VIR North from Warren's side of the track

Hard work pays off... Sometimes... This picture is the result of the work on the part of my crew. Especially Steve. From left to right, Joey, Steve, myself, and Chris It all started off a few days before the race. There was still no engine in the car, as it was in the hands of the machine shop. Finally, Steve got the engine back and on the stand on thursday. Approximately 4am on friday, after I had bailed, he put the head on the block and torqued it down. As fate would have it, one of the sleeves cracked. Apparently the overheating from the last race did more damage than we thought. Being a serious competitor like myself, he towed his Civic to the shop, and proceeded to take out the Integra Type R motor from it to transplant the block to my car. Unfortunately the block was 150k miles old, and was bone stock.
	We arrived at our hotel at 5am on saturday morning. By this time, Steve had gone 40 some hours without sleep. We only had an hour or so to rest, and then it was off to the races! I think we're nucking futs. First session, I'm about 5 laps in, and I go for a downshift, only to find no gears. Turns out the shifter linkage bolt wasn't tightened. Oops. I was getting a flat tow back to my paddock spot, and luck would again turn against us. Th truck ran me over a sewer grate which caused the shift linkage to drop into one of the holes and catch it. It was bent beyond repair. One of the other cars, R&D's H1 car, driven by Chad Slagg, had greater misfortune though. Their engine was done. They kindly loaned their shift linkage to us.
Traffic was incredible on the track. There were over 50 cars starting each race. This is on a 2 mile track, with at least 10 different classes of cars. The speed differentials were large, and the dicing for position was tough. Passing in the grass, on the outside line, and going 3 wide were not uncommon this weekend. In general, people did a good job of staying clean and giving enough room. There was some rubbing going on, but I managed to stay clear of all the mayhem, though sometimes just barely... I qualified well on saturday, and started 1st in H2, and 3rd overall. The green flag flew and I got a great jump. The 2 cars behind me held up my closest in class competitor for just long enough to get me a cushion, which I kept the entire race.
	I had a great practice on sunday, running my best times of the weekend. Qualifying would not, however, go so well. I couldn't get a single clean lap. I was qualified 3rd in H2, and 7th overall. Craptastic... Chaos errupted at lap 1, turn 1. The race leader got spun, and was parked perpendicular to the track at the apex. It's not such a great feeling to be barreling down on a car when you can see the eyes of the other driver. I can't imagine what it would be like to see 50 cars heading straight for your passenger's side door. Having gotten my crappy luck out of the way earlier in the week, I got through the incident, and picked up a few spots in the process. I was up to 2nd in class. Things got pretty haywire in this race. An exhaust fell off and was in the middle of the road. A splitter was also conveniently disposed of to lighten a car. Oil was dropped in turn 1. A Miata decided to break down on the track And a friend nosed an Integra into a wall. He was okay, but we had a red flag to take care of the situation.
I scared myself big in Hogpen. I dropped a wheel off and the car instantly rotated about 45 degrees. I was pointing towards the inside of the track at full throttle in 4th gear at about 95 mph. Ooops. Apparently this muscle memory stuff actually works though because I caught the car and never even tankslapped the tail. Of course, I was yelling obscenities all the way down the front straight. Maybe it was good that my video wasn't working... There isn't much time to think about the past in the middle of a race though. So I screwed my head on, and started to reel in the H2 leader, Corey Jacobs, as fast as I could. I got within a car length, but couldn't make a real move for a pass. I finished less than .3 seconds behind. Corey and I are racing all the way til the end of the season. He needs 2 more wins to lock it up, and I need 3. Let the games begin!