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).