The view from mid pack...
I needed to finish ahead of Kyle Vensel to get 5th in the overall points, didn't achieve my goal as Kyle drove a mistake free race -- congrats to him on that.
I did not drive a mistake free race.
Car ran ok in qualifying but I got black flagged early for having a loose hardtop after running a 24.6 or so. Two old Brit bolts had backed out and it took us a while to find replacements. Got that squared away and got ready for second qual..which took place in heavy rain and was useless. Really needed a 23 in qual and didn't have the opportunity to get it, so my mid 24 put me mid pack (7th I think) in S, and behind some of the fast A cars.
90 minutes before the race and 30 minutes before quiet hour, I start the car to take it to the grid. I hear a strange hissing sound. Open hood, and there is a small jet of water streaming out of a crack in the intake manifold. Holy cow. Seems that the transition from the banking at Nashville had caused the strut bar to flex some, hitting a fitting and cracking the alum manifold where the fitting trheaded in. It had held for a while, but finally gave up the ghost -- right before race time.
I was about ready to park the English turd at that point, but Ron E. wouldn't quit. He sent me to the store to get some jugs of water, and went to work with the JB Weld. It worked, car held water the whole race. Amazing. I now consider JB Weld to be near god like in stature, second only to Earp the Magnificent himself.
On to the race. I got a great start and passed 3-4 A cars on the outside going into one, and actually got alongside Kyle Vensel in turn 2. Aha! I thought, this is good. This woudl be the highwater mark of the race for the BritShit V8.
Then, I dropped two wheels off at 2 and that slowly became four wheels off as I bounced along in the grass between 2 and 3 watching the field go by. Having been a victim in 2005 of a car that did just that and then shot across the track before 3, I took it easy coming back on and lost about 10 spots.
Great!
Back to work. I passed a few cars on the rest of lap 1, avoided the Neon that went into the pit wall at 9 hard on lap 2, finally got back up to my starting place by lap 3 (which was now 6th as the BMW 323 had dropped out).
I settled into a GREAT battle with Kurt Jackson's ITR BMW 2.8 roadster/coupe and Russ Boatwright in his ITS Second Gen RX7. I led for a bit, and then went 4 off at turn 9 and thought, this is the end of my car (for those you who don't know Roebling that's about a 100 to 110 mph corner dumping out onto the front straight). I hit a slight bump in the dirt, and launched the front end into the air, smacked down and tank slapped it in the grass until I got it under control and then mangaged to get back on the pavement right behind Kurt and ahead of Russ.
Drafted Kurt for a few laps, even hit the rev limiter in 5th when doing so (that's a REAL 136 mph folks) at the turn 1 braking zone. 4 to go and Kurt let me and Russ go by to race for sixth -- thanks on that Kurt.
Russ was faster than me from turn 3 to turn 6, and I was a bit quicker from the front straight to turn 3. Next to last lap I ran the inside of turn 5 to protect the line, and washed out at exit. Russ made a great pass on the outside of the carousel coming down to the "white flag" but got hung up just a second dumping out onto the front straight by a slow RX7 and that was enough for V8 torque to take over and I got back around going into 1. Managed to hold him off for the rest of the lap and took 6th. Great race with Russ though, really enjoyed it.
The TR8 is now, at race pace (qual is a different story) about 1.5 seconds off the leaders' race pace. We are close. Need to get the power down better of course, and am also working on having a full bore Dennis Shaw fuel injected 3.5 in the car next year, which should give me a nice (we are hoping for 10-15) hp boost due to the better intake manifold design. We'll see.
In any event, great event this year. Enjoyed it. Congrats again to Steve E. on the championship. Well deserved and long overdue.