steve remchak wrote:
don't know that these are official .............
http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=2002462if so many congratulations to quite a few THSCC teams.
cool, according to mylaps we had the 3rd fastest lap of the race
i can't express what an emotional rollercoaster this weekend was. first chump event, first night driving, first race for the simon car, last minute addition of crew. then the overheat in practice, lots of discussion about how to handle it, snag parts from a neighboring team, pull the head and replace the head gasket, button it up with no clue if it'll run for more than three laps. i drive the first stint and everything is ok thank goodness, but despite only letting a small handful of cars past we're in 18th place? gah, charity laps! our pit stop performance isn't quite up to par so we take more five min, costing us more laps.
but the car was running great, and we started to work our way up the standings. during the first safety break we pulled the wheels and replaced the front brakes and put on fresh rubber just to be safe. i can't speak for everyone else but i LOVED driving at night, our light setup was excellent and not one car passed me the entire stint. towards the end i realized that i hadn't seen magnum so they must've been running a good pace too, then on my in lap i see them in front of me but too late to do anything about it. damn i really wanted to make that pass!
second safety break we again replace front pads but everything else is fine, tire wear is incredibly minimal. we're top five now, so we elect to go with a two stop strategy for the remaining six hours. only problem is that two hours is at the outside of our range so we'll have to use fuel conservation mode to stretch it, possibly costing us valuable lap time. dustin gets 1:55 iirc, then i go out at 0900. unfortunately at some point i can't hear our comm chief but he can hear me so i keep chatting and he send me info via the board and various body gestures. i'm relaying fuel gauge readings and i guess they decide that everything is ok because i get the "push it" signal. start using the full rev counter but that burns more fuel than expected and after about 30 min i have to dial it back. way back in fact, i'm under 1/8 tank and am told i have to stay out 14 min. at the ten min mark the car sputters in fishhook. nurse it around another couple of laps before it cuts out at bitch too, so i bring it in for the final driver change.
the last 90 min i'm a nervous wreck, we're in 3rd but 4th and 5th are within a lap or two and closing. one of them drops out so we're down to one threat, the #41 civic which is a lap down but gaining 2-3 sec a lap. with 30 min to go he passes us and is on the same lap and still gaining. some mental arithmetic says that if we don't slow down we'll hold position, but do we have enough fuel to last at this pace? turns out we did and finished in 3rd, just 30 sec ahead of the civic. i don't think anyone saw me but i stepped aside for a moment and cried just a little
i can't begin to express how awesome our team and crew was. jeremy, john, and reid were beyond fantastic, doing everything that needed to be done and more. without their help we'd never have achieve this result. and it's difficult to imagine better teammates. rob's attention to detail and methodical approach. dustin's irrepressible good humor and non-slow driving. mark the ironman, unflappable and always cool as a cucumber. and mike? there is no team without mike. there is no car without mike. there is no camp without mike. or repairs. or equipment. or organization. come to think of it, how does any racing team exist without mike? one more unanswered question in the universe.
hearty congratulations to magnum pu for yet another fantastic finish, to grim reaper for a top ten position, and to everyone who came out and competed. already thinking about the next race! well not really, but i will after catching up on sleep.
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