Thursday Set-up & Friday Practice
Authored By Brian
It’s early Saturday morning and I’m about to hop in the shower after a pretty lengthy 6 hours of sleep. Here are some brief notes from the weekend so far which, despite some hiccups, is going pretty well:
- Thursday, 9:30pm – Mark and I arrive at Willows hotel, but the car is still at the shop
- Friday, 5:37am – Get up early so we can help setup the paddock space; something that was to be done Thursday but due to weather was pushed out. Show up at the track to find nobody there because the car is on I-5 in transit. Find our pit space is the only one in the dirt, next to the toilets and under some low-hanging trees. Not exactly what Marshall was promised and not boding well.
Friday Sunrise
The first of several sunrises this weekend
- Friday, 9:55am – With the car present, the trailers in a new (paved) paddock space (Banks diesel truck couldn’t make the event), Mark and I head to town for some errands visiting Wal-Mart, Holiday supermarket, Common Grounds coffee house, Holiday supermarket again. Common Grounds spots us commercial coffee filters in a pinch and we take some stickers to put on the car to say thanks.
- Friday, 11:25am – Car has been on track and we return to find it on jackstands for a quick suspension adjustment before going back out. I load up two new sets of SSR 17″ wheels and shaved Toyo tires to have Ron at AIM mount and balance.
- Friday, 6:00pm – I’ve been standing on pit row all afternoon as the car circles the track and we practice driver changes. Because I’m skinny, I’ve been assigned to go in through the passenger door on pit stops, help the driver get out, loosen belts, adjust the seat, get them buckled back in, the steering wheel back on and perform a radio check in less than 45 seconds. The car is running pretty well. If we could stop losing Navid every time we turn around we would be set!
14-year old Auston Harris, first time in the car turned the fastest lap of the day with a 2:00 until professional Gary Sheehan gets in the car, turns the turbo boost all the way up and qualifies the car with a 1:58.5. 
Friday, 8:56pm – Driver meeting, we learn we qualified 4th overall with 3/4″ of toe-out on the left rear wheel. Problem corrected and aspirations rise as we know the car can go faster yet. To improve our pit-lane speed, we do 18 driver changes in a row. That’s a lot of climbing in and out of a car with a roll-cage.- Saturday, 6:47am (now) – Climbing in and out of a roll-cage 40 times in a day to loosen belts is apparently hell on your back. My right shoulder blade is on fire! Time to find the advil… only 30 hours left until checkered flag!
