Calling all Northeast race fans, LRP Post-race Report added Options

[ChrisFoley]

I've entered the NARRC Runoffs at Lime Rock next Saturday. This will be only my second race this season and I'm already champin' at the bit.
The "A" motor is installed after a full refresh but there are some fast Miatas entered in my class so it won't be a walk in the park.
The races are scheduled to be 34 laps. That's 6 miles longer than a National race. I don't know if my fuel cell is big enough. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/confused24.gif)
Spectator entry fee is $20 I think, so its a cheap day of racing at Lime Rock for the fans. I'm in race 1 of 8, and we have a field of 29 cars in our group, with 7 F Prod cars entered so far.
If you're thinking of attending, warmups are at 9am and my race will probably start close to 10.

[ChrisFoley]

No video this weekend. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
There was no action worth uploading from my perspective anyhow, as it turned out.

Friday was wet, very wet.
The morning sessions were cancelled due to the track being flooded.
At 2:15pm we went out in moderate rain, onto a somewhat drivable racetrack.
A couple of apexes had large puddles to avoid, and No-name straight had a stream crossing it.
Every time my car crossed the stream (on full wet race tires) I would feel the car move sideways an inch or two.
I followed the #89 FP Miata around for a number of laps and was able to keep up with him, after he had passed me near the start of the single 17 minute qualifier.
We ended up being first and second in class, gridded side by side on the 4th row, with me less than 2 tenths slower.
Our straightaway speeds were nearly the same.

By Saturday morning the rain had turned to bright sun and the track was mostly dry. The temp was just reaching 60F as our race, the first of the day, began.
As we lined up on the pre-grid I was anticipating a fun race, and a possibility of moving forward as the race progressed.

At the start, the cars ahead of me spread out and left no room for advancement, so I settled in behind the 89 car to wait for an appropriate opening to pass a few cars that would be easy prey for both of us on the front straight.
My optimism didn't last long though, as the engine refused to rev past 6500 rpm. Something apparently went wrong with my Mallory rev limiter, and instead of having a few hundred rpm above peak power to play with, I was off by at least a thousand revs.
Every lap, before I reached start/finish, the car simply stopped accelerating. And every lap, on No-Name, the engine would go flat at 6500 in 3rd gear and again in 4th gear, well before the uphill turn.
I steadily fell back to a 16th overall finish and was lucky to retain 3rd place in FP, nearly being lapped by the 89 Miata. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)
A rather disappointing result, but still much better than the half dozen or so drivers who wound up in tire walls during our race.
I'll have some pictures to post. We were paddocked next to Skipper Hull of the Little Foreign Car Garage. He drives a GT3 914-6.