) The car was moved to the paddock, and (as I found out later) someone drove back to the shop for a replacement. The car came back on-track many hours later, but continued to post better lap times than we did. Fortunately, we were about 120 laps ahead, and held on for First-In-Class.

We did NOT, however, come through unscathed. The front left corner was "dinged", so the standard headlight needed a little "help" as night approached.

We got another "ding" on the left rear directly over the fuel fill door. That required a little minor surgery, but we were able to fuel the car normally.

As we went green after the (lengthy) double-yellow, we discovered we had lost 2nd gear. Well, no REAL problem. Once underway, we can use 3rd on all the "slow" corners including Oak Tree.

With 3 hours remaining, I watched in horror as I pointed to car out of the pit and it just sat there and reved! We lost FIRST gear!!! Well, $#!+!!!! Several of our larger crew members jumped the wall and we got it push-started. The remaining two stops also required the driver to leave the pits in 3rd.

We had been having sporadic radio problems all day, and the "icing on the cake" was having to send Heather (the car owner) out the last hour with a completely dead radio. There was JUST enough light from the pits (I think) for her to see the pink pit board with the smiley face ("You're doing fine!").

I think we finished something like 47th overall, but yes; "we were having a blast"!

Thanks to everybody for a great weekend! The teams around us coordinated with us to make sure we all knew who was coming in and when (ours and the spot ahead were both shared between cars). We got bumped by the Mini in turn 1 and I found out about it from THEM (One of their crew leaned over and said "Sorry, guys!") before my driver told me over the radio!

I don't know the exact count, but of the 59 cars that started somewhere near 50 finished. Congrats to all!!!!!

------------------
Mike Spencer
NC Region
ITA/7 RX-7 #60
1990 RX-7 Convertible (street car)