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Day One -
Spring Mountain Raceway (Pahrump, NV)
"And Away They
Go"
7:00am and we're
ready to go! After the driver's meeting and a line up for
technical inspection (why didn't they do this yesterday?), the first
run group, which includes the Radicals, the Competition Coupe, Doug's Flamemobile NSX, and a ZR1 Corvette hit the track. We're in
the second run group and I'm up first. The car is fun to throw
around but still a bit wiggly when transitioning for a turn.
I'm trying to push the car but I'm not able to go as fast as I was
in my Corvette last May. My first session matches Dave's time
from yesterday exactly.
Dave takes the car
out in the second session and beats my time (big surprise) with a
1:54.18. The car still feels loose so at Jason Rhoades
suggestion, we adjust the swaybar to the next setting.
Unfortunately, Pro Fabrication neglected to make the hole the right
size. During lunch, we pulled both the ends and drilled out
the holes and had it all back together in time for the first
afternoon session.
I was able to go a little faster in
the third session but still not nearly as fast
as I'd like. Dave runs the forth session and posts our fastest
times of the day, which means none of my laps count. Oh well,
it could be worse! Our best (well, Dave's best) was a
1:53.109, which puts us 25th in the field overall.
Dave and I each had
one excursion for the day. I ran off the end of turn seven
going onto the back straight trying to slow down on cold brakes.
Dave put four off exiting turn one but was able to keep moving.
There was no damage to the car in either case. So far, it's
two to one on incidents with me in the lead. So much for
predictions!
Looks like everyone
made it on track. The M3 team had their driveshaft bolted back
up and they were off and running. The RX-7 team just made it
for the last session of the day. Both the Competition Coupe
and the Viper GTS in U1 have steering leaks and will be going in for
service first thing in the morning.
Now it's a short
drive to Las Vegas to check into the hotel, eat dinner and go to
bed.
Video:
Running at Spring Mountain on day one
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