Day 10: Road America 280 miles

Before I arrived at RA I was a little intimidated. I had heard lots about how fast it was and how nasty turn 5 and Canada corner could be and how it ate up brakes. I had never been there before as my Dad drove this track back in 2003 when we did it last. I did drive several hundred laps in a GT3 in the XBox. At least that taught me which way the corners go.

We were not allowed to walk or run the course so I made do with watching a video of Patrick Long driving the track about 30 times.

Here's Brock explaining to me where to lift before turn 5...

I wonder where "brake" is tattooed? maybe he just has room for "Br"

In the sighting lap, I was warming up the car and checking braking points when I was passed on the outside in the Carousel by an M3. WTF? On the sighting lap? I later saw him parked at the side of the track after Canada corner on the last lap.

My first session I was 13th and my second session I was 12th, just one second quicker. The M3 that passed me on the sighting lap was 35th in the second session, having run out of fuel in the first.

These results pushed us from 18th to 15th overall. A big improvement from the 63rd position on day 1.

There were numerous brake issues in the paddock after session 1. I have never seen so many cars having their brakes bled. Also, an Evo blew up and a CTS V wagon lost it's brakes going into turn 8 (about 115 in my car) and rolled and was heavily damaged. The driver was fine, but the On Star lady called him while we was upside down to ask if he needed any assistance. Not sure what he said, but I can imagine....

We then left for the 280 mile drive to South Bend. We avoided the freeway through the center of Chicago, but still got stuck in awful traffic and numerous toll booths. That cost us a couple of hours.

Back at the Hotel we again used Hotel shampoo to get the bugs off. Pat, my talented navigator, got lost in the Hotel and had to go to the main desk to ask what room he was in and how to get back there. We then retired to the bar. We were restrained and quit drinking at 2:30 am while some hardy souls kept at it until 4:30.