It was not a great weekend for me.
Some bug hit me Friday. Instead of sleeping I just spent the night thinking about how much my throat hurt. I went to the track Saturday morning, loaded up with Motrin, for the driver’s meeting, but I had to go back home because #1 wife was throwing a wedding reception in our backyard and my attempt to get out of it and remain married was unsuccessful.
I got to the track Sunday morning. My throat was less screwed up but I still wasn’t in good shape. I had 4 guests at the track and I took them for 6? ride-alongs. By the time we got to the race I was completely exhausted. My every minute was consumed trying to keep 4 people entertained.
I started around mid-pack. It was to be the last race on the current set of tires. It started out well. A lead pack of 4-5 developed and started pulling away with me dogging their heels. Dogging the heels of the leaders hoping for someone to screw up before I did is a pretty good place to be. But then on lap 2 or 3 I got sideways in 3 and scared the shit out of myself. I was only barely able to recover before the braking zone of 4 which also went poorly. That’s when I realized that I didn’t have nearly the traction I thought I had. Maybe CMP wears tires out prematurely? I dunno.
I spent the rest of the race trying, unhappily, to do the best I could with the traction god gave me that day. Some of the efforts were just pitiful. I had to slow down so much to get the car to turn in 4 and 5 that it was kinda farcical. There was some good action with Sumpter and a few others, but I was plumb worn out and also annoyed that I’d tried to get 1 race too many in those tires.
I finished somewhere in the middle. When the race finally ended I was so weak that I could barely get out of the car. Putting tires up in my overhead rack seemed like an exhausting chore.
I had a short drive home. I was in bed by 6PM and didn’t get up for 13hrs.
