Here it is, halfway through 2010, and I have yet to complete a single race lap this season.
Archive for the “Updates” CategoryIt has been a really long time since I’ve posted anything. Through much of March, the race car was home in the garage, with me doing pre-season prep work. All new brakes, change fluids, etc. First weekend of April was the season opener, a double regional at Thunderhill. I left home Thursday night. About 15 miles from home, in Fremont, the oil pressure gauge on the Suburban dropped down to 0, although I got no warning lights or other indication that anything was wrong. I pulled over and checked the oil. Just slightly low, but not outrageous. Topped it off, started it, oil pressure was fine. That didn’t make much sense but I continued on my way. 15 miles later I was up and over the hill in Pleasanton, when the gauge started dropping again. Within the next 10 minutes it had crept all the way down to 0 again. Again, no idiot lights, no weird sounds, nothing out of the ordinary, but I got off the freeway in Pleasanton and called AAA. It was now about 9:00 at night and I was still in civilization. An hour later it would be in the middle of absolutely nowhere and it would be even later. This seemed smarter. Of course, everyone says that about their own! Oh wait, that’s kids. Photo from the SCCA booth at the 2010 Silicon Valley Auto Show. Photo credit to Viet-Tam Luu, thanks Tam!  At the 2010 Auto Show
Unfortunately my mechanical issues made it such that I didn’t get to spend much time getting the word out about Pro Autobody. This shop in San Jose is owned by an SCCA member and autocrosser. They repaired my badly-bent race car after the June wreck and did it for a VERY reasonable price. If you need body work, it should be your first stop!
First post since early August. What happened? I guess a really tough racing season made it such that there really wasn’t this great desire to share. To summarize: Since so much of the car needs to be repainted (only the roof, hatch, doors, left side skirt and left fenders will be untouched), I’m playing with new graphic designs for the car. The goals are to keep costs down. I think I’m just going to paint all of the new panels black and then do graphics again. Here’s what I’m thinking now. Just playing with Photoshop here.
What do you think? The next race is coming up next weekend, Father’s Day weekend, at Laguna Seca. I still think the spare junkyard engine will be up and running in the car by then, although it isn’t quite there yet. Let’s hope. In the meantime, the entry list is looking much better than the April Laguna race. In that one 10 days out, there were only 189 entries on the entry list and I posted that it looked like the economy was taking its toll. This time, summer, a double, we’re at 280 entries as of yesterday. Sounds much healthier! Not only that, but group 5, the IT group, is right now the largest group at 59 entries. The Spec Miata group is 2nd at 58. Specifically ITA is the largest class at this point, even larger than SMT (San Francisco Region’s flavor of Spec Miata). Here’s hoping the new (used) engine helps me stay in front of all of that mess!
Due to an upcoming business trip, I planned to only do the first of the two races this weekend. Practice and qualifying were Friday, and the race was Saturday. Things went pretty well in practice. Although I was over 1.5 seconds off of my personal best lap time at Thunderhill, the car felt great and I was fastest overall. The new video camera and lap timer worked great. Qualifying wasn’t quite as good. I was slower than I was in practice, and ended up in P2 overall (P1 in ITR, being the only entry) behind Doug Makishima. Still, I actually kind of like being in 2nd place. Hunting down the car in front of me is a ton of fun. Trying to run away from the car behind me is a lot more stressful!
The entry list was updated, up to 234 entries overall. Still all alone in ITR, although with 7 ITS entries there could be some good speed at the front of the group 5 grid. I am actually going to do only the first race of the weekend on Saturday and then head home, due to work pressures … flying off to the UK on Tuesday and there’s just too much to do between now and then.
The next SCCA race weekend is coming up on Memorial Day weekend. It’s a double at Thunderhill. 214 entries on the entry list, 10 days before the event. Next update will be next week, hope we can get that closer to 250. Unfortunately Mike U.’s ITR Prelude isn’t ready yet, in fact, he’s discovered that he doesn’t fit all that well in it … so I’m all alone in ITR again. Hope he can fix that soon. So even though Doug will say I have an advantage at Thunderhill due to the long straights, I’m hoping we have a pair of great battles.
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