Saturday, April 30, 2011

Day Two - Wet Skid Pad & Autocross

The day started early with a 6:15 am alarm.  A quick shower and it was back to the food trough at the Pancake House.  The breakfasts there are very good and the portions generous.  Of course this is all top of what was a big dinner the night before at a sports bar called 'Between the Buns'.  We had top watch the CAPS game while popping a brew.

Between the Buns is a great little place about 5 miles from the motel and just off the Notre Dame campus.  We had a wonderful waitress and at some point she went outside to let us know which car she liked best.  After returning, she says confidently that she loves BMW's (well of course there are three of them in the parking lot), but the orange car is really special.  Oh no, say it ain't so, she likes Joe Drumheller's GT3 Porsche!!!!!  Joe is all grins and slips the young woman an extra $10 for the fine choice.

Back to the One Lap though.  After a fine meal we head to the Tire Rack for the official start of the event - the wet skid pad test.  200' diameter circle with water sprayed on it by a sprinkler system.  Object, go around two laps in each direction as fast as possible.  The skid pad had been recently re-surfaced and it was proving by the early runners' times/g's to be quite slick. Woody's turn finely arrives and off he goes.  You can tell from the very start that the car is understeering and Woody is having to slow to make corrections.  The pain is over soon enough though and he heads back to our paddock space so we can pack up.

Next stop is Grissom Air Force Base near Peru, IN.  Peru is approximately 80 miles due south of South Bend.  We arrive with no issues and unpack.  Woody is also driving the autocross event today, so his chore is to walk the course which he does twice.  It is not long before cars are called to grid with the first cars off the start line at 1:00 pm.  While we are waiting for our turn the news of the skid pad results are filtering through the crowd like wildfire.  Let me get the bad news out quickly.....our sweet little E92 M3 finished 69th and four spots from last.  OUCH!  Oh well.....we'll just work hard to make up the points.

Woody finally starts the first run of three passes/trys in the autocross event.  He steadily makes improvements and by run three has knocked his best time down to a 55.82 seconds.  The best time was a 50.+ and second a 51.11.  There were a few 52.+ times and then a bunch of 54.+'s, 55.+'s, and finally 56.+'s.  Of course there were times slower than those, so it is hard to gage where Woody may have finished overall in this event.  At this writing the results have not been posted, so we will need to report later this evening or tomorrow morning.

For now I will sign off.  It is 8:22 pm and we just passed through Zane Grey's home town, Zanesville, OH with another 295 miles to our destination.

One last thing.....sorry there are no photos for this evening.  Have a slight technical issue that I hope my better half will be able to assist with tomorrow at Summit Point.

Cheers!

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