Sebring HSR Race Dec 3-6

[Cobrafang]

Well I made it out alive. Lets recap a little.

Thursday test and tune day I was able to run most of the 1st session before my engine dropped 2 cylinders. Best lap time for the weekend was done in this session which was 2:41.995. Pretty good for first time ever at the track and first time in this type of event. I managed to not punt anyone off the track, maybe a result of my keen awareness and the LARGE yellow stripes on the back of my car.

So thanks to Gary Jones and crew they replaced the motor (with a spare they had) (Not sure why he did not want to put the monster 331 stroker with AFR heads in the car) :sarcasm1: that day and I was ready for practice and qualifying on Friday....except for RAIN. It poored. I managed to get some wet laps in the morning before having to return for some timing adjustment.

Saturday was a mix of wet and a little rain, I did not get to run the morning sprint race. I decided to run the 1.25 hr enduro in that afternoon after installing a brake blower to try to help with fogging. I ran the entire race with 1 manditory 5 min pitstop (I needed to pee). My times were not as fast as Thursday, but we started with a wet track that gradually dried by the end of the race. We ended under double yellow. I did manage to finish 27th out of 40 cars.

Sunday am was a sprint race and I ran that, but was only able to complete 1/2 of it because as I did a AWESOME pass move going into the safety pin, my car lost all power coming out of it. Still not sure what happened, but I ran 2 more laps and had some burping action so decided to head to the pits. Again my times were not as fast on this day as Thursday.

All and all, IT WAS FREAKING ASWESOME. Now what I have learned is that racing is alot more expensive with less track time than DEs.

So I am agoing to mix it up in 2010. I only get 4 events until I can turn them into family time. This is fine by me, it helps keep the costs down.

So for the winter break I am going to rebuild my motor with some aluminum heads/cam/intake and headers. I will try to get some pictures over the next few days.

Thanks to Gary Jones and crew and all you folks for being a great encouragement and source of info.

[David Eastman]

Congrats on surviving your first race and having a great time.

David