Ted-isms:
Like a perfectly executed backside fakie off the hood of your pristine NSX followed by a railslide down the rear wing, heres another blood-boiling experiment in cognitive dissonance.
The weekend didnt start out weird but it got kind of surreal in a damn good way
As we scrub tires up the back straight my brow is furrowed in mental constipation, Hmmmm maybe I should just put my hand up now and pull overNah, the Viagra was kicking in.gotta ride it.
Smooth as your first GF's butt
Reading back through some old "postcards from the back", I see that the old boy has some skills with the pen and paper. So I will apologize in advance for the report I am about to post...just the facts ma'am. Other than the practice sessions it seemed that I was on my own most of the time, so I don't have any good wheel to wheel action to report, so what follows is another "noobs" account of their first weekend in a Formula Mazda.
I purchased my car about 2 months ago and have been checking and replacing every nut and bolt on it since. Safety was my concern...the rest I'll learn as I go. I admittedly showed up ill prepared...car and driver, but this weekend was important to me for personal reasons and I pushed myself to be part of it. I hadn't been on the track in any car since Sept. of 2006 and my crew consisting of only my wife (who had never been to the track) and dog, I knew this was going to be a long weekend.
Before we go any farther I need to throw out some thanks to those who helped me at the track. First and foremost the John's. We go back a long way together and they've always been there to lend a hand and answer questions. Bruce and Garen for the multiple sets of alignment bars we had to try. The "Godfather of Drift" Bill Weaver for giving up his spare fuel pump which enabled me to make it to the grid. Sean Kelley for helping remove the failed pump...he just came by for a margarita!
Friday
We started off with a scramble to check the alignment on my car. Three or four sets of bars later (they all fit a bit different) we were good to go.
(P) I gave myself a couple laps to remember how to get around the track. Pushing things a bit too much I kept grabbing 5th instead of 3rd through much of the session. Unfortunately, I seemed to do this every time John Weed was behind me in t-9. Best time 1:59
(Q) Managed to put down a 1:55 before suffering what turned out to be a fuel pump failure.
Saturday
(R) Spent most of the morning wandering around aimlessly looking at my very old weather cracked rains, sneaking peaks into everyone trailers to see what they might do if the skies really opened up.
As is turned out we caught a break as the light sprinkle never amounted to anything more. Just giving you those gut check moments when the car would step out and you would get some mist on the visor.
Checked up big time on the start thinking that there would be a wreck by turn three, but it was actually very clean. All and all it was a pretty uneventful race. Just drove around for some seat time.
Results:
Bill 1:51.5
Stu 1:53.6
Ted 1:56.6
John W 157.9
Tim 1:56.4
Woody 1:55.1
Bruce 157.8
John E 1:57.9
Garen 1:58.3
Sunday
(Q) Almost Laguna like. Two cars went off on the opening lap bringing out full course yellow and then a black flag. After being held for a few minutes in the hot pits we were sent back out only to have a couple more cars fly off track (I'm getting hazy with the details here).
Sent back out and everyone had basically one lap to set a time. I was lucky and laid down a 1:53.2 and had time to get another lap in. It was a flyer, but I threw it away with a spin in turn 10. Ended up 3rd behind Bill and Woody, but pretty happy about it.
(R) I started off pretty well and held position for awhile staying ahead of a couple FE cars. The pace car came out for a few laps and I just lost it after that. Started getting sloppy and grabbing the wrong gear and blew a few apexes which led to several cars getting by including Stu.
Woody pulled off just before turn 1 with a half shaft failure, so I was back into 3rd and held it to the finish.
Results:
Bill 1:51.8
Stu 1:53.2
Tim 1:53.9
Ted 1:55.0
John W 1:55.1
Bruce 1:55.4
John E 1:55.1
Garen 1:56.9
Woody 1:52.7
