Buttonwillow Raceway, October 12-13, 2002

What a great weekend! The weather was perfect, the run group was not going to include the AI cars, Rob and Jared have both worked on their cars some more, and there was going to be a 3 hour enduro to boot!

Saturday warm ups were exciting as usual with me getting pretty crossed up going over Cotton Corners so badly that I had to take an off-the-track line that included the removal of my newly re-designed splitter. I saw Rob off track on the inside of the exit of the same corner and thought "Not again!!", but it turned out to be the usual monkey paw that left it's incriminating mark on the "one big thing" that seems to always disable his car for a session each weekend. This time monkey hand prints were all over the loose distributor bolts that allowed it to back off the cam. Somehow Rob is able to drive the car to the track, but it can't manage it's first lap without serious drama. Jared was shaking out the bugs too, giving his usual "My car is so screwed up!" story. Rob and I both knew this mean trouble, as Helmet loves a car that's AFU, and despite the color coordinated splitter, we figured there was still plenty AFU about Jared's car.

Joel rips the remainder of the splitter off my car before qualifying, and we double check the alignment and tire pressures for qualifying. I head out and wind up in traffic for the whole session pretty much, so I'm not surprised to find out that I've qualified 3rd in class, with Rob a full second ahead and Ghettozi a full 3 seconds up. "Yea, but I bet he can't maintain that pace the whole race!" I say to I calm myself and hope I'm right. The start of the race results in the three of us nose to tail (we gridded 9th, 10th, and 11th) and we quickly found ourselves heading into Riverside/Talledega at full speed with Jared in the lead and Rob right behind him. I'm a couple cars back and watch with a smile as Jared seems to be understeering right off the exit into the dirt at full tilt. Rob sees it too, and lifts which starts his tail wiggling out of control. On the chute before the dogleg left, Rob is facing me headed backwards down the dragstrip - "One down, one to go!" I think as I focus on staying close to Jared to strike once he's worn out his tires. Lap after lap I remian right behind him, and he starts putting wheels off, but never do I gain more than a car a lap, and sometimne he puts the distance back on me. After a while I realize I'm not going to catch him, and when 2 Spec racers catch me while battling each other, I let them both by without a fight as I realize Jared is going to win. I watch as they approach him and hope he avoids a disaster as they get close. He too lets them both by without a fight while remaining in front of me. The next lap the checker drops and Jared gets the win he deserves - after all he has taught me so much about driving over the years and going fast (but obviously he's holding back some info!!).

The enduro is slated for 3 hours, and Rob and Phil are running as well. I have 3 driviers, they have 2, so they will have one less stop than me, but I proceed to talk smack to make sure they know we have a race on our hands. I swap brakes and put a newly-remanned alternator on the car trying to alleviate a weird set of warning lights that keep coming on despite the Techtom telling me the alternator is working fine. John Lindsey starts the race in my car while Rob goes out in the "00". Immediately they are all over each other and don't let up for an instant. John said to bring him in at 40 minutes, but I see what's going on and decide to leave him out until he has to come in for fuel. If need be, I'll let Ray (the second driver of my car for the enduro) finish up and I'll skip driving if we have a chance to win over Rob and Phil. That goes out the window as the car comes in
unexpectedly with yellowing lights and John reports the alternator is dead as the Techtom is reporting 10 volts instead of the usual 13+. I send Ray out without the big lights on to get some laps, but he comes in after 2 reporting "It was great, but I can't see a damn thing". I'm ready to pack it in, but Ray says we still have 2 hours, so why shouldn't we swap in the other alternator? It took a little persuading, but Joel jumps all over the car and swaps out the alternator in 30 minutes! Mind you this is on a car
that has been over 5000rpm for 40 minutes. We send Ray back out and he drives for an hour when I remember that we need to put 5 gallons in the car, and we only could put 4 in when tha alternator went. I bring in Ray and ask if I can drive the finish, "Sure!" he says and I jump in as we put 3 gallons in the car. I jump out on the track and start looking for Phil (I wanna
play, too!) when I get 2 cars coming out of the pits. As it turns out, one is Phil and we are able to play for a few laps when the checker is dropped. I ran by him going into turn one and noticed that the rotors on his car are almost see through they glow so much under braking!! The sparks were visible from behind Phils car, so I figured he might be out of brakes (I've been there and done that before in an enduro). Turns out he wasn't, but being down 19 laps there's no point in trying to win the eunduro with a pass. Phil gets back by me with a great move and I try to look for my opening to pass him back as ther laps tick past. Phil and I set the best laps times of the enduro for our cars respectively while chasing each other, with me barely beating him out for overall best lap time, but Team Kickback lost the enduro to them by 19 laps. Congtrats to Team Strickly Big in the first SE-R Enduro shootout!

Sunday is another cool day, and I swap on a set of new Toyos and make sure the car is all set again. I'm guessing with new Toyos, I'll be able to keep Jared well behind me during qualifying and the race. He is working feverishly on his car's suspension, talking to Bernardo Martinez and the other Honda guys about set up. Qualifying comes and goes, and Jared is now "only" 4 seconds fater than me, with Phil being a "short" 2 seconds a lap up on me. More crow for Team Kickback seems to be on order today! Phil and I strike up an agreement to not fight each other until we pass Jared, and Naji is gracious enough to say he'll let my by on the start (he too qualified in front of me, and was right next to me on the grid). The start goes cleanly and I end up fighting off an RX-7 through turn 2 and find myself approaching Phil into Cotton Corners, and I wave for him to not defend and take the best line as we are after Jared!! Unfortunately, Jared isn't cooporating as he is walking away from us with each lap despite battling a swarm of Hondas and Spec Racers in what must have been the most fun he's had outisde of a dance club or vintage clothing store. I am also watching Phil put a little space on me, but eventually he and I end up nose-to-tail after a few offs he has. Phil seems to be working the car really hard, as he is really sliding around a bit, and one time going into bus stop he has a really big slide. The next time through the same spot he's not so lucky as the slide becomes a spin into the dirt, and I pass to take second. I now concentrate on Jared, but no matter how hard I try, he's still pulling away. I can only watch from a good 15 second deficet as Jared takes the checker for his second well-earned win.

Thanks to all that helped in the pits this weekend, Will, Boonie, Chris, Shannon, and especially Joel in his "High Desert Black, Ye Olde Tailights Auto SE-R".

A huge congrats to Jared to winning his first two races. Simply put, he was faster than all of us all weekend. Hopefully I can find a can of something that has 5 seconds a lap in it for Willow Springs :-)

Tom