I was there for that race, the one before, and everyone since, except one.
I was on the winning team, driving the #90 Dorifto Dogs E30 pictured. It was kind of a bittersweet victory though. We ran well on Saturday and were sitting in P1, but burned through our tires and had none for Sunday. Another team graciously offered us a pair of their new tires (for free!) which certainly helped us to make it to the checker to win the race.
Back then, there were TONS of cautions. We ran the short course along with that stupid chicane on the front straight, which caused more mayhem than it prevented. Running the short course, it allowed the 2nd place (Lightning McQueen Jetta) car to make up a lot of ground with every yellow flag. To add to that, during the last hour, our car would fuel starve out of T14 due to the transfer system in the OEM saddle tank not working. I was driving the last stint, and it was nerve racking trying to stay in the lead, and out of trouble, all while the much faster 2nd place car gains every lap. When the checker waived, I made an extra lap just to be sure the race was over!
I was hella excited, when I pulled back into our garage asking "Where is victory lane?" It really took the wind out of my sails when I found out there was no such thing, not to mention winning overall was presented as "Meh" during the ceremony.
After the race, one of our overly zealous teammates wanted to bark orders about the next race, what we should do different, how we could be faster, yadda, yadda, and it turned he made winning no fun. I left the team after that race and started another due to his attitude. That turned out to be the right decision since the car went boom the very next race, and their team got worse, and finally disbanded.
I said the win was bittersweet because following the race, (yes Judge Phi,l I'm still whining about this 10 years later!) all I read about was how the 2nd place car almost won. I've never seen so many accolades for the "almost winner". We ran well in a ratty E30 with the ETA motor, on basically a half-tank of fuel between stops due to the tank issues. All of us had raced exactly one time before, so it wasn't like we were veterans or anything. We were elated to win, but all we heard was about how the damn 2nd place was "so close".
Fast forward 10 years later, and my attitude toward winning has changed. I have a different team now, and we still have a competitive Class A car, but winning an overall isn't in the cards unless all the top guys break, and we're OK with that as long as we're having fun, which we obviously are.
Hope we're all still here to read about the next 10 years!
Captain
Team Super Westerfield Bros.
'93 Acura Integra - No VTEC Yo!