This was a race weekend like no other I’ve ever experienced. It was only a double regional event at Thunderhill to begin with so very few major’s drivers were there...so no real competition to speak of. So we decided to treat it like a long extended test session; trying out as many different things as possible to get the car to work better.
Jason and I had already talked extensively about things to accomplish and we were hoping to have some new parts to try out from France. Since the parts didn’t show up in time, Jason and Chris left for the track and I followed soon after in my motorhome. We start Friday’s test day bright and early and run the car in the 8:45 am opening 15 minute practice session and it feels really good right away with the suspension setting adjustments Jason decided to implement. We are encouraged and I go out about an hour later and run the car fairly hard! I clicked off faster and faster laps culminating in my best ever time at Thunderhill a 1:40.1; and it was easily accomplished as the car was an absolute joy to drive. I was experimenting with various lines and brake points and could still make the car go faster each lap. It was exquisite to be able to put the car where ever I wanted! We were all grinning ear to ear as this was done on relatively old 6 heat cycled tires.
As the track heated up later in the day, we tried a few more minor tweaks to chase track conditions and had some success in keeping the car fairly well balanced but times slowed down into the high 1:40’s. Then Jason found out the parts had arrived from France. We were so anxious to try them after the day’s good results, Jason, all by himself, drove to Patterson with the nose in the back of his dually and installed the new parts at his shop and then returned to the track at 11 pm Friday night—what an effort!!!
Official practice Saturday morning, I take the car out and it is almost undrivable with all the front down force we added. Jason then adjusts the car and I go out in the first qualifying and the car is much better, but still not as good as Friday morning. We post a 1:40.8. Jason tries another tweak and I go out in the race and run flat out against only myself to measure and pound out 15 hard laps, lapping all other cars but one. Car was decent to drive, but best time was only a 1:40.9.
Sunday morning qualifying we try another setting adjustment and remove some of the new parts. I go slower yet at a 1:41.5. Now we are scratching our heads and decide to try and go almost all the way back to the way the car came off the trailer in hopes of regenerating the magic from Friday morning. Again, in the 2nd race, no luck and the times are slower yet.
With the weekend over, we now have to perform a postmortem and try and figure out what went wrong. On the bright side, we still got two overall wins and the car (and me) are in one piece. Stay tuned.
Jim