"TeamClearCoat" (teamclearcoat)
06/08/2016 at 14:06 • Filed to: None
2
0|
"TeamClearCoat" (teamclearcoat)
06/08/2016 at 14:06 • Filed to: None | 2
| 0 |
We were down a driver, lost nearly 2 hours, and one of us didn’t fit in the car. And we were in 50th place in a car that should have been in the top ten. But we had a new alternator and had finally fixed the tire rubbing issue. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , published earlier this morning.
But, despite all that, and the uphill climb ahead of us, we had one thing no one else had. I’m talking, of course, about this ginger idiot:
Dave, right before his fiberglass-is-itchy epiphany.
Dave, cohost of TeamClearCoat and noted taffy addict, agreed to be the sole member of the pit crew for the weekend. Aside from the obvious dangers of walking outside when it was so damn sunny, he’d also have to put up with dehydrated and fragile ego-ed drivers all weekend. Luckily he arrived ready to “den mother the shit outta this race team.”
Meanwhile, Matt was out on track, killing it. He’s a great driver with lots of experience, so it didn’t take him long to come to grips with a new, challenging car and a new track. He came back in once, complaining of a severe misfire, only for it to disappear by the time he reached the paddock. It would not be the last time that particular issue would come up.
Then it was time for my stint - also my first time in the car. Me and all the pillows I had shoved in the seat to offset my, umm, peculiar build roared out on track with a 5-liter soundtrack. Considering how recently it was completed, the car was remarkably well sorted. There were, of course, things to manage - it was pretty severely under-tired, the suspension was way too soft, and it was anyone’s guess where the car would head under braking. But, once you managed to get the weight transferred and actually enter the corner, all was well. Over cooked it a bit? Well, here’s a nice neutral 4-wheel slide! Want to nurse it through this corner? Oh, how about a V8 to lean on for the straight?
I’m not going to lie - during that first stint, I was really nervous about traffic, which there was a lot of due to full-course yellows and a red flag. And the visibility issue was pretty bad. My hitting of apexes would best be compared to lightning - never in the same place twice. I just couldn’t get comfortable with where the car was at anytime. And then I had to get towed in. It turned out the ignition issue Matt felt was a coil, and it fixed itself in the paddock when it had cooled down.
At the end of my stint, I was frustrated and tired. My cool suit hadn’t worked, and I just couldn’t find a rhythm with all the yellows and my hesitance to work through the traffic in front of me.
Brian went back out to finish out the day with a solid, consistent stint. Until it ended 20 minutes early with more ignition issues. We would end the day in 40th, and I would be looking for new plugs and wires on Saturday night. Tomorrow: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the last day.