The rule of 7Ps was imprinted on my brain a long, long time ago by a grumpy hard ass old Master Sargeant (he was probably all of 35-38 years old at the time) during ITB (Instructor Training Branch) at Fairchild AFB in 1979. He drilled in to my head, and other parts, that "Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance" and the lesson has mostly stood the test of time. The 7Ps were firmly in mind getting ready for Road Atlanta for the final event of the season, and one we needed to run to win the NASA-SE season championship, involved putting in a new Spec clutch/flywheel and fresh brakes. The car was prepped for the race weekend with new rotors all around and the best sets of slightly used Hawk brake pads in the trailer (it was the end of season you know). Marc Younts mounted up four fresh from the mold sticker 315/17 A6s (I love the smell of fresh rubber in the morning!) and the trailer was loaded. The forecast included rain so we made sure the rain tires were loaded in the trailer along with spare used A6s.
Deployment, enroute, arrival, registration and beddown in the paddock went cleanly and quickly. The 8 hour enduro was on track so there was lots of action in the pits and track. It was great to see the RAFT crowd there in force but by midday James' engine decided 25000+ track miles was enough and took a siesta. Jason, Mark, Val, Scott and others were thrashing on vehicles in the paddock and at Marks shop till the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday started off dry and cold with an overcast. I was able to get some easy break in miles on the clutch during TT practice, Thunder qualifying and a TT session. Breaking it in off track is difficult with an untagged, stickered, and straight exhaust race car. As a result it only had about 5 miles or so around the house. Thunder qualifying was particularly frustrating for a good time but great for breaking in the clutch. About lunch time it started to get overcast and the consensus was it would blow through. This is where my attention to the 7Ps broke down. There was no check of the weather radar, there was no ops check on the rain tires, there was no staging of tools or even anything constructive - other then eating BBQ and deep fried corn. At about 15 minutes to grid time Tim and I decided rain tires made a lot of sense. I ran to the trailer and started digging them out. As two out of four hit the ground it was obvious they were flat. I started looking for tools, air, jacks and bodies. Tim had wisely recruited most of the mafia already to help him and I was out of time and options. Josh told me to man up and drive the car with the A6s on it. So I did and realized I had failed miserably in the 7Ps. The grid was small and only seven SU/ST cars took the green flag. The track was wet and it was only misting at the start. It was a clean start and the car felt good. I managed to miss a 944 when it spun at T3 on lap one and tied on to the back of a black ST1 C6. The car felt good and on lap two the track was actually drier and I was feeling pretty good about the A6s. I had the ST2 cars in sight and was closing on the ST1 car nicely. On lap three I was planning a pass between T5 and T6 on the ST1 car. It was a good plan that went terribly awry just past apex on T5. The track had running water/puddles by then and the car went from balanced to spinning. With a Hans, 6 pt harness, window net, cage and race seat you can, in fact, look over your left shoulder and steer a car when properly motivated. I missed the inside wall by a fraction of an inch. Luckily for me almost everyone I know saw that spin. I went back on track without breaking momentum or loosing a position. By the next lap I was feeling pretty good and was closing the gap again with a pretty steady rain. Going through T7 the rear kicked out and I checked out the grass. The grass was in need of cutting but otherwise OK so I resumed the race still in the same position. On the next lap I snapped sideways at T9 and realized I could barely see out the windshield due to the fog inside (the view down the track through the driver side net was amazingly clear though). Danny sagely noticed I started driving with my ballerina suit on about then. As I struggled to keep it on track and wipe the windshield while buckled in (impossible feat by the way) I started getting lapped. When I realized I could not see the cars as they went past I pulled off track with the car intact and my ego bruised. Tim drove a magnificent race as shown in his video http://www.vimeo.com/17524871. The Team objective was met since we scored more then enough points to win the season championship and the car survived to run another day. Team Werner Law also finished third in TTS.
Sunday was another cold and clear day and started out pretty good in the first TT session. Most everyone took the grid for the first session. On the second TT session I was behind Brent with Khoi two cars back. On the first lap I took T10a in second gear to check grip and hammered toward the bridge in 3rd. As I went under the bridge on the painted lines the car kicked right and I had to pedal the throttle to regain control. Needless to say my heart went pitter patter and Brent gained a few car lengths on me. I was back in the throttle and shifting to fourth before the apex of T12. I was flat on the throttle before start finish and braked for a late apex for T1. That was really the last time I had a whole lot of fun on Sunday. This video shows my morning excitement http://vimeo.com/17505640. Khoi did a great job avoiding any contact and controlling his car. It also happens he took excellent footage of my exciting morning.
Thanks to James Forbis and Danny Popp for providing a used spindle, tools, expertise and expert labor in getting the car repaired. In about 40 minutes the car was mobile again. The rest of the paddock pitched in with Loctite and other needed items. The impact took out the right front fender, inner fender, tie rod, caliper and spindle. It also bent a wheel, broke loose the computer mounts and knocked the alignment out a little bit. The left side of the car picked up some tire wall rash. If we had to we could have raced that afternoon thanks to my friends.
Thanks to Tim and Khoi for the videos. Now it is all prep for Valentine Weekend 2011 at CMP.
