Sebring is my home track and we NEEDED to shine today and also tomorrow at Daytona, the two biggest tracks. And oah was it a heck of a day! We got into Sebring at 1:30am, had a Crown & Coke and crashed out hard at 2:30am. I slept great until about 6:45am, the time that Troy has been friggin waking me up every morning. My alarm wasn't set until 7:15am, but I just couldn't sleep any longer so it was up and at 'em! Cruised down to the lobby and snagged an OJ and some Yoplait and took off. We had to bleed the brakes again, because the brake pedal felt a bit soft and we wanted to be 100% certain that there was no issue with the brakes at Sebring where speeds on the back straight reach 150 mph to the longest bumpiest turn on any race track in the world. We have to make sure we can slow this 4000lb beast down in a hurry. So, Andrew and I scrambled to bleed the brakes for the 3rd time on this trip. We got it done with plenty of time left to run the first session at 9am. Teamwork was an A plus.
In the First run at Sebring the first lap was great, on the second lap I got the "red cog of death" on the BMW I-drive display: Transmission failure gear selection is limited. The car went into neutral out of turn 9. I was like F*^! .... I'm done. I moved the gear lever over to neutral still coasting, and back into gear a couple of times and she went back into gear! I was off again...! The thing is, now I had lost 5-6 seconds or so and the Z06 that started behind me was catching up. I ran hard and tried to make easier shifts, not going into 2nd gear in the hairpin. On the last lap the red Z06 piloted by Dick Clark (a fellow spec miata racer) was coming up on the back Ulmann straight. I braked early and let him by on the inside going into the last turn 17, that slowed me down by another 2 seconds or so. Even though we lost about 8 seconds, we were 12th place over all and 2nd in class! We beat the M3's and the CTS-V; the only car that beat us was the S4 Race car by a mere 6 seconds!!!!!! We would have the class win if it wasn't for the freakin' transmission fault! Oah well-- there was still 1 more run left at Sebring!
Sebring 2nd Run: I went up to the trackside Sebring Chateau hotel, got a late check out, and took a two hour nap. Oah, was that much needed. The nap was worth at least 2 seconds a lap! lol. I lined up behind the CTS-V and off we went! I ran the car faster than I ever have before at Sebring. Coming into Turn 1 at 140mph, I slowed down just a bit and was at a 20 degree slip angle sideways through the apex! No transmission faults, no brake issues, it was a smooth run hauling some serious tail. I sawthe CTS-V in my sights coming down the back straight, I was reeling him in, I went deep into the braking zone into turn 17 and made up 10-15 car lengths on him. I got a run out of 17 and it was a drag race down the front straight with Caddy's fastest production car ever, with the new 550hp ZR1 powered engine. I was pulling on the CTS-V and got back in line for Turn 1 on the final lap! YES, it is on video and it's coming soon!!! On the last lap the engine temp warning came on, the oil temp was 278 degrees! I had to take the last lap in 1 gear higher than normal to keep the engine rpms down a bit. Coming into turn 14 out of Bishops Bend (fast 120mph sweeper) there was the 79' Camaro infront of me. I dived to the inside and passed him, it cost me about a second or so in that corner. I'm getting to why this was important... The results came up and we were 9th overall and the S4 Racecar got a total time of 7.45.721, I got a 7:45.948!!!!! We lost to the S4 by 2 tenths of a second in 12 miles of racing! We got 2nd in class! Good, but damn.... it was close.
The DRAG RACE - M5 vs. CTS-V!!!
I posted a best time of 12.799 at 113.8mph and the CTS-V ran a 12.838 at 113.00mph!!!!! I beat him and we have that on video too! you can tell what Cadillac had their sites on when they built that beast!
The bracket races were next: You have to "Dial" in your time and whomever gets closer to their dialed in 'target' time with out exceeding it wins. My Dial in time was 12.70, and my first run I got a 12.71!! That was the closest time of the event and I won. I ran the other GTR and knocked him out in the first round! My buddy Ian was soo ecstatic that I beat out his competition (on video too!) On the Second run I raced the Performance driving school M3 and beat him by a good margin! On to round three! I won round three! And it was down to the final 4! Ran my worst time ever at 12.97, 2.97 off my target. I got 3rd place overall in the bracket drags and beat all of the cars in our class for 1st in class and 13th overall.
Rachel's mom & siblings came to watch- and rooted me on the whole way!
Headed home tonight! Cinco de Mayo!!!!! Amigos at UCF here we come!!! Tequilla bombs, WHATS UP.
Slide show below:
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