Our day started when the previous day stopped, when we decided to stop in Winchester instead of heading the extra hour their and back to home. We rolled in about 1:30am, and got to bed about 2am. Then it was up at 6:30, and out to the track around 7:40... after a slight detour.
Robert got a walk around the track, while I unloaded. The fan club slowly trickled in while we emptied the car, checked the lugs, and set the pressures; and some various talking with other teams, and welcoming Sebastien from the Audi S4 who had finally caught up to us after having trouble flying in to South Bend from Denver.
Robert managed to slot himself into the tail end of the 3rd to last group out, and did quite well... or at least quite well for his experience, and our setup of the car. He ended up 65th, which is about where I expected us... since we're down on power compared to most of the other competitors... and also about where Brock expected us... given our car number. The one shred of brightness is that he managed to be faster than the m-roadster... helping us to claw our way back from the bottom of the class ranking. Well... we're still back there... but we might have a shot at not be last in class. Not that anyone will notice the 'non-battle' going on in the tail end of SSGT2SB.
We ate some lunch, and then lent what hand we could give to Sebastien, Rick, and Tony in the S4. He apparently was running a phenomenal warmup lap, and ended up at start and finish with no brakes and no clutch (the S4 apparently uses a common brake/clutch reservoir)... and ended up with smoke pouring out of the front of the car. I'm not sure, but I think he elected not to carry out the run, and came back to the pits to see what was wrong with the car. Adam Hennessey from the Dubler's team, Tim Harper from the Magnus Motorsports car, and our benefactor Rob of R&R Automotive tried to diagnose the problem. The end result is an agreement that the 100kmi clutch is most likely shot.
They decided to pack up and find an Audi dealer to see if they could get it fixed up in time to meet us at Daytona. If not, they're considering renting a car and driving the rest of the event in a Rental.
Robert lined up in 64, and then waited. Unfortunately, we were far enough back that the rain picked up by the time he went out, and the surface got very very slick. Robert didn't think it was quite that slick and tried to keep it flat on the gas through turn 9... which resulted in quite a bit of sideways action, and cross control to keep the car on track. It made for an entertaining in-car video... other than the continuing problem of the fact that the GoPro is exposing the picture for the detail inside of the car, which is causing everything outside the windshield to be overexposed and washed out. We ended up dropping 11sec compared to the morning session, but moving up to 64th due to our friend Jim Roberts blowing his corvette's motor in the morning session and having to tow his car back home. Word is he's going to grab another 'vette to finish the week out in the Exhibition class.
The end result of all this is that we've slipped back to 62nd over all. I'd say this is reasonable, but hopefully we can keep it there... or start gaining ground a little bit... so that if the Special Construction misses an event we don't end up last(?). :). We've also picked up 35points in class, which puts us 15points behind the M-roadster. So we can catch him if we continue to stay ahead of them, which may be a tall order with Daytona on the horizon.
Other than that, we got in to Lancaster, SC early. Unfortunately the blue laws meant we had to find our own source of ravel rousing... which was conveniently provided by the Tracy and crew in the VW TDI. Thanks again Tracy... you've got the spirit of OLoA well in hand!
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