Round and Round We Go

Again folks, sorry for the late posts from yesterday, but I was exhausted and wanted an early bedtime Friday night.  After all, I needed to be prepared to drive the dry skid pad event.  We had arrived in Koppel, PA on Friday morning at 2:00 am and were in bed finally at 2:30.  Our wake up call was scheduled for 6:30 am.  After the Friday track sessions, the stop at GLBC, and the drive to South Bend (which I did all on my own for no good reason) being in bed at 11:00 pm was looking very good.  Blogging was low on the priority list.

So it is now Saturday morning.  The last official day of the One Lap of America 2009.  The only remaining event is the dry skid pad.  Before we leave for the Tire Rack, Woody and I meet up with Dick Clark and Tucson Jerry at the breakfast joint across the street from our motel.  Eggs, sausage, toast, hash browns, and fresh-squeezed OJ.  Yummy!!!!

In a short period of time the skies have turned from clear to very gray, the wind is blowing 20-25 mph, and the temps have dropped in to the 50's.  We unpack the car and move to the skid pad for the first time today for a group photo of all the cars.  It is not long after we return to our "paddock" that I suit up and then head to the grid queue.  The dry skid pad is run in reverse order of the current standings so I get an early start.  It doesn't take long to go round and round the 200 ft diameter circle.  Two timed laps in one direction, turn around,. and two timed laps in the other direction.  A computer adds the times for the best lap in each direction and converts that to a g-force.  The higher the g number, the better.  My score is 0.963 g.   As I am returning to my paddock spot a violent front hits with high winds, spitting rain and temperatures plunging into the 40s.  That solidifies our decision to pack up and head for home immediately rather than waiting for the 1 pm awards luncheon.  As we drive away shortly after 10, the announcer is saying that my 0.963 score is still tops. We know that the hot shoes have yet to run, but even though the rain has stopped, it looks like it could return and hamper their performances.

It is now 4 pm and we are near Pittsburgh.  Expected arrival in Arlington is 7:30.  Final scores have been posted on the internet.  I was 9th on the skid pad (remember Woody was 8th on the wet skid pad last Saturday).  That puts us in 44th for the event.  Considering we got 0 points for the 4 events we missed last Tuesday, and the car was only running right for four events early last week, we are content.  Of course all next week we will be speculating on what might have been. . . .