When heading up to the grid for the last session on Saturday (the laugh-out-loud session described below), I rolled up to Jim E in the paddock and he wanted to grid together so I pulled over and waited. Then I saw that Bob was still getting situated, so we waited a little more. Finally we all made it to the grid with me in about position 5 of the first line and just in time for the realization that they called us early and we still had about 10 minutes before our session.
As it is wont to do, my mind started wondering and thinking of one particular ex-hoped-to-be-girlfriend, so I tried to shake it off and visualize driving. I started a deep breathing/focusing technique that also happens to be a good relaxation technique; has anyone else found that muffled engine vibrations, a secure harness and your head leaning forward into the HANS gives the sensation of suspended floating and makes for a fantastically comfortable
POWER NAP?
I fell asleep on the grid!!!! Next thing I know there is a terrible racket and lots of loud engines – I was startled awake and opened my eyes to see the cars in front me pulling away and the steward frantically waving me on. Rushing to gather myself I promptly stalled the car; by the time I got it restarted, the steward held up our line and let the entire second line go out ahead of us! My apologies to anyone in the first line that got held up, but it was fuch’n hilarious!
Eric
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric S
Great seeing everyone, car ran well (except for a last session DNF - more later), and had a really good student. On Friday had lots of fun running with Jim E and Bob M; in the last session Bob and I were making lots of passes, some induced by "creative signals", like moving track right and giving the signal to the left entering T1. The only limitation was that in that session White was combined with Red/Black so we were restricted to White passing zones.
In the last session Saturday Jim Bob and I were performing multiple leapfrog passes with three cars, then Bob and I took it to a whole new level. We passed several times each lap, and in total we made passes in every corner and every straight except 7-8! The highlights were a pass at the apex of T8 after having given Bob a pass between 6-7, and we once passed three times between the brake zone and the exit of Turn 1 (I gave Bob a late pass under braking; he moved left and pointed me to the apex, I took it but he knew my line was compromised so he dove underneath and I gave him the pass just after apex)! I have never literally laughed out loud while I was driving on track before; pure on-track gold!
DNF: Was shifting to 4th after Turn 3 and something broke in the shift linkage; found a spot to get out of the way to the right of T5 until they could tow me over to the tub at Carousel so that they didn't have to black flag the session. Turns out I snapped the stud of the shift fork that mounts to the shifter and holds the end of the forward shift rod. If that is all it is, then it is an inexpensive fix and it happened on the session of the last day, so I'll count my blessing - it could have been a lot worse.
Eric
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