07-17-2006, 02:07 PM
I've had some time to think about the hyperfest weekend, especially after cleaning up my tools and pushing the busted cylinder head aside on the workbench to forget about for a while. At first, I thought the weekend sucked something awful. That one's obvious - my motor dropped a valve, I lost the race.
But, overall I guess it wasnt such a bad weekend. I had a personal victory of sorts, qualifying on pole by over a second against some tough competition in heavy traffic, getting in the lead after both standing starts and checking out in the race. I got quite a bit of practice racing with traffic with the full track during the day and I felt pretty lucky to not get a mark on my car (although I'm sure my tow loop left a few marks on a certain Spec Miata's bumper). NASA also ran a pretty good show all weekend, staying on time and keeping things organized, and keeping all the hypershizzle out of the main paddock - racing with full grandstands is very cool.
I got to see lots of friends and familiar faces in the paddock, the huge MM presence at the track is always a good time - even Gerald showed up
As always, instructing Pete was a blast - It was fun to be able to push him to go faster throughout the weekend.
I got very lucky with the engine, although my "new" cylinder head is trashed thats the extent of the damage and I guess there are worse things to spend $600 on. At least I have another workbench ornament....
The plan now is to get it back together in time to make the October race, along with a trip to the Dyno for some more tuning. Kofod told me last week that he will come out and "keep me company" on track that weekend if I race.... I can always use someone to watch in my rearview
I've got a bit of a personal goal to hit that weekend, and I think with the cool temps and a little more juice from the engine I can make it
But, overall I guess it wasnt such a bad weekend. I had a personal victory of sorts, qualifying on pole by over a second against some tough competition in heavy traffic, getting in the lead after both standing starts and checking out in the race. I got quite a bit of practice racing with traffic with the full track during the day and I felt pretty lucky to not get a mark on my car (although I'm sure my tow loop left a few marks on a certain Spec Miata's bumper). NASA also ran a pretty good show all weekend, staying on time and keeping things organized, and keeping all the hypershizzle out of the main paddock - racing with full grandstands is very cool.
I got to see lots of friends and familiar faces in the paddock, the huge MM presence at the track is always a good time - even Gerald showed up
As always, instructing Pete was a blast - It was fun to be able to push him to go faster throughout the weekend.I got very lucky with the engine, although my "new" cylinder head is trashed thats the extent of the damage and I guess there are worse things to spend $600 on. At least I have another workbench ornament....
The plan now is to get it back together in time to make the October race, along with a trip to the Dyno for some more tuning. Kofod told me last week that he will come out and "keep me company" on track that weekend if I race.... I can always use someone to watch in my rearview
I've got a bit of a personal goal to hit that weekend, and I think with the cool temps and a little more juice from the engine I can make it