We broke just before the end of Saturday's racing. It was the one part we'd never had problems with, the diff. The engine, not ready until Friday at 2:30, did fine except for over-heating. I need to figure out why that happened. Normally we run under 190F even on hot days.
It was still fun, and breaking on Saturday meant we had more time to cruise the paddock and visit people. We need to break more often. Actually, we broke at Sonoma, too, so maybe we need to break less often. Anyway, it was interesting watching the B-Team get the Chotus back together and return to the race. Our pit neighbors were helpful in diagnosing our over-heating problems, and the Toyoda team had just lost their third engine in their two Lemons races and were still having a good time.
I never got to drive but reports I heard were there was plenty on stupid driving, our guys witnessing cars on several occasions trying to insert themselves into spaces that were never going to open. They also spoke of great driving and fun extended dices.
Our new guy in his first ever race did good. A bit off the pace but that's OK. He had fun and will be back.
Jay seemed short-staffed. Few seats on the Supreme Court were filled and hardly anyone was cruising/policing the paddock. The Restart Racing folks (white Ford Ranger) told me about a few things they saw that should have been stopped, like fueling violations.
Spank did a great job with the awards presentation, although he may have let the power of his office go to his head at one point in the weekend and Restart Racing suffered for it. They finally had a C-class win in their sights but an arbitrary 1-hour penalty put them back in 3rd. They fought back and were in second and less than a lap behind Cory's Buick before the race ended.
I heard more than a few people say they were done with the Thunderhill heat and would not be back at Arse-Sweat because of it. I want to come, it's the classic Thunderhill track and will be the start of our 8th year of racing, but we'll see.
The Ridge is looking good for us this year. Normally I can't get my guys to go that far. Something about having to be back at work on Monday or some such excuse. Well, our new guy is a pilot and owns a 4-seater plane and now everyone wants to go. It looks like another solo hallucination-inducing 15 hour haul for me.
Mike
P.S. Here's our full story - http://teamtinyvette.kstreetstudio.com/ … 170521.pdf