Return of THUNDER GRINCH! or 2025 Round 3 Mid Ohio, May 23-25

The date: May 22, 2025

The place: Mid Ohio Sportscar Course, Lexington, Ohio

A red pickup truck enters the gates towing a very much everyday, run of the mill race trailer, but inside.... Oh inside this trailer lurked a creature so vile and..... and.....GREEN, yes, so green that you could say it resembled a sea sick crocodile. So off putting was this beast that I dare say most people wouldn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole. Luckily, I'm not most people!  A secret that had been kept for several weeks, only 7 people knew what the secret was, was about to be unleashed upon the NASA Great Lakes world, and oh the reactions were priceless.......

THE

GRINCH!!!

May Mid Ohio recap

After a 6 week break, the NASA Great Lakes season resumed at Mid Ohio Sportscar Course on Memorial Day weekend.  During those 6 weeks, a lot had changed for Fast Farmer Autosport, as I've previously covered.  In the NASA community, especially among the Thunder Roadster drivers, the whereabouts of a certain green car were causing much speculation, since no one had seen or heard about it since it was sold.  About a week before the event, I finally told one of my best friends, Mike Rupp, all about the covert op we had worked over one everyone. He stoked the fire even more by dropping hints about the car showing up at Mid Ohio, so the TR drivers were anticipating finally finding out who was joining their ranks.  I had been hanging around the group from time to time, really ever since I started racing because they're a really fun group to be around. I guess that, coupled with the recent rainy weather is why none of them were terribly surprised that I parked with them in the paddock, instead of with the CMC group.  After chatting with a few of them for 10 minutes or so, I nonchalantly opened the back door of the trailer and let them see what was inside.....  I honestly thought the first of them to see The Grinch in MY trailer was going to faint, his reaction was indescribable, really.  Everyone else had similar reactions when they saw that bright green car, so that was a pretty fun way to kickoff the weekend.  

FRIDAY:  In order to get as much seat time as possible in the car, I decided to run the TREC endurance race that NASA puts on during Friday afternoon, I also ran in one of the test and tune sessions during the morning.  It didn't take long for me to learn my first lesson about Thunder Roadsters, just 20 minutes, in fact.  As soon as I got out of the car, everyone wanted to know how I liked it, my response?  I said it felt like the car was trying to kill me.  Not exactly a great first impression.  While prepping the car, I decided that it would be in my best interest to put the worst set of tires I had on the car. If I learn how to drive it with worn out tires, then when I put good tires on, I should feel like Superman out there. What I learned is that, unlike CMC tires, which are a little slick when the tread is wore off, but still manageable, the tires used by GTR's have ZERO grip when worn down to almost no tread.  The tires I put on the rear of the car were basically slicks, so every time I got on the brakes hard, the rear end tried to swap positions with the front, that's not a very fun situation when braking from close to 130mph.  So, before the TREC race, I swapped tires around, and it made a HUGE difference.  I ran three 20-30 minutes sessions during the race, and while not exactly fast, I learned a TON about what the car liked and didn't like. I was also able to set faster lap times during each session, during the final session, I ran the last 5 laps all within 3 tenths of each other, plus lowered my lap time by over 5 seconds from the first session.  Unfortunately, during the final session I ran, I learned my second TR lesson of the weekend:  These cars are unbelievably easy to repair at the track!  I was pushing really hard to gain speed in T4, and finally pushed a little too much.  I forgot to put my SD card in the camera, so there's no footage, but I believe I got back on throttle too soon, forcing the car to push wide on exit. When I realized I was going to drop the left side tires off the track, I got my hands straight and lifted partially off the throttle, thinking I would just ride it out and rejoin the racing surface fully as the track turned to go up the hill to Madness.  It was the right move, however, with the recent rain, the new landscaping in that area had washed out, creating a small hole probably slightly larger than a softball. Unfortunately for me, my left side tires went right through this divot, causing damage to my steering on that side.  I limped the car back to my paddock spot to assess the damage.  It took multiple people looking at it before someone finally got the right angle and saw that I had bent the steering arm on that side. Thunder Roadster drivers being who they are, a spare was quickly found, and I had replaced the damaged part in less than a half hour.  Unfortunately, this ended my race because there was only about 15 minutes of time left after the repair.  However, I was extremely satisfied with how well I adapted to the car, and the progress I made getting up to pace during the track time I did get.

Top view of bent steering arm compared with new one.

The arm was also bent in a vertical manner as well...

SATURDAY: My first day of competition in a Thunder Roadster started off with another lesson learned.  Since our race group had it's warmup session at 8:15, I decided the night before that I wouldn't go out and just wait for our qualifying session a little before 11.  It was in the 40's the night before, so I knew the track would still be slick for our session, so there would be a heightened risk with very little reward, just like I used to do with the CMC car.  However, the Thunder Roadster's are the fastest cars in their run group, where the CMC cars are the slowest. Since qualifying order is set by your time in warmup, if you don't go out, you get stuck in the back, making it difficult to get a clean lap. In CMC this didn't matter much, since we were near the back anyway, but it definitely makes a difference for the GTR.  Even with a poor starting position, I still lowered my lap time from the TREC race, so I was happy with that.  Then it was time for the race...... HOLY COW!  I honestly had NO IDEA what I was in for. I was able to pass a couple of cars on the first lap, and was gaining on another pair after a couple of laps.  Then I got on it a little too hard exiting the Keyhole turn, and the car pushed wide, going 2 off, then all four off when I ran out of curbing.  After recovering, I was a distant last place to the field, and had been caught by the two leading Spec E46 cars.  I ran a lap hard to try and pull away from them, but since I couldn't, decided to drop back to not effect their race. Those two really put on a show from my vantage point!  It was a good learning experience following those two quick cars around for the rest of the race, even if my car should have been much quicker.  The second of the pair eventually over heated his tires, and so as we came to the white flag, I passed him, and pulled away somewhat to set my fastest lap of the race.  Enjoy the full race from my in car camera!

SUNDAY: With one race under my belt, I went into Sunday thinking I had a good idea of what racing these cars would be like..... I was wrong.  We did a reverse grid for the morning race Sunday, and since I only finished ahead of 2 cars, I started third.  When the green dropped, EVERYTHING went into lightspeed!  I was simultaneously trying to pass the cars in front of me while defending my position from a car that suddenly appeared from who knows where on my inside, while also getting a helpful bump draft from my six.  It honestly felt like cars were everywhere, but somehow, I managed to hold it together and got around the two cars that were originally ahead of me, however, a couple of cars passed me in the maelstrom as well.  Unfortunately, that race came to a very early and abrupt end for me, and everyone else.  Going into turn 2, I left too much room on the inside which allowed another driver to attempt a very late overtake.  His car hit the inside curbing, causing it to become extremely unstable. The driver seemed to be caught off guard, and hit his brakes too hard causing a lock up, which helped his car slide directly into my right rear tire, causing me to spin off track.  The way a Thunder Roadster is setup, if the car spins you need to push in the clutch immediately or you risk spinning the starter backwards and ruining it, being new to the car, I completely missed the clutch pedal when I tried to push it, and my car was dead in the water with no way to start it back up. Fortunately for me, a little before my incident, there was a much larger incident at the other end of the back straight in turn 4, which resulted in the track being 75% blocked by debris.  After first red flagging the race, it was determined that clean up would take too long, and the officials decided to just end the race, resulting in the entire thing not counting, due to not running enough laps.  After being hoisted back to my paddock spot, the experienced TR pilots showed me what I needed to do to replace the starter, and after 30-45 minutes, including a quick lunch, I had the new starter in the car ready to go.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't engage the starter cutch, and just spun freely when hitting the button. I later found out that it was spinning the wrong way, and after swapping it with yet another starter, everything worked as it should.   So we decided to push start the car for the final race of the afternoon.  This time, I WAS ready for what the race start would be like.  When it went green, I shot through the middle of the two cars in front of me, and found myself in second going through the second corner.  I got an amazing run on first place in Thunder Valley, and got the inside going into 11, then made it stick on our way to The Carousel.  As we crossed the finish line, I was in front!  My amazing wife posted about that previously, if you want to see a pic....  Coming out of Keyhole onto the back straight, I had fell to third, but you could have thrown a blanket over all three cars. I drafted the inside car down the straight, and held my line to retake second for a couple of corners, before losing that spot again, before getting to Thunder Valley.  This time in turn 11, I was the one that got outbraked, and was dropped to 4th coming onto the front straight.  The race had a couple of caution periods, and I was passed a couple more times putting me in 6th when the white flag came out.  3/4 of the lap, I ran great and had the position locked up, until getting to Thunder Valley again.  This time, I noticed an NP01 prototype coming up hard on my right side. Not knowing if he was in a battle with another car, I stayed a lane wide on entrance to the final corner, so I wouldn't impact his race.  Unfortunately, he was just trying to set a fast lap, and wasn't racing anyone, this allowed the TR behind me to follow him on my inside in the final corner, and he edged me out at the line by less than a car.  So, to recap my first weekend in a Thunder Roadster, I ended the two races with a 10th and 7th place finish, respectively, and, more importantly, I learned a TON about driving and fixing this type of racecar.  Here is the full race, minus cautions, and the last 1.5 laps, camera didn't save that for some reason, sorry.

Next up: Round 4 for NASA Great Lakes on the shores of Lake Michigan, at picturesque Gingerman Raceway.  That weekend was quite an adventure, you don't want to miss it!

How The Grinch Stole a Racer's Heart

There have been some BIG changes in the Fast Farmer Autosport race shop over the past couple of months. An opportunity appeared, and I became the extremely proud owner of a car I never dreamed I would be racing.... But let's not get ahead of ourselves, let's turn the clock back several years to where the story actually begins, shall we?  

The year is 2019, and I am tearing it up in HPDE3.... at least until the event at GingerMan Raceway. I pushed my car a little to hard and left the track in turn 9, which at this track is generally not a big deal.  This time, however, the ground had been rutted where I went off during a previous event. The splitter on the front of my car dug into one of these ruts, and was violently ripped off the car, taking half my front bumper with it. This led to me being out of action the next couple of events. While I couldn't actually drive, due to my wife being Volunteer Coordinator for the region, we still had to attend the events. To keep myself occupied, I volunteered to help on grid during those events where I didn't have a car to drive.  This allowed me to get up close and personal to the actual racecars before they went out on track.  This is where I fell in love with a very unique class of car, the Thunder Roadster.  These things had it all a future racer could want, a low slung, flowing, fiberglass body and powered by Hayabusa motorcycle engines that made the coolest sound when on track. Being up close to these beasts right before they went on track planted the seeds of what became an obsession.  The car leading the charge happened to be a bright, lime green (Chrysler Gecko Green, as I later learned) rocket sled piloted by one of my favorite HPDE 2 instructors, James Wheeler.  

Not only was the car leading my obsession with the class, but it was usually leading the pack out on the track as well, which just drew me to it even more.  James usually placed near the top in regional events, and he also took "Thunder Grinch", as the car was christened by another of my favorite instructors, Marlon Sumlin, to victory lane at the NASA Championships in 2019 and 2021.  I never, even in my wildest dreams, imagined that I would get a chance to pilot such a badass racecar. I was content to watch James have all the fun, and enjoy watching it race when I could.  

Fast forward to July of 2023.  NASA makes its annual trip to Pittsburgh International Race Complex, and I am extremely excited.  The reason: I was finally going to get to race for the first time that season.  A "new to me" engine had just been installed in my car about 10 days earlier after much difficulty.  Unfortunately, that excitement disappeared very quickly when, on the second lap of our first practice session, the engine completely seized up.  This was probably the lowest I have ever been during a race weekend, I seriously considered loading up and driving home, then driving back sometime Saturday so I could give my wife a ride back home at the end of the weekend.  She convinced me that would be a REALLY stupid idea, so I stayed.  Fortunately, I have some great friends in NASA, and one of them decided he would let me take his car out for a HPDE session, just to try and cheer me up some.  Ironically, he raced a Thunder Roadster, so I found myself behind the wheel of my most coveted type of racecar.  I didn't exactly set the world on fire lap time wise with the car, but man, did I ever have fun!  I ended the session by setting a new personal best lap time at that track, by 2 SECONDS!  

Doing that in 8 laps really impressed upon me the performance capabilities of those machines, and made me seriously consider buying one.  Unfortunately, the Thunder Roadster was probably the most popular class nationwide in NASA, driving the price of a car through the roof, and well beyond what we were willing to spend at that time.  While I did entertain buying a couple of quality used cars over the next couple of months, by the end of the season, I had made my peace with not buying one, and that feeling continued until....... 

Early spring, 2025

I see a Facebook post that takes my breathe away: Thunder Grinch was up for sale.  In my mind, this car has always been THE Thunder Roadster, every time that word enters my head, the car I see is that bright green rocket.  But, still.... these things aren't cheap, especially one with the pedigree of The Grinch.  I showed the post to my wife, more as a joke than anything. To my incredulous surprise, she actually thought it wasn't a bad idea. Her reasoning being that if I were ever going to get into the class, this was the car to get. We knew how well it had been treated, and that it was always a threat to win.  So, a few days later, with nobody showing serious interest in the car yet, we worked out a deal and put a down payment on the car to have James hold it until we could get the proper finances in order.  I don't think I believed it was really happening until I unloaded the car, and saw it sitting there in my shop.  It was such a mind trip, that I just couldn't accept it as reality, until I unloaded it at the track, but we'll save that for another post.....   

Thunder Grinch WILL return!

LED A LAP AT MID-OHIO!!!

Guess who just LED A LAP AT MID-OHIO?

NASA Great Lakes Race to Remember at Mid Ohio on Memorial Day weekend (5/23/25 - 5/25/25) was certainly one to remember!

Highlight of Race # 3 on Sunday is here, the full weekend recap will be coming soon. It will be a LONG one, maybe even have to break it into a few posts!

For Race 3, they did a reverse grid, based on Race 1. (Race 2 was too short and did not count)

So Nick started in row 2. And he got around the cars in front of him and fended them off till they reached the start/finish for Lap 1.

Final place P7 with a new Personal Best 1:39.041.

Due to an incident in Race 2, Nick's starter got broken, it got replaced but still wasn't working, so he had to be push started to get to Grid. A day of challenges and he powered through it! What a way to finish his first weekend in the new Thunder Roadster!

~ M, proud wife!

NEW TRAILER!!!!

 When I bought the racecar back in late 2019, we discovered that due to clearance issues, the trailer we had been using for HPDE events would no longer suffice.  In early 2020 we bought a hand me down, homemade open deck race trailer with a tire rack, winch and tool box.  It wasn't much to look at, but it worked great as a "starter" trailer. As we became more serious about this whole racing thing, it became clear that the most efficient way to go was to have an enclosed trailer that could double as a camper at the track.  The truck we had at the time, while sufficient for pulling the small open trailer would have struggled with an enclosed trailer the size that we would have needed, so we would need to upgrade our tow vehicle BEFORE upgrading the trailer. Since we were able to score a great deal on an upgraded truck last summer, that meant this year it was time to look at getting the racecar better digs to and from the track.  Luckily the area where we live is very close to a hotspot of trailer manufacturing, so it was quite easy to find good deals on brand new enclosed trailers.  We ended up purchasing ours from Weaver's Trailer Sales in Middlebury, IN, a town about 30 minutes from our house.  

Here's the vitals for our new home at the track:  Manufacturer: United Trailers, Color: Battleship Grey, Length: 27 foot "V" nose, Capacity: 10,000lbs. The drive home with an empty trailer and 20mph crosswinds was enough to convince me that a weight distributing hitch with sway control was going to be a necessity going forward.  Here's a few pics from when we got it home:

After the hitch arrived, I loaded the car into the trailer for the first time and took it on a 100 mile round trip on different roads just to make sure that I had set the hitch correctly for my usual load. Man, what a difference that hitch made in ride quality and stability.  

FITS LIKE A GLOVE!!!

We decided to have the factory install the cabinets we wanted along with the 12,000lb winch we already had from when we were looking at modifying a different trailer.  Yes, I could have done both, but we really wanted the cabinets to look good, and I don't really have that ability in my skill set.  After about a week, we were able to pick the trailer up once again, with a quick detour on the way home to grab supplies for the floor covering we planned to install.  It took 4-5 days working about 4 hours a day to get the flooring laid out, cut and then glued down. After that it took about 4 hours of work to screw down the flooring around the edges, then install all the trim pieces to complete the job. 

Interior before installing cabinets and flooring

After cabinets and flooring was laid out, not cut to fit yet.... Who is that goofball???

Flooring after being cut to fit, next step gluing it down.

Good times!

After putting the adhesive on, directions called for using a hand roller to help smooth the flooring and push out any air bubbles.  I decided to improvise, the 295 width tires off the 2010 Camaro worked great!

I used a flat, flexible vinyl trim for "outside" corners (top pic), and flexible rubber quarter round for the "inside" corners(bottom pic).  Melanie found both these products on Amazon fairly cheaply.   Once that was finished, I let the trailer sit in the shop completely opened up for 2 days so all the fumes from the glue, rubber and vinyl could dissipate. Then it was time to roll it outside to test out the "living quarters" capabilities, and test out our new air mattress.  Turns out, it makes a fairly nice camper, as long as you don't mind there being no windows!  

COZY!

After it passed another test with flying colors, it was time to put the finishing touches on the trailer before loading up for it's first race weekend.  I needed to find, then cut out where the D-rings were supposed to go, then get them reinstalled.  Thanks to Melanie thinking ahead, we had marked where the cutouts were on the floor with masking tape. It only took around an hour and I had them back in just like new.  The next thing on my list that I wasn't going to the track without was a fire extinguisher.  I installed a 5lb ABC extinguisher just inside the walkthrough door, right next to the light switch, so it should be easy to find.  I plan on adding a second one on the opposite rear corner in the not too distant future, but one will be enough for now.  

Found the first D-ring cut out!

ALL DONE!!!  for now, anyway, 

I view a race trailer as an evolving entity, meaning it's not ever really finished until you decide to sell it.  We have a backup camera that will be installed before the first trip, as well as LED lights to be added under the upper cabinets so I have plenty of light to work on things on the counter top.  We also need to find a suitable fan to keep things cool and decide on a generator to keep everything running.  In the future, I will install tire racks, a white board, and more e-trac to secure tools to the walls during transport.  I'm sure there will be posts about most of those installation "adventures". 

2025 Round 1 - NCM Motorsports Park

Yes, this post is out of order, but I felt it was important to include a recap of the first race of the season, just for continuity's sake.  

The 2025 race season brought with it a new look for the #14 Camaro Mustang Challenge Z/28, and a couple of upgrades.  During the second to last race weekend of 2024, I experienced brake knockback and ran into the rear of another car hard enough to bend the previous nose that was on the car out of shape. It also caused a few of the bolt holes and studs that secure it to the body to be ripped and no longer usable, so I decided to replace it over winter.  I also upgraded the front brakes from the C5 Corvette stock front brakes to a set of Wilwood road race specific calipers, along with slotted rotors and Hawk pads to hopefully eliminated the common issue of pad knockback the vette brakes have.  Since the new nose came as unpainted black plastic, I decided instead of trying to match the nose with the rest of the car, I'd just repaint the car black. IMO, it looks AWESOME!

 

Our first NASA event of the year was at NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, KY, which just happens to be my second favorite track, so the 6 hour drive is worth it!  Friday was intended to be a practice day where I could break in my new Hoosier RCES tires that we have to run this season, and get another session or two to "dial in" my track brain and shake some rust off.  Also, being the first event of the year, I ran my car through tech to get it's annual sticker, and put it on the dyno to get my official horsepower number for the year, which dictates the minimum weight of the car after a race.  The car passed tech with no issues, and the HP/weight numbers were as expected.  The on-track activity, however, did not live up to it's potential.  I was going to swap tires between the first and second sessions(we had around an hour, so no problem), so I loosened up the lug nuts on BOTH left side tires.  When I removed the front wheel, I discovered that one of the fittings on my new brake calipers had come loose, and was leaking fluid everywhere.  Not super surprising since I changed everything on the front brakes, but still something that took extra time to get tightened properly then cleaned up.  When I finished that "quick" repair, I checked the time to discover I only had 20 minutes before my session. Still needing to get back into my suit, I made the fateful decision to just slap the tire I took off back on and get going.  Well, I completely forgot that I had also loosened up the rear tire, so I headed to grid with those lugs less than finger tight.  As the car picked up speed leaving pit road, I thought something felt "off", and it sounded louder somehow, but I didn't have much time to diagnose what was happening.  As I hit the brakes for the first corner, the car snapped sideways faster than it ever has before, and I found myself about 20 feet into the grass on the inside of the track, thinking "That was weird.".  The track was clear behind me, so I continued on thinking I must have gotten some brake fluid on my tires making it a little slick.  I get through the apex of the corner with the car twitching a bit, but not something I couldn't handle, then I started to apply throttle to exit the corner, and should have spun out again, but I saved it somehow. At that point I knew there was a major problem, but still had no clue what it was, so I decided to proceed back to the pits off line and at a slow pace.  No sooner had I pulled the car to the inside lane, then I heard a loud thunk accompanied by a big bump, then immediately saw my rear tire go past my driver's window.  That 20 minute session was the longest of my life, sitting there stranded, waiting for the rollback to retrieve when the track went cold.  Luckily the only damage was a slightly bent wheel stud and some minor scrapes on the rotor. A couple of whacks with a 5lb sledge, and it was ready to go. 

Saturday & Sunday:

The racing wasn't all that eventful either day. other than getting spun out while leading in the final race.  I think the second place car just took a bad angle into turn 1, causing the car to launch over the curbing and slam into my right rear wheel.  I checked my data after getting home, and the lateral G's doubled at the moment of impact, but these CMC cars are tanks, and no damage occurred other than minor scraping to the wheel and some paint transfer on the fender.  I recovered and was able to bring the car home in 3rd place to finish the weekend 3 for 3 in podium finishes.

2025 Round 2 - Ozarks International Raceway in April

April OIR recap

 I meant to get around to recapping my last race weekend much sooner, but things have been busy around here.  Better late than never, I suppose!

Round 2 of the NASA season took us to my absolute favorite track I’ve had the pleasure of racing on (and home to the 2025 NASA Championships), Ozarks International Raceway, located between the northern and western branches of picturesque Lake of The Ozarks, in western Missouri.  I had two goals going into the weekend: 1. Get my lap times consistently into the 2:55’s or under.  That would be 4 seconds under what I ran during my last visit, and 3 seconds quicker than my previous best single lap.  Consistently improving your lap times by 3-4 seconds in a weekend is a tough ask, but I’ve accomplished it several times in the past. Also, to be competitive at Championships in September, I will need to find around 7-8 seconds, so hopefully I can find 3-4 in April and again in July   2. Get better acclimated to the EXTREME elevation changes and almost constant changes in direction every lap. Both of my previous trips have seen me suffer through terrible motion sickness, to the point that I’ve had to park the car part way through races to avoid wrecking and/or getting physically sick.  In order to finish a 45 minute race, I’m going to need to make that go away.

Friday:  The track was quick to remind me during practice that it DEMANDS respect.  During my second session, I started to feel a little too comfortable, and should have wrecked, but somehow saved it.  Turn 5 is one of the more sketchy corners on the track, due to the previous corner being a slow 3^rd gear corner, 5 being downhill and off camber, plus you need to be under heavy acceleration by the apex.  I usually short shift into 4^th before starting turn in for T5, so I can give the car more throttle without worrying about getting the car out of shape by spinning the rear tires. This lap, I decided to keep the car in 3^rd until the shift light came on, giving me more acceleration down the hill. Unfortunately, as I shifted gears, my foot slipped off the clutch. This sudden change in momentum caused the car to jump sideways, just as it crested the hill at turn 5’s apex. Somehow, I kept my head and slightly lifted while slowly correcting my steering, which straightened the car back out with little loss in speed. The only damage being to the grass on the outside of the exit curbing.  This reminded me to give the track it’s due respect and at the same time, gave me a big boost of confidence for the remainder of the weekend.  Here's the video, it happens much quicker on here than it felt like in real time......

Saturday:  The first day of competition started off on a good note. During our warmup session I turned a lap on par with my lap times from last year, and since my laps in the warmup are slower than race laps, I felt very confident heading into qualifying.  Things got even better during qualifying, I got clear track on my second lap, and didn’t waste it. I glanced at my Catalyst as I crossed the line and honestly, though I read it wrong. After the official results were posted, I realized I had read the screen correctly.  I reset my personal best lap time with a 2:53.8, FOUR SECONDS better than previous PB!  After seeing that, I could NOT wait for Saturday’s race. Unfortunately, race drivers did race driver things and laps 4-6 of an eight lap race were ran under full course caution, leaving little time to get into any sort of rhythm for consistent laps. Even though we only had 5 green flag laps, I still managed to eclipse that qualifying time on laps 2, 7, and 8, with the final lap setting my new PB at a blistering 2:47.7, good for third fastest lap of the race in my whole class!  Hold on, this lap is SSSSMOKIN......

Sunday:  To say I was excited heading into race 2 of the weekend on Sunday morning would be a gross understatement.  However, that didn’t last long, turning the entire day into something that just needed to be survived.  I got off to a hot start in the race, picking up a couple of positions in the first lap and running a 2:54, right at my target pace for the weekend, with your first lap very rarely being your fastest of a race, I felt real good.  That all changed when I exited turn 11.  At apex, right as I started to apply throttle, the rear end stepped out violently, I caught it and re-applied the gas. It did the exact same thing!  I corrected again and continued on my way, but my brain was trying to figure out exactly what was happening. This pattern continued in all the remaining left hand corners, leading me to assume I had oil or something on my right rear tire, then I got on the front “straight”.  This section of track isn’t a straight at all, it more closely resembles a quad oval. If you’re a NASCAR fan, just picture the front  straight of Charlotte or Texas, and you get the idea. It’s a constant turn from turn 19 until you pass start/finish. You are usually under full acceleration in this section, in my car I typically hit 112-115 at the line. This time, I struggled to keep the car off the wall, and was only able running around 80 when I crossed the line. Then I got to turn 1.  As soon as I turned into the corner, the car again tried to spin out, this time though, it was accompanied by loud thunks  from the rear of the car.  As I continued down the hill, the car got sideways twice more.  Somehow, I was able to keep it from spinning into the outside wall, and finally coaxed it to a stop in the grass, mere inches from the wall at turn 2. 

 

After reviewing my video, it appears that I ran over a piece of debris on the formation lap before the race even started. This caused severe damage to both right side tires, rendering the front unusable, and causing the rear to go completely flat during my second lap. Since I only had 2 sets of tires, not counting wets, and one of those was last years worn out tires, the final race of the weekend suddenly looked very bleak.  

This is how the tire looked after my car was unloaded from the roll back:

I lined up for the final race with Toyo’s on the right side of the car, and Hoosier’s on the left, tires with two drastically different compounds and handling characteristics.  The goal for that race was seat time and nothing else. I started off well enough, picking up two spots in the first couple of corners, but lost one before the lap ended. I spent several laps fending off a furious assault from the car behind me, before the old tires decided they had had enough of that and started losing grip.  I gave up the position and tried to maintain contact while hoping to cool my tires, and mount a charge at regaining the spot before the race ended.  After a couple laps of this strategy, the 85 degree ambient air temps (usually the cabin is around 20 degrees hotter) and constant up/down, left/right of the track began to take a toll, and motion sickness started to hit me.  Having experienced first hand what can happen when it really sets in, I decided to call it a day.  Despite all the struggles, I was still able to run several laps in a row under 2:55, with a fast lap of 2:51.9, remember my first goal for the weekend?  Yeah, I definitely accomplished that, so despite a couple of bad finishes, it was a very successful event for me.  When I return for a final tune up in July, my goals will be to get back into the 47’s, and run consistently in the 51’s, or less, and to further improve my ability to keep the motion sickness at bay.  Next up is round 3 of the NASA season, this time at Mid Ohio Sportscar Course on Memorial Day weekend. My goals for that weekend are to successfully break in another new set of Hoosier’s on Friday, since I ruined my only set, and be as competitive as possible on worn out Toyo’s  the rest of the weekend.