Finally, my first race has been completed, THANK GOD!!!  Talk about a nerve racking experience.  Driving schools don’t get you completely ready to go into a turn with 60 other cars that are all trying to get the edge on the other one.  It also doesn’t prepare you for having the car next to you get loose in turn 1 and there is nothing you can do because there is a car about a foot away from you on the other side.  Luckily I made it through the weekend incident free, the TeamWTF?! SpecE30 ran great (everyone loved the team decals), and I didn’t finish DFL. 

I missed the first practice on Saturday since I had to get my annual inspection completed so the first time I went out was for Saturday’s qualification.  That was my virgin experience with the Spec E30 on a track as well as my first time on the track in a race situation.  I qualified pretty close to DFL that time as I had no idea what the hell I was doing and basically putted around the track with a 1:39 best lap (there were people that had worse).  I made it through that session alive and unscathed, although I did have one fellow Spec E30 member give me some non-constructive criticism about how I blocked him in turn 10, but I can’t remember any of it.  All I remember is that when I came off track I was thinking how much this racing thing sucked and how I didn’t want to do it again. 

I got suited up for the first race and my nerves weren’t as stressed as they were during qualification and I was able to manage the traffic a little better.  It was also nice to be able to pass a car here and there.  I was also able to shave 2 seconds off my best lap from qualification and I came off the track thinking this racing thing isn’t that bad after all.  There were a lot of wrecks and breakdowns during the race.  I was following a Porsche 944 down turn 4 and his engine blew and my entire cabin was filled with black smoke, and all I could do was pray that I didn’t smack into him as I braked into turn 5.  Then on the last lap of the race I saw the corner worker waving the yellow flag as I was coming up the hill into turn 3.  I slowed down a little bit as I saw dust everywhere over the hill and the track had been transformed into an Autocross.  I navigated through all of the Spec E30 parts and tires from the tire wall that were all over the track.  Even though the car was totaled, the driver was alright. 

Sunday’s practice felt pretty good.  I was still learning the car and knocked another 2 seconds off of my best lap time.  Qualification was even better.  I was able to knock another second off of my lap time down to a 1:34 and had a couple of good runs with other Spec E30’s.  The car tends to push in 10 and 3 just a tad, but can get loose in turn 1.  I was gradually increasing my speed and one time took turn 10 a little to fast and ran out of blacktop on my trackout.  Luckily I just kept the car straight and was able to ease my way back on the track.  The one benefit about Bronzit is it hides dirt very well J 

The race on Sunday was better than Saturday’s race, but not as good as my Sunday qualification.  I lost a second from my best lap and went back to a 1:35, but once again I didn’t finish DFL and had a blast doing it.  There was a pretty bad accident in this race that resulted in a red flag.  The accident happened in the same straightaway between turns 3 and 4.  Once again, I came up the hill and saw the flagger waiving the yellow flag.  I slowed down a little bit, but I don’t think the two 944’s that were behind me saw the flag and they started passing me in turn 3.  Once we got in the dust clouds there were about 4 cars that had wrecked, but luckily they were to the sides of the track and the 3 of us had a path to go through.  When we got to turn 7 they had the red flag out and then brought everyone in under a black flag.  The two 944’s that passed me on the waiving yellow had to report to the tower after coming in off the track J