No funny business this week. We pretty much stuck to the standard plan. No tire prep and no other brilliant ideas!

Last week, even though we had problems with the tires, I thought the car stayed under me pretty well. So, we scaled the car at the shop and made sure that it was pretty much the same as it was last week. One thing we didn't check or change was the pre-load on the sway bar but we did change tires... (more)

In the first practice I was tight as a drum. The best lap times I could squeeze out were around 19 seconds flat. The fastest car was running in the 18:20's so I had a long way to go. We got the car up on jack stands and checked the tire stagger and temperatures and the tires were pretty good. Then we put it back on the ground and checked the sway bar. Somehow I had 3 turns in it when we usually only just snug it up a little. That would explain the car being so tight.

In the next practice the car felt a lot better. It turned right to the bottom and I was able to get hard in the gas coming off the corners. But something new was happening and I didn't know what it was. It felt like I was spinning the tires coming off the corner. Or maybe the clutch was slipping. Since I've never felt that before I wasn't sure what it was. Still, even thought the car felt really good I was still turning laps around 19 flat.

In the heat race I had a real good starting position in 3rd but at the green flag it felt like the tires were spinning or the clutch was slipping again and the car just wouldn't go. It took me a lap just to get going so I lost 2 positions on the start. I fell in behind a car that was a little slower than me and I was trying to set it up for a pass. On the white flag lap I got under the car going into turn one and thought I had the position but the car wasn't going to give it too me easily and cut down on me in the center. I wasn't far enough up on the car to force the issue and the impact turned me down into the inside wall. I didn't want to hit it and I knew there was a car just behind me so I just let my car spin around on the apron so I wouldn't hit anything or anybody and I finished last in 7th place.

In the feature I was supposed to start 6th. They never line up the way they are supposed to so I thought about dropping to the bottom to see if I could start on the inside. Turns out this time they were going to try to line us up properly so I went where I was supposed to go. We almost made it one lap and I got hung up on the outside as expected but I think I got a pretty good start. As the leaders passed the flag stand they were still side by side and they touched setting off a wreck that took them both out of the race. When we lined up again they went for a complete restart but I was now 4th instead of 6th.

On the restart, the outside pole jumped the start a little bit so I went with her and got into turn one real good. Unfortunately, 4 cars in to back got together and spun so that brought out the yellow again and, once again, we lined up for a complete restart. I still got a pretty good start but I was hung up on the outside and couldn't get down to the bottom. Every time a little opening would happen it was quickly filled before I could safely make a move. I dropped from 3rd to 8th in the first 2 laps before I could get to the bottom.

On lap 3 I was finally able to drive my line and I got my rhythm going and set my sites on getting a few of those positions back. The car ahead of me got bunched up in turn one and I drove under one car to move up to 7th. We were running in a pretty tight pack of 5 cars with me in the middle. I had a very aggressive driver on my bumper who wasn't going to wait for me to let him by while I was trying to get around the car in front of me. After 2 more laps I stuck my nose under him going into turn 3 even though I couldn't really make the pass. I was hoping he would think I was closer than I was and move up for me and that's just what he did. I turned to the bottom and got under him for the pass off of turn 4.

I still had that fast car behind me and he still wanted by in a bad way. Coming of turn 2 on the next lap he got into the left rear corner of my bumper to move me over and I knew this wasn't going to get any better and I wasn't going to get away from him either. So, on the next lap I gave him the inside coming off of turn 4 and then fell in behind him going into turn one. The rest of the race was pretty tame. I caught the car ahead of me with 4 laps to go and tried to pass him but I couldn't.

All night my lap times were pretty much the same. I was having to roll into the throttle real easy coming off the corners because of the clutch. At least that's what I think it was. I have a 2 speed transmission which is just 3rd and 4th gear. It's supposed to be faster but I have to let the clutch slip a lot to get going in the pits. My guess is that I've worn the disks out and its time to replace them.

All in all I think this was the most fun race I have run this year. The car is finally starting to come around as I get more and more comfortable driving it.

We have 3 weeks off now so I'm going to replace the clutch and the bumper covers on the front and back of the car. I'm also going to plan a test day at the track so I can work on my driving line with a driving instructor. Hopefully, I will take a few of the those 10ths off my lap times that I need to start running with the leaders again.