Road Atlanta ProIT

So we just got back from Road Atlanta. A fun as hell, but in the end, disappointing weekend. I started out with the test day and trying to finish shaking the rust off, trying some more lines, as well as gathering some data. I also wanted to give the Hankooks one last shot, to confirm my findings from the previous test (just as good lateral grip, but not as good under the brakes) The first few sessions went well with me finding some speed and putting down consistent good laps. The third session, I put down 2 killer laps, and decided to just shut it down for the day and not risk the car.

For the morning qualifying, I threw on the Hoosiers and went out with the red mist. I drove around traffic for a few laps and on the 4th one threw down a rocking lap. Came in early as I felt a high end miss on the car that was there throughout the whole qualifying. Checked out the timing sheet, and oh boy, 1:42.84. Pole by almost 3 seconds and a time that would have gotten me 2nd on the grid at the ARRC.

I checked the plugs and wires (all looked well), and turned the rear sway bar up for the afternoon qualifying. Figured I would try to set the car up very loose and see if I could hold onto it. The good news was that the bar worked well, but the miss was still there.

With the help of Bowie from Conover Motorsports and Matt from BHP Brakes I got a new distributor on with a quickness. I didn't have time to test it before the race, as the miss was only there in 4th and 5th gear acceleration. Figured if the miss was still there, I was just going to punt on the race and not hurt the motor

I had a rough start as I got caught inbetween gears as the green flag flew, immediately putting me down two spots. No big deal as I was a good deal faster then the two guys behind me. I waited a few turns and passed them right back. Even better, the high end miss was gone.

I settled in for a few laps and opened up a big gap between me and 2nd place. After 4 laps though the field got bunched up behind a pace car as a car spun and broke in turn 1. During that restart, I let Mike Cottrell in an SM in front of me and helped push him along the straight for a little bit. Figured out though that I was just going to get into their race and mess it up, so I went and pushed ahead. Over the next 15 laps, I built up a 15 second lead while not pushing the car very hard.

On the last lap, the drivers side axle decides to let go. I got a big puff of smoke, lots of noise, along with the car not going anywhere. I thought I broke a lot more then I did! I went ahead and pulled it off to the side and watched the field go by to take the checkered :(

All in all, I obviously wished I would have finished, as I would have had a nice win and some good contingency $$, but what can you do. Oh well. At least it wasn't something very expensive and I have some spare axles at the house. For the next set, I will be using Redline high temp grease in the CV joints hoping to prevent it from breaking down. We'll see if that does the trick.

I'll have some pictures from a pro photog that was there, so I'll post those up as soon as I get them