Race Day (pictures to come later)

Sitting in the trailer listening to the bits and pieces of the awards ceremony drift over the loud speakers, it really hit me that the weekend was over. While it was exhausting and at times frustrating, it was always fun. The company, the food, the track, even the disappointments, is all part of racing which means that mishaps and hardships included, its one of the things I love most in the world. 

Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the race. With only ten laps remaining, a call came over the radios that made all of our hearts sink. "Guys, I'm coming in. We don't have brakes. The car isn't drive able." We had lost the driver's front caliper, our race was over. Since other cars had ended their races before we did, we finished 26th, dropping only two spots from our qualifying position, even with mechanical problems. 

Byron and Lara drove their hearts out and all things considered with the car, were incredible. The amount of mental and physical focus that goes into endurance racing is something many people don't comprehend. Our drivers need to drive flawlessly for over an hour. By the time you get our of the car, you're both physically and mentally exhausted. When you factor in the heat, the traffic, the pressure and the stress, its a victory alone that they kept lap times consistent and made minimal errors. I'm so proud of both of them, for all of us, for being here and doing it, finishing position aside. 

All in all I think the weekend was a great success. We learned a lot about the cars and team dynamics that provided vital information for the future. You have to start somewhere, and its never going to be perfect. Learning from our mistakes will only make us better. And while I can only speak for myself, it was an amazing time and I learned a lot about myself. 

Most importantly, I need to thank Doug, John, John and Fred from Penske for helping us with our pit stop. We couldn't have even started the race without you. You brought a great confidence to the team, especially by letting us sit in the "condo" to watch timing and scoring. And for letting me pretend to be Roger Penske for two hours. Congratulations on your fourth place finish. I also want to thank Nancy at Somewhere in Time for graciously opening her beautiful home to us and making amazing breakfasts very early every morning and to Jeff Smallwood at Grand-Am for being so helpful and supportive. He made me feel so welcome and included. It was so nice to see a friendly, smiling face every time I was at the Grand-Am trailer. Wes Duenkel was also a great help today taking pictures for us (Wes took the pictures I will be posting later). He was also staying at the same bed and breakfast. It was great getting to talk to you and look at your amazing pictures. They are very different than most motorsports pictures, and the artistic element in them is incredible. 

And thank you, for reading and following us this weekend. I'll leave you with Keith's words of wisdom from the weekend - "Why not?"

-Sara

Qualifying and should have been our race day.

Another early morning, another day of rain. Lara drove awesome in the rain, very smooth and very fast. It dried up for qualifying which turned out to be like a race. Lara said people were passing and driving like it was race day. Unfortunately that meant it was tough to get a good, clean qualifying lap. We ended up 24^th, but I’m sure we’ll do well tomorrow.

After our sessions, we practiced our pit stops. At first, Lara and Byron were practicing our driver changes. After a couple pretty tough shin scraps, Joe took over as our stunt double.

After taking a couple seconds off our pit stop times, it was time to relax. Yes, this is Vesko enjoying a beer! 

Everyone is in good spirits tonight as we sit across the fire in the back yard of our bed and breakfast. There are peacocks… making peacock noises… (I don’t know what you call the noise that comes out of this bird) and watching the fire flies. Its been a great weekend so far and I think tomorrow will go well.

 

I will leave you with one piece of advice from Joe, Bolie and Josh which is based on experience from the drive home - Its bad luck on race weekend to pass an Amish cart.

 Ponder that one for a minute… Sweets dreams.

Practice Day 2 at Mid Ohio

This is delayed from yesterday:

Today was another practice day. Things went pretty well. We had a couple of rain sessions and both drivers were keeping up a good pace. Thanks to the Verizon/Penske Rolex team we got to hang out in their "condo" while our sessions were going on. The "condo" is a two story pit vehicle. Everything has carbon fiber trim. Its like a luxury super car that you can't drive... and that's two stories...

Things looked like they were clearing up and we were all excited to "relax" for the rest of the day. (I put relax in quotations because there really never is a way to relax at a race when 

you're on a team). John and I went to talk out some radio issues with

Toto, when all of the sudden he kicks us out, tells everyone to lock up the trailer and says one key phrase- "This is tornado weather and I don't want the trailer spinning around like last time!" Whoa, slow down... Tornado? Last time? John and I booked it back up to the trailer. Sure enough, there was a tornado warning for our area. Thankfully everything mellowed out and the day continued as usual.

Once I wasn’t afraid of being swept up and carried away, I took a little tour of the track. I still can’t believe the post card landscape. It's amazing.

We left the track pretty early in race weekend terms, so we headed back to our bed and breakfast, Somewhere in Time” and introduced ourselves to some of the permanent residents.  Molly, the old draft horse, is 31 years old.

Tune in for more tomorrow, its qualifying and the GS/Rolex race. I should have something more interesting to say.

 

Goodnight!

Practice, Day 1 at Mid O

What a day...

We got to the track at 7:00am, after a 6:15 wake up call and awesome breakfast by Nancy (our house "mom").  It was humid and slightly hazy from the early morning fog. We had all prepared for rain but luckily it never came. The track itself is a little disorienting for one being used to a wide open oasis in the middle of the Tooele desert. The track is in the heart of the country, where there are bails of hay and red farm houses. It comes out of no where, and all of the sudden you see the familiar semis, smell the race gas, hear the engines and you know you're at a race track.  

We were in meetings until our first session, which went well. It was Byron's first time on the track and he dropped time like crazy. Lara has had a little more experience here and sounded

confident over the radios, she says the track "feels like a roller coaster". Vesko and Keith went out next and everything went as planned. Still no rain. Both cars had another session, then it was lunch. 

After lunch the Civic went out again. Byron was dropping lap times and let us know he was having fun and the car felt good, even for the track being so "snug". Once again, everything was running smoothly and by this time it had cleared into a warm sunny day, perfect for racing. 

And then, in true racing style, our day went from smooth sailing to gail force winds in one lap. Vesko had just brought the car in on the Mustang's third session, he jumped out and Keith jumped in. Keith's lap times had been close to Vesko's and we were all excited to see how much more time he could drop. 

The course went to a black flag, Josh radioed to Keith to bring the car back into the pits. No answer. John tired. No answer. I called, at this point, a little frustrated we couldn't get a hold of him. Still no answer. At the same time a woman ran over to our pit spot and yelled "is your driver okay?! He's on the roof!!" On the roof?! All of us jumped in golf carts and took off to see what had happened. Keith was in the medical tent, so the rest of us went to see the car. This is what we found:

Keith had lost brakes coming out of the Key Hole at 100+ mph. As he hit the curbing, 

Keith and the Mustang caught air, about 15 feet of it say the drivers behind him. Keith landed on the top of the tire barrier, pushing a solid concrete block about two feet outwards. Then, he landed on the side on the ground below.

Keith was "banged up but not broken" as John put it. Luckily and thankfully no one was hurt. Our morale suffered a little, but this is racing, and unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens. 

We got the Civic ready for tomorrow, figured out a plan, and ate some awesome dinner, (thanks to Andy - our "dead man") and after an "atheistically" pleasing sunset, left the track and headed back "home" around 9:45 pm.

We've got our fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow, and with all hands on deck for the Civic, I think everything will go back to being as planned (knock on wood). 

Mid Ohio

Welcome to my very first blog posting! I figured I would get a head start so I can keep everyone updated this weekend.

Well, after about a month of anxious anticipation about going to Mid Ohio with the CA Sport crew, I'm only approximately 14 hours and 25 minutes away from heading to the airport. I have packed and re-packed, written endless lists and gone over my rule book about 20 times more than bearable. Everything is ready to go and not even my random, out of the blue case of Strep is going to stop me now. I wonder if Lara and Byron know how to understand Morris Code, in case I lose my voice entirely... :-)

I'm really not sure what to expect as I try to prepare myself for the upcoming race. I have helped out when the races are local, but I've never traveled for this sort of thing. I've also never been such a big part of the team. I can't even begin to express how amazing this opportunity is. I have learned so much already. I had no idea the amount of time and energy that goes into making a team successful before you even hit the track. I have so much more respect for Lara, Vesko, John, Byron, Keith, Mark, etc... than I already had (which was a lot!) 

I don't have a lot left to say tonight, but I'll make sure to keep everyone posted through out the weekend. 

Thanks for reading! I'm off to re-pack my bag for the 10th time!