Friday practice went well, with the car working well and really enjoying the new tire for this year. Much more fun, and better suited to Pinecone's driving style. The last practice session had me hook up with a normally much faster guy and staying with him the whole session. Saturday morning was more of the same, hooking up with one of the normal front runners and not having him get away, in fact at some places caught up. These two sessions also helped with a couple of turns where I was losing some ground. Running in the 2:19 - 2:20 range.

Then the WTF part started.

First qualifying session, second lap out of the pits apporaching the climbing esses, a started to pass a Miata. He starrted to come over, then smartly moved back like he was leaving room. Then ZIP, he dove for the apex, leaving me NO room, so off the ttrack, at something over 100 MPH spining and whacking the tire wall. Of course the only thing going through my mind at that time was DON'T HURT THE NEW NOSE. And it worked, only minor nose damage. But DESTROYED the tail and wiped ou the right rear suspension. Thus ended the day.

I am fine, a bit sore, and I bruised my right hand. Funny thing is, at VIR they use a false grid that enters the track prior to the pits, so your out lap is a timed lap. And my ONLY timed lap, and I qualified 70th out of 111 cars on my out lap on cool tires and brakes in traffic. And was not the lowest placed SRF. Not bad though, out lap was a 2:27, which was what I was running my first time in a SRF at VIR 2 years ago. So I got to play fuel man in the pits. Which was definately a fun new experience. You should come try it.

The car was put back together overnight, replacing the lower control arms, spindle, hub, bearings, outer CV joint, upper ball joint mounts, upper ball joint, lower pin, and outer rod end on the toe rod. No damage to frame or mounts, one nice thing about SRFs, they are tough.

The car did not make the hard ship warm up, so off to the grid. Interesting thing, one of the top guys in our group asked me before what my goals were. At the time, they were to finish in one piece. He said he figured I could make the top 20, since if I had run my practice times in qualifying, I would have been in the top 20, maybe as high as 15th. Arrived at the grid inside of the 1 minute mark, and was gridded 83rd out of about 90 cars. One parade lap, one pace lap. Starting behind some very slow cars (some running as slow at 2:40s to my 2:20).

Start was clean, not very agressive, then started to pick off cars. Handling was pure evil, with the tail coming out everywhere. Not sure if it was a setup problem or something with my driving because at times, it hooked up like normal, but it will be looked at before the next race. Just driving and trying to stay out of trouble. Almost got punted off at the SAME PLACE by another Miata. Driver pointed me by, then drag raced me to the turn, then tried to go for the apex with us side by side with me on the inside. WOW. But made it through. Another case of a car spining wihtout locking up the brakes, this one a Miata (yes, they were EVERYWHERE) in the Roller Coaster, not a nice place to have a car spinning and moving all over the track. Pit stop went well, and just keep on motoring to the finish.

I was passed by only 3 SRF cars and a few ITS cars. The ITS cars are faster down the straights but very slow through the turns. Slow enough to cause an SRF to have to brake to avoid hitting them. Provisional results showed Team WTF?! managed a run through the field from 83rd to 19th overall, 13th in class. YEAH. Only 8 cars lapped the Team WTF?! SRF. At lest one car was DQd for being under weight, so the final resutls will have Team WTF?! a bit higher in the standings. Pictures and video to come.