by Jim Walsh

in flight to Seattle, WA  October 11, 2008

The race is over, and I’m on my way home.  No medal this year.  I started in fifth, I ended in fifth.  It was still a pretty exciting eighteen laps.

Friday started clear and sunny, a little cool, with a good breeze from the south-southeast.  Had a light breakfast, then headed to the track.  The car was basically ready to go, as we weren’t on track all day Thursday, so there were just a few last-minute checks, getting the car nice and shiny for the TV cameras, and one special task I needed to do.

I put my father’s name, Joe Walsh, on the car as an honorary crew member.  He passed away a couple of months ago, and he was of course a huge supporter and fan, as proud as a father could be.  I did this race in his memory.  When you watch the Speed channel coverage of the GT2 race on December 10^th, I think you might see a little something special, if they have time on the broadcast.

There was a lot of waiting on Friday, as mine was the last race of the day.  I watched a couple of other races, particularly the starts, to see where the starter liked to throw the green flag.  It looked like he liked to throw it fairly early, as soon as the last car was around turn 14 and onto the front straight.  I checked out the track conditions, it looked pretty good, the grass and dirt had dried out substantially from earlier in the week, so even when cars dropped a wheel or two off the road, they weren’t dragging mud and dirt onto the track.  We loaded as much as we could into the transporter, save of course the cars, and necessary gear for an emergency pit stop, and the post-race tech inspection and potential teardown of the top finishers.

With about 45 minutes to go, I got my gear on.  First my cool shirt, a special shirt covered with vinyl tubing, which gets ice water pumped through it to keep me cool.  It wasn’t a super-hot day, only 77, but it gets upwards of 130 in the car, my pulse is racing the entire time, and I’m wearing five layers of clothing (basically I’m racing in a fireproof snowmobile suit), so it really helps keep my core temperature down.  Over the cool shirt is a fireproof Nomex shirt.  Long Nomex socks, then the 3-layer Nomex driver’s suit, and finally Nomex lined suede racing boots.  The rest of my gear, the Nomex gloves, the Nomex hood-sock, and the Nomex-lined full face helmet with attached HANS device, as well as my earpieces for my in-car radio are waiting in the car – I’ll put them on at the pre-grid.

With about 30 minutes to go, I bring the car to pre-grid, while Chris heads over in the rental car with all the pit equipment, since we’re paddocked quite a distance away.  I stop and chat with the other drivers, we all wish each other good luck, and I have a brief chat with the Speed reporter.  I make a last-minute pitstop, then get in the car, and mentally drive through the course a couple of times.  As we approach 5 minutes to go, I put the rest of my gear on, strap myself in, and pull the belts as tight as I can – I won’t want to be moving around at all as I’m getting bounced around in the car.  Chris plugs my helmet into the car’s radio system, and we do a radio check.  Move the helmet mike a little closer to my lips, as it’s not as loud as the two other spotters. 

I’ve transported and paddocked with Pirate Racing, which is Andrew Foley and his crew, along with Matt Crandall, all from Portland, both of them driving Panoz GTS cars.  Very comparable speed and handling to my Porsche GT3 Cup, but very different cars – they’re heavier, have larger wheels and tires, a Ford 351 V8 with gobs of torque, but don’t have as sophisticated a suspension, or as good aerodynamics as the Porsche.  Two of the Pirate crew, Alex in the far grandstands (able to see turns 1 through 7), and Dominic in the front straight grandstands (able to see turns 10 through 14), have my radios also, so they can call in if they see a car off, a yellow flag, debris on course, or any other situation that I should know about asap.

With all the radios working, we see the 3 minutes to go sign waved in pregrid, and it’s time to start the car.  Then it’s the whistle and the 1-minute warning, and then we’re moving.  The splitter separates us right and left, I’m on the right side of the third row, right behind last year’s winner, also in a Porsche GT3 Cup, Wayland Joe.  To Wayland’s left in 4^th is Gerry Mason in a Nissan 300ZX tubeframe car, to the left of me is Mike Muren, polesitter and second place finisher in 2006 (he didn’t compete last year), and behind me is Mark Jurczyk, also in a GT3 Cup, and less than a tenth of a second slower than me in qualifying.  The front row is Jim Goughary in his blindingly-quick tubeframe 350Z (a 350Z only in general appearance, I doubt there are five pounds of stock 350Z in his car), and to his left John Black, also in a 350Z tubeframe car.  Overall there are seven or eight previous Runoffs champions in this field – it’s a very very strong lineup, even for the National Championships, so I feel privileged to be able to run competitively with this group.

The GT2 rules allow two types of cars, the tubeframe cars are a fiberglass shell giving the appearance of a street car, over a purpose-built racecar chassis, with a purpose-built race motor.  They must meet requirements for engine displacement and weight, with a couple of different formulas allowed.  Jim Goughary has a larger, more powerful engine, but weighs more than John Black, who has a lighter car but a less powerful engine.  Both have better power-to-weight than the Production-based cars in the class, which are the Porsche GT3 Cup 996, and the Panoz Esperante GTS.  Both must use the same frame and chassis as a street car, and much run exactly as their factory race series rules require, which mean we are restricted in our ride height, camber, we can’t touch our factory wings or aero, we can’t change any suspension or drivetrain components, our engines and drivetrains and ECUs are sealed, etc.  The tubeframe cars are much more wide open.  They have full purpose-built race engines, and can run any engine electronics they want.  They can use water-spray brake cooling.  The SCCA watches the cars and (hopefully) makes adjustments to keep them relatively even.  Last year, Porsches finished 1-2-3.  Even though we qualified 1-5-7, and three cars were taken out in a first-corner incident, and Jim Goughary then blew and engine (or a tire, depending on who you listen to) during the race, the SCCA Competition Board decided the tubeframe cars needed a little help, so they were given additional downforce – a four inch longer front splitter (which prevents air from going under the car, and thus produced downforce with very little additional drag), and their rear spoiler was changed to a rear wing allowance.  Goughary was running a massive rear wing, larger than mine on a much lighter car, with a significantly higher angle of attack, and an allowed ‘Gurney flag’.  What I wouldn’t do for that much downforce at this track!

Once lined up on the hotpits, we went out on track for two warmup laps, so we could all check out the track conditions, and get our engines and tires heated up.  I start my racing slicks at very low pressures, and they’ll build up close to 50% more pressure – 8 to 10 pounds, during the first few laps of the race, and they have significantly less traction when they’re cold and at low pressure, so it’s important to get them warm and up to pressure.  Two warmup laps might get them halfway there, so I’ll still have to watch it on my first lap or two.

At the end of the second warmup lap, the pace car pulls in, I call to my crew chief Chris Brown that I’m in the last corner, and he holds his microphone button down so that he can call the green flag, as I often can’t see it as I’m required to be directly behind the car in front of me.  I’m on the throttle as Chris yells ‘Green Green Green!!!’, and the race is on.  I have an ok start, not fabulous, as Wayland has got away quicker, and I see Mike Muren slowly pulling up on my left, he’s clearly gotten a better start.  I slowly gain on Muren as we approach turn 1, to get him on my left, and I’m also able to pull up to Wayland before turn 1.  Since I have the inside line into that corner, I’m able to keep Muren behind me, so I get through in 5^th place.  I see that Goughary has gotten past Black at the start, as expected given his higher horsepower and torque, but Black is right behind him.  Gerry Mason has also gotten past Wayland Joe under braking into turn 1, so he’s now in third place.    Those were the two lead changes in the top six.  I can’t see further back than the car behind me, and I know that Chris will let me know if there’s anything too exciting back there to worry about.

I’m able to stay close to Joe, and as we straighten out from the back kink (turns 8-9), I see Gerry Mason, in third, pull to the left and start to slow, clearly he has some type of problem.  I’m worried that I’ll catch him right at the apex to turn 10, a very fast left-hander at the end of the back straight, but I’m able to get past him before the corner.  So now I’m in fourth place.  I’m close behind Joe into the tight 12-13-14 complex, but Joe pulls away on the front straight, and gains a bit on the second lap.  Again on the third lap, Joe pulls away a bit more, but then my tires come in, and I’m faster than him for the next four laps, pulling closer and closer to Joe in third. 

This entire time, Mark Jurczyk has been right behind me, less than half a second back.  As long as I have a few car lengths between us, I can ignore him and concentrate on catching Joe.  On lap 9, I make a very slight error in turn 6, a very tight 2^nd-gear lefthander that heads uphill and starts the back straight complex.  A tiny error, just a couple of tenths, but it lets Jurczyk close on me up the hill and then up the back straight and into the kink, less than half a carlength back.  Now I can’t just concentrate on catching Joe, I need to make sure that Jurczyk doesn’t try a late braking move inside me.  Coming out of 9 and into 10 on the back straight, he does just that – pulls left, and I have to also move left to protect the inside line.  This continues for a number of laps, with Jurczyk trying to pull inside in multiple turns – 3, 5, 6, and 10, on most every lap.  Since I can’t take the optimum line in each corner (which starts at the far outside edge of the track, but leaves the inside wide open for an inside late-braking maneuver from Jurczyk to take away the apex), I need to enter from mid-track or the inside of the corner, which means I have less speed at the apex, and that means reduced exit speed, so each place I need to go defensive is costing me a few tenths to half a second, so my lap times are now down a second or a second and a half from when he was ‘comfortably’ a few carlengths back.  This reduced speed of course means that I can’t pull away from Jurczyk, so he’s staying right there, very anxious to get past. 

I need Jurczyk to make a mistake and drop back a bit, so I can start to pull away.  Unfortunately, my tires are starting to go away, the car is getting a little bit loose on me, and Jurczyk seems to be hooked up better than ever.  Even when I get a good launch onto the straight, I can’t pull away, so his engine might be a little stronger also.  Not a surprise, I still have the original engine in my car from 2004, hasn’t been touched, and it’s definitely getting on time for a rebuild, too late to worry about whether I should have done it last winter instead of this winter (esp. with the economy, but that’s another story!).  Anyways, given my compromised laptimes, you’d think that Wayland would be sailing off into the distance, but he’s also not been able to keep up the same pace, so the gap hasn’t widened as much as I’d think.

Jurczyk is getting more and more desparate, but he’s driving a good clean race, he’s not tapping my bumper with the ‘chrome horn’, and I’m not cutting across his nose to ‘chop’ him.  I’m making my ‘one move’ – it’s considered blocking if you make multiple moves from side to side to stay ahead of someone that’s clearly faster, but I’m staying on the outside, only moving inside if I see Jurczyk make a move, so that move is perfectly legit, acceptable racing.  It’s only under braking and into corner entry that Jurczyk seems he might be a little faster than me, on corner exits I’m a little better, and he can’t quite catch me on the straights.  Heartland Park is also a difficult track to pass at, as the two long straights don’t have sharp corners with long braking zones like many tracks do, which are traditionally the best passing spots.

With a couple of laps to go, Jurczyk dives inside of me inside turn 3, the long left-hand sweeper, and gets alongside me.  I stay along the outside of him, we’re side by side, I might be a hair ahead.  We accelerate out of 3 and into 4, he’s been able to get on the gas a little quicker, and I see his nose pull in front of mine.  Looks like we’ll be side by side into turn 4 also.  Now this is racing, side by side for position, both giving each other racing room.  Woo hoo!  Hey, what’s this?  Looks like he wants the line into 4, where my car is, and I get a whack into the left side of my car, which gets me a little loose as I’m both under braking and starting the corner entry for turn 4, and as I lift to correct and straighten the car, Jurczyk is past.  I try to keep up, and hopefully figure out a way past him, but he’s hooked up, and is a few tenths quicker.  At start-finish, there’s one more lap to go.  I have nothing left for Jurczyk, and it finishes Goughary, Black, Joe, Jurczyk, and myself in the top five, with Jeff Moore, who finished third behind me last year (and made me work the last couple of laps to keep second!) quite a ways back in sixth place.

After the cooldown lap, we pull down pit lane, and I have Chris take my tire pressures.  A little higher than I’d have liked, no wonder I was a little loose at the end, but it was clearly my fault, I’d told Chris where to set them.  A little less tire pressure, maybe one pound or even half a pound less at the start, and maybe I’d have been able to stay ahead of Jurczyk, and potentially catch Joe, maybe even eventually get around.  Ah, we can all dream.  I was certainly a lot closer to Joe than I was last year, and my fast lap was only six tenths off the fast lap of the race, so I think I did well.  Even though I was the third-finishing Porsche, I was more competitive relative to the quickest one (Joe) than I was last year, both in qualifying and the race.  I knew the tubeframe cars would be quicker this year because of the changes they were allowed, so I expected it to be an uphill battle to make the podium, but I did my best.  At least the driving mistake I made that allowed Jurczyk to catch me and then eventually get by didn’t cost me a medal, just 5^th versus 4^th.

After checking the pressures, the top six finishers were pulled to the side of pit lane, where the top three received their medals and were interviewed.  Given that the race had gone so quickly, Justin Bell from Speed stopped by and told me they’d have time for a full interview, so he asked me about the race and how tough it was compared to last year.  I was stopped partway through, he apologized and said they’d transferred back upstairs, he thought he’d have a fair bit more time than he did.

After that, the top six pulled into the tech shed, we were weighed, and had fuel samples taken.  The first three underweight a much more rigorous inspection, while the ‘next three’ had various measurements taken (wheel sizes, track and wheelbase, etc.) but were basically ‘on hold’ in case a problem was found with any of the top three.  After about an hour, I was finally given a pass to let me exit the impound area to help get the transporter loaded, and another hour later the car was released.  Three hours after the race was over, we had all the cars on the transporter and all the gear in, and we left for a well-deserved dinner, where I actually allowed myself my first beer all week (yes I know, it’s blasphemy for a Canadian to torture myself so!).

I need to thank my wife Penny for being my biggest supporter, and allowing me to use a week of vacation on this crazy adventure, plus of course all of the weekends and trips and logistics and such that are involved in preparing for such an event.  Greg Fordahl of Fordahl Motorsports did his usual great job in car preparation and setup, and in his usual brilliant advice on setup tweaks when the car isn’t quite handling the way I’d like.  Chris Brown did a great job as crew chief on the car all year.  I certainly didn’t envy him being under the car on Tuesday trying to find the gearbox leak, when it was raining so hard that we made a dam with tires and air hoses to try to keep the river of water flowing under the car at least somewhat under control.  I also want to thank Chris’ family Mary Frances and Daniel and Adrian for letting their husband and father go racing for a week, when I’m sure they’d much rather have had him at home.

Andrew Foley and Matt Crandall and the Pirate Racing crew and coaching team, Alex, Dominic, Leo, Scott and Tom were great fun to be paddocked with, and were super helpful with tools and help and anything else we could have asked for.  Thanks Andrew for suggesting this trip and for providing the logistics to make it happen.  It was huge fun, I know you enjoyed your first trip, I hope it’s the first of many more.  And congratulations on the Hard Charger award for most positions gained on track, I know you had some nightmare logistic problems (starting with the wrong tires being delivered) but you did your best with what you had, and still had a great time and finished well.

Microsoft Advertising and Live Search provide the paycheck that lets me support this hobby, and their fabulous graphics design makes it the best looking car on the track.  Brent Petterson from Fastsigns Kirkland again went above and beyond to get me the graphics I needed, and as always Solo GI makes the fabulous sustained energy bars that I literally order by the case from Amazon.com.

Last but of course not least, I need to thank all my friends and family and co-workers and other supporters who read this blog and my emails, for all the support and kind words, not only for this race but throughout my racing career.  It’s great to have you behind me, I know many of you were listening to the live audio broadcast, and I could hear you cheering all the way in Kansas! 

Don’t forget to set yourself a reminder to watch the Speed Channel GT2 broadcast on December 10^th at noon Eastern, 9am Pacific.  Or on the off chance you’re not normally at home watching TV at 9am on a Wednesday morning, set your DVR J  See http://www.speedtv.com/schedule/filter/program/821353 for the full Runoffs schedule.

by Jim Walsh

Topeka, KS  October 9, 2008

Qualifying is over, tomorrow is the race at 5:15pm Central.  I picked up another .3 seconds, but dropped one position to 5th, my same starting position as last year.

Wayland Joe, on pole last year, and winner both last year and in 2007, was only third, at 1:38.341 today, I was about 3 tenths back at 1:38.695, but Wayland's faster time from Monday made his qualifying time 1:37.897.  Gerry Mason in a Nissan tubeframe car moved ahead of me, by less than a tenth of a second, to 1:38.581.  Less than another tenth of a second separate Michael Murun, polesitter in 2007, at 1:38.756, and Mark Jurcyk, the third 996 Cup Car behind Wayland and myself, at 1:38.760.

So I'll be on the third row, the polesitter usually takes the right side of the course, so I should be on the right side in the third row, right behind Joe.  Matt Crandall and Andrew Foley, who I transported out here with and am paddocked with, are starting their first Runoffs in their Panoz GTS's in 12th and 15th, after battling various gremlins much of the week.

You should be able to see Live Timing and Scoring at http://www.livetiming.net/SCCA/RunOffs/LiveTiming.asp?width=1024&Class=GT2 at 5:15pm Central time, or 3:15pm Pacific time.  And there should be Live Audio available at http://www.scca.com/eventitems.aspx?item=384&event=12416&hub=1   Note that the race time is green flag time, so we'll head out ont rack for our warmup lap 3 or 4 minutes before that.

The car is basically ready to go, my plan for tomorrow is to ensure I can get Live Timing working at the track on my laptop, so that my crew (and Matts and Andrews) can watch the results live during the race and feed us pertinent info on the radio.  I'll then watch some of the other races, watching their lines, track conditions, and of course enjoying some great racing, and then get ready to hop into the car around 25 minutes before race time, in order to get to the grid, get lined up in position, get strapped in, etc.  Then it's 18 laps or 40 minutes, whichever comes first!

by Jim Walsh

Tuesday October 7, Topeka KS

Busy day today, especially for crew chief Chris Brown, who spent much of the day under the car working on the gearbox leak.  It wasn’t easy to find, but he finally found the small hole in a tube that was spraying gearbox oil around, but only when the car was moving and under load.  Some fuel line tubing, a couple of hose clamps, and a borrowed tubing cutter later, and it was fixed.   

It was raining all morning, continuing from the thunderstorms we had yesterday, which didn’t make it any more fun working on the car.  It finally cleared up in the early afternoon, hopefully in time for the track to fully dry for my 4:30pm qualifying. 

I ran Q1 on Hoosier tires yesterday, which I’d never run before, and had a tough time deciding on whether to run Hoosiers or Michelins today.  After checking with a couple of groups coming off the track at 2:30 and 3:00, the track was very messy, still water running across in spots from the runoff, and lots of mud getting dragged onto the track whenever a car put a wheel off on the inside, so I figured it was a compromised session, so I’d switch back to a used set of Michelins and work on my line and smoothness.

I’d spent some time yesterday poring over my data and in-car video, finding places on the track I was losing time or (less often) making it up.  I continued that today, and also went through all my corner-by-corner notes from last year, which I found helpful.  I figured I knew where to find .5 or .6 seconds, as long as the track was reasonable, and of course if I was actually able to turn my theories into practice.  As long as my competitors didn’t gain just as much, that might move me up into 4^th place. 

When we went out, right on time at 4:30 local, I wasn’t excited by the steady flow of water across turn 2, a very fast left-hander in the right-left 1-2 complex at the end of the front straight.  I’m fully loaded in turn 2, and it’s also bumpy so I’ve been having some problems keeping the car settled at speed, so it’s not a great place for water across the track.  Turn 4 was also wet, and the track was very dirty just after apex in turn 9, the second-fastest turn on the course, which is a very tricky almost-blind right-hand sweeper at the top of a rise.  It’s very easy to drop a wheel off on the inside and drag mud onto the track, and it looks like that was done by the session before us.

I was working on my line, while building up speed, and by my third lap I was under a second of my best Q1 time, even though I was getting a little sideways hop on the water in turn 2.  On lap 4, I finally broke 1:40 into the :39’s, and 4 of the next 6 laps were in the :39’s.  The car felt great, I didn’t have the looseness in the back I had yesterday.  I didn’t change the setup, so either it was the Michelin’s, or maybe some of the gearbox oil that was spraying around had made it onto the rear tires and compromised their grip a bit.  I then had two laps with traffic, then the car in front of me pulled into the pits.  The car still felt great, it wasn’t getting the skittishness I’d get if the tires were a little high on pressure, so I went for a flyer.  And it worked – a 1:38.9, good for third place in the session, and fourth place overall.  I made no major mistakes, the car was handling good, and I’d moved up two grid positions, and rather than being less than a tenth ahead of the two cars behind me, I’m now a whopping two tenths ahead of the car behind me, but eight tenths ahead of the car two back.

I’d improved 1.4 seconds, the biggest improvement of the top ten, but the others weren’t sitting still.  Jim Goughary, who was fastest in Q1, picked up another half second to a wicked-fast 1:37.060 in his tubeframe 350Z, which (per rules changes for the tubeframe car) now sports a massive rear wing helping him to keep his rear tires on the ground.  What I wouldn’t give for more downforce, particularly on this track (different rules apply to the production-based cars in GT2, and I’m not allowed to tough the rear wing, or almost anything else on the car).

Full qualifying results to date are again available on the GT2 link at http://www.scca.com/eventresults.aspx?event=12416&hub=1

I’m feeling good going into the third and final qualifying on Thursday at 9:00am.  The car is working and handling great, the weather looks good through then, and I think I know of a couple more places I can pick up some time.  I’m still a couple of tenths off of my best qualifying time from last year, so I’ll certainly try my best to get it back. 

I’m not sure I can find the 1.1 seconds to get into the top 3, but I’ll do my best and keep my fingers crossed.

I’m not on track tomorrow, but we have some projects to do to have the car ready for Thursday morning.  I should (finally!) have some time to watch other cars on the track, watch from some various places, and see if I can pick up any new pointers.

by Jim Walsh

Monday October 6, Topeka KS

I hit the track yesterday (Sunday) morning for the final test day before the official Runoffs start. It was a busy day - a good percentage of the 512 entrants in 25 classes all seemed to want a last chance to run before qualifying, so each packed group had three 35-minute sessions during the day. I did my first session on some well-used tire to check my initial setup and handling and make sure I remember which direction the track went. Went fine, but was only 25 minutes long, could have used the extra 10 minutes, as it was so busy I didn't get a single clean lap with no traffic.

For my second session I ran a fresh set of Michelin slicks, to check on speed and handling with fresh tires. Again no fullly clean laps, but got a couple of reasonably quick ones in, my best a 1:40.2, a few tenths faster than Wayland Joe, last year's (and 2006's) GT2 winner. But darn, it was only 25 minutes again.! The third session was cut short, two different T1 Corvette blew up their engines on opposite sides of the track, covering it in oil, I got loose in the oil but managed to stay on track. A BMW driver wasn't so lucky, he spun when he tried braking in the oil in turn 9, and he went off track and backed into the wall hard. End of Runoffs for him, before it started. That session was only 17 minutes. I was still a couple of tenths faster than Wayland, but still well over a second of my fast times from last year.

Today was qualifying, at noon. Weather was looking questionable, a big system was coming in, and I had problems connecting to the Internet at the track so couldn't get the weather rader. But I called my secret weapon Bill, who was unfortunately at home not feeling well, but was still able to access his weather data, and let me know that the first part of the system would probably skirt to the west of the track, and my session would be fine. I went out on Hoosiers - the Hoosier rep was anxious for competitive drivers to try out their new tires, so I figured I'd give them a shot. Wayland ran them in his third test session, and we were about the same difference between us as when he ran Michelins.

The session stayed dry. They gridded us by lottery, I started 13rd of the 19 drivers. I wasn't having as much traffic as on the test day, but unfortunately the traffic was a lot closer in speed, so when I caught up to someone, I was oftenn held up for multiple corners before being able to pass, but even one corner is enough to spoil a qualifying lap. I did a few 1:41's with a couple of traffic laps in between, then felt comfortable enough with the tires to start pushing, and did a couple of low 1:40's (a 1:40.108 nd a 1:40.263). I then pulled in to check tire pressures, which were a little high, Chris Brown my crew chief knocked them back down while the Hoosier engineers took tire temps on the inner, middle, and outer of each tire, and off I went to get a few flyers. My next lap was a 1:40.123 with a couple of mistakes, then I hit traffic and got the checkered flag, and the 22-minute qualifying session was over. Less than half an hour later, a torrential thunderstorm hit, with major rain for two solid hours.

I ended up 6th. Jim Gaughry in a tubeframe 350Z, who I chased for much of the race last year, is in P1 with a 1:37.536. Wayland Joe swtiched back to Michelins, and seemed to remember his form from last year, and did a 1:37.897. John Black from California is third with 1:38.143. There is then pack of five cars, from 1:39.808 to 1:40.163, and I' right in the middle. Less then 3 tenths of a second separating 5 cars, and I'm less than a tenth ahead of the two cars behind me.

Full qualifying results are at http://www.scca.com/eventresults.aspx?event=12416&hub=1

So we'll see what happens tomorrow. It's supposed to be wet in the morning (it's been on and off rain the rest of the day), but potentially drying, though last year there were a couple of 'rivers' across the track even hours after the rain stopped, which wouldn't be too bad in a race, but might make it hard for anyone to beat today's times.

We'll also see if we can figure out the gearbox leak I'm having - I was one of four cars pulled in to the tech shed for a thorough screening after the session (all Porsche Cup Cars), and when I left there was a fair bit of gear oil on the ground. When we got the car in the air, it looks like a fair bit of gear oil spread around, seems like it might be from a breather vent, but very strange that there were no problems in my first few sessions. And the level is low. So we'll have an early morning at the track tomorrow to get the level filled up, and run the car and get the gearbox up to temp to see if we can figure out what's going on. Hopefully nothing major - I don't have a spare gearbox (have never had any gearbox problems at all with the car).