| | | Practice at Damp Laguna Seca | The weekend and Monday before I arrived saw rain, rain, and more rain. Tuesday was a little damp, butwas drying rapidly. At the time, I was very happy for that. The forecast for the week was no rainuntil Sunday night. I was hoping that was an accurate forecast, but you know how weather predictionsgo. I wasn't sure what to expect my first day. The last lapping day I did here was before my first raceat Las Vegas, and I've improved considerably since then. The normal lap time for me then was low 1:48s,with an occasional 1:47. My first practice day saw 1:46s with a couple 1:45s. That was a big relief, Iwasn't sure how well I would do. I'm not sure where I made all the time up - probably a second in thecorkscrew, a half second in turn 9, and couple tenths in turns 3 and 4, and maybe a tenth or twoelsewhere.
Thursday's lapping day brought a pretty big scare. Laguna is an interesting track in the winter.On the outside of many turns (T5 and T9 are two I know offhand) there are cement drainage gutters,and they aren't very formula car friendly. After getting down to consistent mid to low 1:45s, I tookT9 a little too hot. Pushing wide at the exit, I dipped my right side wheels off course and over therain gutters. The car bounced wildly as I brought both wheels back on the track, making some prettyugly banging noises. Back on the track, the rear end of the car was wiggling around a lot and makinga squealing noise. "Ah Crap!" I thought. I broke something pretty bad. My first thought was that Ibusted up the right rear suspension. I limped back to the pits in my car and got out. I briefed themechanics and the instructor on what happened, and I jumped into another car and finished off my lapsfor the session. After it was over, I was told that the damage was very minimal, just a couple shearplates that are meant to break first in this kind of event. The total cost turned out to be $24, thelowest they have ever seen. Whew, thank the Lord for that one. On Friday, I chose car #14 from the hat. In Friday's practice, car #14 had the clutch sticking, and washaving trouble going into first gear. I talked at length to the mechanics and test drivers about this,and fortunately, I wasn't the only one who complained about it. The mechanics took #14 out of commissionto fix the problem, so I chose a replacement car, car #80. Car #80 was a little weird and my times werea half a second slower, but I thought I would adapt to it and improve. My times were okay - I had thesecond quickest times in both sessions. First thing in the morning, I jumped into the computer car to look for some more improvement. Thefirst lap I did was a 1:45.6 with my best of the 6-lap session being a 1:45.2. I then went to mypractice session and could only manage a best time of 1:45.7 in car #80. This was the 5th fastesttime of the group, and I was not a happy camper. The car just didn't feel quite right. I had theoption to go back to car #14 if I wanted, but I would have no practice - just jump in the car, domy two warm-up laps and grid up. After quite a bit of thought and discussion, I decided to go incar #14 for the race. It's a chance I had to take. Sine I had the highest average points in my group, I was on pole. As we completed the pacelap, I brought the field to a crawl exiting turn 11. After I thought everyone was clear ofthe T11, I waited a second then floored it. Everyone followed suit, and we got a green flagfor the start. I had a couple car lengths going into T2, and was keeping tabs on Joe O'Brienin second place behind me. Every lap, I stretched my lead a little by little. After about 3or 4 laps, Michael Morris started to seriously challenge Joe for the second place spot. Thishelped me quite a bit, as I was able to check out even more. From then on, I kept my pace andearned another victory! On the last lap, Joe O, and Mike Morris came together in T2, forcinga 20-second penalty on each driver. This gave 2nd place to Doug Melvin, who was lurking rightbehind those two when they clashed. After the race, word around the campfire was that tomorrow's forecast called for rain all day."Uh-oh," I thought. I've never even done a lap in the rain. I sure hope the forecast is deadwrong! | |