Some Pictures from My Race This Weekend
So we ran the 2012 American Road Race of Champions this past weekend in the three hour enduro. We ran my Mazda RX-7 in IT7.
The week was a rough one leading up to it, I had brake issues (found a leaking caliper, then a bad master, etc) which kept us from doing the test day Thursday, which was going to be primarily a benefit to my co-driver as he has never driven the car. We missed it, so qualifying Sunday was his first time in the car.
From the start, we had transmission issues. At first it just wouldn't go into gear, it finally would after some banging on it, then out on track he had issues getting to 4th, etc. I sent him back out telling him to double clutch and just get the car warmed up and he said it felt better.
The race came around and the rain started, luckily we were starting on un-shaved RA1s which was a huge benefit. I think we moved up to like 12th overall at one point just from consistent lap times and not having to pit because of the wet.
My co-driver ran an hour and fifteen minutes or so before pitting for me to get in the car and fuel, now the transmission was worst with 4th gear pop out and some other weird sensations. After a few laps with me in the car I had to drive holding the shifter in gear, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in a car. Let me tell you, driving one handed at Road Atlanta, especially through turn 12 at Road Atlanta is not exactly fun. Especially in a race with different classes and some very fast cars out there. That's a lot of things to be doing at once. lol
After a half hour or so it got bad, all gears felt like death, they would slip out, couldn't find gears, etc. Going into T1 I fumbled for a gear, couldn't find one, I started running out of road at quite a bit of speed, saw a pack coming up behind me and decided to just open up my hands and go off. It was a rough off but I managed to keep it straight and not hit anything. lol I finally found a gear and continued but pitted and told my friend to finish the race who had the most experience out of us three.
We finished the race! By the end he was only using 3rd and 5th, but the car made it, the transmission is destroyed but everything else ran great the whole race and we got 1st in class...out of one. But hey, finishing an enduro is half the battle and finishing with a car in bad shape makes it 20x better.
Here are some pics:
Some fun Saturday night, making the final touches.
Pics from post race impound:
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Originally Posted by seanathon
