We're alive!!!!!
We got there Friday evening too late to go through tech, so we just drank beer all night. 
Saturday morning we went through tech and the 'judging', the judges were ripping on a two car Toyota team who showed up with cars that just looked too nice. We rolled up behind them with the TT, the judge turned around and said 'I see nothing wrong with this car!' Jay Lamm drove by about the same time and made a similar comment (I don't think he ever saw his face on the hood 'ornament'. I'll post pics later.)
The judge grabbed one of the Toyota guys and pointed to the engine in the TT and said, 'Here's what a car that sat in the woods for five years really looks like!' He pointed out the acorn shells that we never got around to removing, and in the interest of being helpful I reached in, grabbed a handful of vacuum hoses, ripped them out so they could get a better look and then threw them into the car. The judge nearly fell on his ass, he was laughing so hard.
Then there was the guy who had a beatifully done build diary in a looseleaf notebook to show the judges. Bad move.
We discovered Sat. AM that 3rd gear had left the building. Okay, it still moves, right? Went out for the transponder check before the start, the Terd actually felt pretty good. Not race car good but not bad for $500 good
The green flag flew, I nailed it, the lack of oomph immediately became evident and I got passed about a bazillion times. It's gonna be that kind of a day. Then I discovered that the TT was about as neutral and unflappable in a turn as you could hope for, so strategy changed. Let 'em run me down on the straights, but scare hell out of them in the turns.
The drivers' meeting was mostly about 'ramming tactics will get you thrown out' so I avoided those, although it would have come in handy more than once! I did have a quickie two wheel 'off' in turn 12. More on that later.
That first session was pretty uneventful, just circulated making laps. I handed the car off still running great.
My second session started with me being much less willing to give any ground, since I had a pretty good handle on the TT's cornering strengths. So, once again, I find myself losing ground on the straights but making it up in the turns. Oh, by the way: by this point the transmission is playing ratio roulette. Maybe you got drive, maybe not. Need first? Nope. Second? Roll the dice, hope for the best. So anyway, I come diving into 12 three wide and I swear I thought for a moment the car on my right was going to wipe the door mirror off. Nothing happened (phew!) didn’t lose a position, all is well- until I got black flagged. Huh?
So I roll into the penalty box, you have to get out of the car before they will even talk to you. With Cool Shirt hoses and all, that’s a PITA. I ask the guy, ‘why?’ Metal to metal contact. Huh? So I led him around the car, said ‘show me’ (at this point the TT was pretty well unscathed), he could not find anything so I got a token 5 minutes and went back out. 
More circling ensued.
At the end of Saturday, the tranny was still playing ratio roulette and the car felt down on power. It averaged a half quart of oil per 30 minute session (about 30 miles). Plus, it had been consuming dihydrogen monoxide at a steady rate with no real evident external leaks. What the hell, it still runs.
Much Frogmore Stew and low quality carbonated alcoholic beverage was consumed on Saturday night.
Sunday AM we put the TT back out on course, the tranny was back in the ‘hood and the motor felt better, although still not as ‘powerful’ as before. The ratio roulette returned. WTH, it still runs.
The MotorWeek reporter showed up about 8AM Sunday and asked if he could drive the car. Sure, we are so far down the leaderboard it couldn’t get any worse. So they interviewed Aimee and I, then we strapped the reporter in the car. He was supposed to do 5 laps, he wound up doing 7 or 8 because he was having so much fun. When he came back in and got out of the car, he said ‘That was a blast! I have never driven a race car before!’ Aimee said, ‘Well, you still haven’t.’ That’s supposed to air sometime in September or October, BTW.
On my first session, the car was still quick enough to pass some real losers out on course. About 1/3 of the way through the session, I dive back into 12 (see a pattern here?) drop the ‘box into low and ‘power’ my way through 13. I shift up to 2nd and suddenly the engine decides to start sounding real funky and lost a LOT of power. Woops. I came in, we checked all the quickie stuff, no dice. Both rear cylinders are dead. Marcel learned why you use insulated pliers and gloves to pull plug wires while the engine is running. Probably a head gasket or intake gasket gone. Hell, it still runs. Out we go again.
I wind up with the last stint. Joe emptied our remaining gas into the tank and out I went, circling at a whopping 35 MPH average. The engine sounds like a bag of ass and the transmission is flipping its lips and going ‘wubba wubba wubba’, but the thing still moves. The race ends at 3:30, at about 3:15 I look down and the fuel gauge is in the red. Uh oh. How much did Joe dump in the tank?
I start looking desperately for the white flag and the checkers, man I do not want to have to have the thing towed back into the pits. About that time, a Chevy Caprice passes me on the right and goes zinging off into the grass. Woops. The cautions come out, we circle around and come back by, the damn thing is on fire. Whoa. And I thought I was having a bad day. Burst into flames with 10 minutes to go. So we keep circling under caution, and I am watching the fuel gauge go under the red. This ain’t lookin’ good. We went to almost 3:40 before the green flag flies and we are off again. WTF is going on here? Then the checkers flew, turns out they just wanted to end the race under green. Whew.
So I drive the TT back to the pits under its own steam (barely!) and much celebration is had! The car ran the full 16 hours and we had a ball, which is what the whole purpose was. Due to our 3 or so hours circling at about 40 MPH, we won the ‘Most Likely To Leave In An Ambulance’ trophy. 
Plans are already afoot for next year. BTW, plans are to have TWO of these at CMP next year!
The next highest penalty I heard of was 40 laps.
