Monday, May 6, 2013

Day Three Wrap Up

I certainly knew this going in, but I am not Robert Grace behind the wheel.  This afternoon's result at NOLA proved it.  My effort was only good enough for 26th fastest in the session.  While Bobby G brought us up two notches this morning to 24th in the standings over all, I dropped us back down two spots to 26th.  At least we did not drop lower than where we started the day.

In class we are tied for third with the Porsche Panamera - each with 80 points.  Dan and Ben Schaut are battling it out for first in our Luxury class and are currently tied with 115 points each.  The Merc is 20 points behind in fifth.  Our battle is for third and a spot on the podium.  We cannot let the Panamera escape us tomorrow at Daytona.  That could be tough as the Porsche, while bigger and heavier has a lot of power and torque as compared to the M3.  The Merc has also been well prepared and has significant power.  It's problem in my opinion is it can't stop.  In any case, we'll put our best foot forward!

Woody and Neil are currently third in class.  There are only three cars in their SSGT2 Small Bore field.  In the over all standings, car number 36 is falling back and sits in 42nd.

Liam Dwyer and Brian Hair are 14th over all and not sure where they are in class.  I will bring them in to the reporting tomorrow.  I do know this though - despite Liam's loss of his left leg and sever damage to his right leg and arm while serving his country in the Marines, he is one hell of a driver.  Not only that, he is a great person.  I am happy and extremely priviledged to have met and know him.

Today's fun was at Neil's expense.  We had told him at dinner last evening that while in transit there were sparks coming from under his car.  Robert suggested it was coming from his diff and the cooling fins that appear to be very close to the ground.  Neil stated he would look at it this morning.  He did that and declared all was right with the world.  In the meantime, I took a small amount of motor oil and poured it under the diff.  He saw it and was not concerned - at least initially.  Once he told us he was going to jack up the car and take a closer look, I could not contain my laughter nor did I want him to spend time on a prank.  He took it all in good fun.  I am sure my time is coming - pay backs are hell.

As I write this, we are headed to Daytona and are somewhere in the panhandle of Florida - 100 +/- miles from Tallahassee.  We still have 335 miles to go and the GPS shows an arrival time of 2:00 am EST.  Getting out of New Orleans was extremely painful as we sat in a traffic jamb for an hour plus due to a bad accident.

I will sign off for now.  I need to assist Robert with looking for suicidal armadillos as we are most definitely in armadillo territory!

Until tomorrow.....good night.


No comments: