VIR March Madness 22-24th

#21

[quote=“Patton” post=71618]From mylaps it looks like 5/8 of the field did not start the race on Sunday?

Congratulations to Grace for the wins.
Rob, sorry to see the damage to your car. How bad is it?

RP[/quote]

You decide -

#22

[quote=“Rob in VA” post=71624][quote=“Patton” post=71618]From mylaps it looks like 5/8 of the field did not start the race on Sunday?

Congratulations to Grace for the wins.
Rob, sorry to see the damage to your car. How bad is it?

RP[/quote]

You decide -

[/quote]

Good thing you are alright man- looked like a hard hit.

#23

Rob, from the number of wrecks that I’ve seen, your’s is totalled.

Find a new shell, weld in a new cage, swap over the good parts and pieces and one month and $2500-$3500 later you’ll be back on track.

Sorry, stuff happens. Sometimes it is expensive. Hey, the driver is okay!

RP

#24

Yeah, everyone knows that car was all motor anyway. :woohoo:

Seriously though, I’m glad you are OK. That was a great heads-up move to take your hands off the wheel once you were in the grass (a/k/a “The Danica”).

Obviously that was a big hit to bend that strut brace like that.

#25

Certainly an eventful weekend. Glad you’re alright, Rob - that was a heck of a hit.

Standing around the campfire Friday night we somehow started talking about bad front wheel bearings…obviously I couldn’t go to sleep with that on my mind so I jacked up the front end and confirmed both front wheel bearing where good…unfortunately it wasn’t until practice Sautrday morning that I confirmed my left rear wheel bearing was toast.
Before the car had even cooled down Mike Davidson and I were under it unbolting the trailing arm - took it over to James P’s shop and he got the bearing replaced pretty quickly. I got back to the track 20 minutes before the start of qualifying, luckily the session was delayed due to track clean up and somehow someway Mike, Ed, my dad and I got the car put back together and I was able to get on track for one qualifying lap. Coming out of hogpen on that one lap I felt a “pop” in the right front - something was obviously broken. I knew it was my only lap and I really did NOT want to start 22nd so I kept my foot down and the steering wheel straight until I crossed the line. I then limped it into the paddock to find that the control arm bushing was gone. Replaced it and was ready to go racing.
Started P3 behind Mike D. and Gagliardo. We all had a great battle for a few laps, Mike D and I touched wheels going into T3 which tweaked my alignment (over a half inch toe in) but it was still drivable. A few laps later the three of us were wicked close going into T3 and I got a little love tap in the left rear sending my into the dirt. I was able to keep my foot down and bring it back on track at T4 - still leading. Dave Herrington was in P2 when the dust settled. All in all it was a wicked fun race with Mike D, Gags, and Herrington!

Sunday on the other hand…Sunday was cold and rainy/snowy. We had less than half the cars we had on Saturday as a result of the poor schedule and terrible weather. The conditions were probably the worst I’ve raced in, there was tons of standing water everywhere and streams running across the track. The front straight was so bad there was zippy chance you could go flat, the back straight on the other hand was right on the edge of being possible to go flat - making it way more dangerous because it was tempting to try. I was hearing the revs spike and making steering corrections all the way up the hills.

Again, thanks to the Davidson for the help, and Rick Mariani and Matt Herd for the parts. I really appreciate it!

Saturday Video: http://youtu.be/plvXQxW_ljs

Sunday Video: Coming Soon.

#26

Rob sorry about the damage. If you need a hand making repairs/swapping parts, I will be happy to help.

#27

Thanks Dan. I really appreciate it.

#28

Video from Sunday’s rain race. Not exactly exciting but it shows how terrible the conditions were, the rain picked up throughout the race. You can really hear the revs spiking all the way up the back straight: http://youtu.be/4H9w6UTin5k

#29

crazy video in the rain. Looks worse then the snow weekend.

#30

It was worse. I though I was on a flooded skid pad. Hmm, glad we didn’t get billed extra. :slight_smile:

#31

i thought it was bad that weekend. Paul, Are you headed up to VIR this weekend to help Tower and crew out? I’ll be there.

#32

Yep, I’m planning on helping out on Saturday.