Team all present, at dinner....

We came...we mounted and demouted tires...we're through tech and at team meal. Looking forward to tomorrow...

18th!

We're done, apparently my last post courted one final mechanical demon as we ran out of gas with 10 mins to go....a great team gave us 5 gals of fuel because Kebin was at the other end of the pits (we didn't know what was wrong at first, he should have had fuel). So, 18th it is! I'm extremely proud of our ten that was here AND our ten members that couldn't make the trip! Stay tuned for more updates in the future!

One hour to go...

We are now in 16th, and barring mechanical catastrophe of ours or the competition, that's probably where we'll finish. A few more problems struck...yet another pair of broken wheels (at the hub, this is getting old...I don't want to run this car any more with stock wheels, it seems they always break on MY shift...hmmmmm.....), a broken wheel stud in the replacement right rear (fixed that one on pit road in style, but I had to run at reduced speed until the team was ready to fix it (again, why does this sort of thing always happen while I'm driving...I don't even drive on the rumble strips!). Robert, Stephen, Dennis, Kevin and myself are all having a great time anyway!

Life is giving us lemons at the moment...

After a short time back out, we ran into another snag when the steering rack decided it didn't want to turn right anymore. Unfortunately, we're on the road course right now, where turning right is not a luxury.... Replaced rack and Robert is back out...turning very quick laps. We think we're in 18th now but live timing was out when I started this post....

Kevin has now discovered what happens to a TR6 when a half-shaft breaks in the middle of a hard left-hand corner. Answer: pretty much everything on the right rear of the car is junk. Thanks to Jack, we came fully equipped with the spares to do the job. After replacing the halfshaft, hub, brakes, wheel, and trailing arm, then bleeding the brakes, we're back out there but have fallen to 15th. More to come....

9th...but....

Two cars in front of us got together on the oval...both need major repairs. Not the way we'd like to move up. One of the cars has been pitted next to us and is a nice group...we hope they can get back in. They were running third in a V6 mustang much like Grim Reaper's.

10th on the oval...so far

Running 10th on the oval this morning, nothing wrong, just some faster cars were right behind us last night.

7th after day 1....

By the time we finished working on the car and found a 24 hour Walmart that would sell us a battery, we got to bed around 2:30. This meant that the 6 am alarm was greeted with less than enthusiasm... However, we're here, Lacey's ready to start from 7th position, and so are we!

8th...we think...

Timing/Scoring is temporary down, so we're not completely sure... :-)

10th again....

But on the bright side, we've made our final pit stop (tonight). Robert driving. I'm hoping some of the cars in front of us have to pit again. We're about a lap and a half behind the car in 9th. Lacey is running well... :-)

Climbed back to 7th

We dropped to 10th after pitting, but Kevin has us back to 7th...

Now 7th

Stephen is proving that yes, Triumphs belong on ovals too.... :-)

9th and catching 8th....

We're now 9th and Stephen has been catching the 8th place car by about 4 seconds a lap. They still have a lap on us though....

13th and climbing....

Now running the oval...I just finished my stint, most of which was intermittent rain on the oval...

Still raining!

Up to 10th, Robert doing well!

12th in the rain...

Now 12th, under yellow for some incidents (other cars).

It's a downpour....

Serious rain here. Been running yellow for a while. Up to 10th position!

We're Racin'!

Running 18th, out of 47, just started. Kevin driving.

Testing Complete

Testing is done for the day. No problems... We changed the rear fuel filter and checked everything else. She uses a lot of fuel running the oval! Worked on tire pressures all day and nailed them for tomorrow. There are definitely a lot of fast cars here compared to a "regular" chump race. Of course, that's what you'd expect! All drove well today. I'm the slowest, as usual, especially on the oval. But it's only by a second or two, not the 30 seconds some of us were slower at VIR in the dark. Race starts for real at 10 am tomorrow. 3 hours on the road course, then 5 hours on the oval, then 5 hours on the road course...then Sunday! More tomorrow. Let me know with a comment if you read this...

We sailed through tech as the first car through, no problems. Getting ready for practice now.

In Iowa!

Ok, folks...I'm going to try to real-time post from Iowa, if the electronic gods cooperate.

The team is all here, Stephen, Robert, Kevin and myself, along with Dennis. Everyone got here fine and we're going to bed. We'll be attempting to get through tech early tomorrow and practicing on the speedway. Robert, Stephen and Dennis actually got to ride around the track today with the Iowa Speedway "track boss," they report that the "rumble strips" in the infield section are essentially CURBS and we should treat them as such...hope none of us end up going over one!

Check back here for more updates...

Jamie