Back from a great weekend racing at Brainerd with Lucky Dog Racing.
I'm sure they classed us wrong last year and this year. A '94 Miata with a '94 Miata engine in the fastest class? How does that happen. But since we finished 2nd overall both days it was pretty hard to argue...)
So that's the short form: 2nd in class A (and overall) both days.
We ran 17 hours with zero errors. Not one extra moment in the pits - even when we ran out at pit-in and had to push the car 100 yards.
Day 1 started with lots of rain, and a bit of drama. I decided to test the splitter integrity by going off one lap 1, turn 3, and scooping up about 15 pounds of mud. I put in a very solid 2 hours with non-stop rain, and turned the car over to the next driver in 6th over all; who moved us up into 3rd or so. Last driver went next and ran like clock-work - zero drama and rock steady lap times. The care owner went in last, 5 laps out of 3rd place, and just looked to bring it home safely. But with 12 minutes to go, I saw the 2nd place car - 45th Parallel - pull off track with a mechanical. 12 minutes to make 5 laps - should be easy. Then we saw the getting towed, and realized that if they get pulled over the timing loop I'd need one more lap. Hammer down he wanted to squeeze in the extra part lap after the 5pm finish. And it JUST worked. Never stop pushing.
Day 2, we figured it was going to be tougher. We needed to make one more stop than the fast BMWs, the Corvette was running strong, and Finndurance was coming for us too. All we could do was run a fast clean race and hope for the best.
Same order: Aaron did great, but our power deficit meant we were 5th overall, behind 4 other cars in our class. Gordon next ripped a 1.49 but we were still stuck in 4th. Eric went 3rd, and handed the car over to me in 3rd place. I went out 2 laps down on the 2 lead BMWs (Dirty 30 and Gorilla Sticker). I had a few laps hanging with Gorilla Sticker, and when we hit some traffic, I got past while Glenn got hung up. I thought he must have stopped for fuel or something, but some laps later I passed him again. And one more time before the end of my stint. They had developed a bad miss, and were just trying to finish ahead of us.
We stopped with 40 minutes left having put the car in 2nd, but our fuel stop put us back in 3rd, 2 laps down with 40 minutes to go. Time for Gordon to put on a show. He as taking 7-10 seconds a lap out of the BMW, but math said it wasn't quite enough. With 7 minutes left he was 70 seconds down. We needed something to happen, and we let Gordon know. But he had the good sense to keep the leader's car behind him, meaning one more lap after the checker's flew.
Then the BMW slowed WAY down. With 1 lap to go, Gordon passed him 50 feet before the finish line to put us in 2nd! About as close as it could be.
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