Yeah, it was beyond weird. Basically the race director said it was his series and he made the call that he felt was right. On Sunday, the team that was gifted the laps said they didn't want them so I have to give them major respect for that.

With our incident and the amount of time we spent in the pits, I wonder if we could've asked for laps too, but it wasn't worth it. We're here to race, not bitch about someone who crashed into us.

 

Wow that is definitely a crazy call. What happened with Tubby Butterman getting stuck in a closed pit lane? I read something about that in a Facebook update and was wondering how they heck they got stuck there losing laps. How did that happen?

 

The rules for this race stated that the pit lane would be closed for 15 minutes prior to course changes from the oval to the road course of vise versa. Tubby came in about before the pit lane was officially closed but because they finished up their pit stop about 30 sec after pit lane had closed, they were forced to wait at pit exit until the course change was completed. It happened to a number of the better teams and Tubby actually made that mistake twice if memory suits me.

 

Haha wow that would suck. I guess you have to be smart enough to pay attention to that though, especially if you should have known the rules. It sounds like it was such an odd, crazy race with all the rules, course changes and weather! But fun I am sure.

 

Sunday was an early morning. We had to be at the track at 8:30 for the driver's meeting but we were up late the night before working on the car. Tired and groggy, we went through a quick driver's meeting before walking back to the pit lane for last minute prep on the car like installing GoPro's and checking tire pressures. With everything looking good, we sent Nick out onto the track to drive first.

Unlike Saturday, the weather on Sunday simply couldn't have been better. It was in the low 70's, sunny skies, and low humidity. Absolutely perfect!







The first 5 hrs of the race were to be completed on the oval. Nick was really enjoying himself and absolutely ripping around the banking, reeling the other cars in left and right. About 15 min before his scheduled pit stop, he called in on the radio to say he'd be pitting early due to a blown tire.



It had been chunking for a few laps and finally blew out on him in Turn 1. He managed to get it back into the pits and we changed the front tires, only to realize that was our last set of tires for the weekend. We began scrambling to find other teams who might have had extra tires they could lend us. Luckily, Mayhem Racing (the team we helped tow to the track after their tow vehicle died) was nice enough to lend us a set of Falkens to finish the race on if we needed them.

While we sent Tim out for his stint, I walked around the track taking photos. I got to the inside of Turn 1 just in time to see the leading My Little Pony Mustang lose control on the banking and the Clownshoe Racing Datsun 510 slammed into the back of it, bringing out another caution period.



Things were going well and as we followed our driving roster, James was out driving (he was the one who crashed on Saturday) and I was slated to go next. About an hour into James' stint, he called into the radio and said the car wouldn't stay in 3rd gear. A few laps later he called to say he lost 2nd and it was grinding on every gearshift. It wasn't too long before he called in on the radio saying he lost drive and the car was making all sorts of nasty sounds. We weren't sure if it was an axle or the gearbox but were hoping for the former since we brought spare axles and knew that we'd ripped an axle boot the day before.

Unfortunately, as we found out when James was towed into the pits, it was the gearbox that had let go. That was it for us. With 7 hrs to go in the race, we were forced to roll the car back onto the trailer and pack it up.

We'd put in a valiant effort but it wasn't quite enough. The damage from the crash on Saturday was worse than we'd thought and the cracked transmission mount was likely the culprit.

So we spent the rest of the afternoon going between the track and the bar, just relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. We wanted to be out there racing more than anything but Plan B wasn't so bad either. I managed to get back up on top of the control tower to snap some photos which I'll share later.



Mary, our cheerleader/back-up photog took this pic of me.


Anyway, as the race began to wind down the Canadian team, BSD Racing, was leading the race, up 7 laps from British American Racing (BMW E30) and 44 laps up from the Free Candy Honda Civic and Tubby Butterman BMW. With about 40 min to go, Tubby Butterman and Free Candy both came into the pits on the same lap for new tires. They were mere feet from each other on pit lane but Tubby managed to get their BMW out first by just a few seconds to take 3rd place!

Meanwhile, B.A.R. was down only 4 laps from BSD Racing and was making up ground fast. We later found out that BSD Racing was on fumes and had to slow down to conserve fuel. With a lap and a half to go, B.A.R. managed to overtake BSD Racing for the lead and maintained that lead to finish 10 seconds ahead in 1st place! 25.5 hrs of racing came down to a 10 second margin of victory! Everyone in the pits went crazy!



All the cars that were still racing limped their way into the pits and the top 3 teams parked in pit lane to celebrate. It was an amazing way to end an incredible race. It was even nicer to know that the winning team was run by a bunch of fellow Minnesotans who I'd become friends with through various events.

After parc ferme, all the teams celebrated with beer and brats while the awards ceremony went on. Three Sheets got a trophy for 25th place and also won the coveted Spirit of ChumpCar award for helping Mayhem Racing get to the track on Friday. B.A.R. popped open the champagne to celebrate as they hoisted the 40" tall, 103 lb trophy into the air!

It was a great way to finish a long, long weekend.

 

Just over 3 weeks til I race at Laguna Seca (thanks to the help of everyone here on TS who contributed so generously!) and ChumpCar just released the 2012 race schedule.

Those those races, I'm currently planning on competing in at least the following five:

ROAD AMERICA: 21 - 22 Apr / Double-7
BRAINERD INT'L RACEWAY: 30-Jun / 14-Hour
IOWA SPEEDWAY (Full Roval): 25 - 26 Aug /24-Hour
ROAD AMERICA: 20 - 21 Oct / Double-7
ROAD ATLANTA: 8-Dec / 14-Hour

and I'll probably put together another fund-raiser if I can convince the rest of the team to race at Daytona at the end of May.

 

Have fun at Laguna Seca. Our team would love to make it out there, but that would be one long haul.

Really excited to see Road Atlanta next year. We'll probably be at both Road Atlanta events, VIR, and both Charlotte events for sure.

 

Cool! I hope to see you guys at the December 8th Road Atlanta event. Swing up to Road America if you can. It's probably one of the only tracks east of the Mississippi that can rival Road Atlanta.

 

How is it going???

 

The car is coming along nicely! The frame was straightened out by a good body shop and we got a donor car to swap new body panels from. I haven't had much time to work on the car myself but the other guys on the team should have it painted by now...

I'll be picking up some of the decals next week and the car should be ready to go in the by the 14th.