Congrats to Andrew Zimmerman and a bunch of other nuts known as West Philly Racing for their ITA victory.
And congrats to Dave White and the band of merry men from Bimmerworld who won overall again this year. I thought E36s were supposed to be crap? :laugh:
We had three unscheduled stops that took away our +/-6 lap lead and put us a lap down:
- Replaced front rotors at around hour 7 - We think the morning rain contributed to them warping pretty badly. We were afraid what other problems the bad vibration would cause.
- Around hour 9 I got a strong pull to the left coming down the back straight that developed into a vibration. I thought I had a tire going down, so I pitted. They checked hubs and tires and didn’t see anything wrong so I went back out. At turn 3 the left axle done blowed up so I coasted to a stop near a station and they called in a flat tow.
- Once I got to our paddock space my codrivers replaced the axle in about 6 minutes.
- With 2-3 hours left in the race, the rain returned with a vengeance. We stayed clean, but they checkered the race about 90 minutes early due to lightning in the area and concern for the workers.
We ended up 2nd in class, but more importantly we may have been the only car with no marks on it whatsoever.
I had one of the hardest stints ever: at night with an SRF tucked under my tail for about 15 laps. I was trying to manage tires (FWD), so I was being patient getting back to throttle. He had good grunt out of the corners, but once I hit 5th gear he topped out so I had a 5 length lead going into Oak Tree and at the end of the back straight and probably 3 lengths on the front straight.
We talked after our stints and he said I made a nice hole in the air so he got about 150 rpm more at the end of each straight with my tow. Fun stuff.
After the checker we gathered our stuff, hit the podium, and got some of the free food. I was too beat to walk over and get a copy of the results so I don’t know how the other Spec E30 guys did. Sorry.
Note to self: do not eat chili at 10:30 then go to bed at 11:00. It continued to downpour. I woke up in the tent at 2:30 with the wind howling and the rain pelting and a bad case of heartburn. I laid there for 30 minutes and finally decided, f*ck it I am driving back to Atlanta. Packed up, broke down the tent in monsoon conditions, stuffed it in the front trunk of the turbo. I turned the key to get on the road around 3:30 and the check engine came on with the relatively ominous “Check engine, proceed to workshop” warning displayed. :ohmy: I ordinarily ignore CELs, but this engine is 2nd mortgage material.
I drove cautiously for a while and my butt dyno said everything’s good. But the rain kept me from going as fast as, say, an 18 wheeler. Or minivan. I think I almost got passed by a bicycle. Wide tires are nice in the dry, but the car was twitching like Robinson at the vet.
I made it to Charlotte around 4:30 before I had to go Al Taylor and pull over for some sleep. I picked a Starbucks parking lot so I could get some shuteye (and the antidote of warm coffee when I woke up). I think I slept for 2 hours there. I am not sure because between the time change and my watch, car clock and cell phone I still am not sure what time it really is.
Somewhere between VIR and Charlotte, I came as close to hitting a possum as I ever have. Visions of Malt Liquor Tech t-shirts haunted me the rest of the way. :huh:
Long story even longer, I pulled in to my driveway around 10:30 Sunday morning to the delight of my wife and kids who didn’t expect me until 3:00ish. Then I spent all day laying out the tent, rain fly, etc. and using the wet vac to get about 1" of standing water out of the front trunk of the car. Good times!
I am really looking forward to better weather this weekend.
