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Duryea 2012 After Action Report

8/19/2012

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After a close battle at the end of Saturday, I tore off a new fast time on Sunday's second run.  Jason kept the gap close, still only about 0.4 seconds behind.  My third run was 0.2 seconds slower because I had trouble keeping the tail in line.  Jason continued to close the gap, ending his third run at only 0.143 seconds behind!  With the last run of the day, I was going to go all out.

As I went up the hill, at the last instant I decided to swing wide going into turn 3, rather than hug the inside like I had been doing all weekend.  This threw me off a bit and I got on the gas too early.  The tail stepped out a bit, but I caught it.  Rather than give up, this helped me focus on putting together a clean run the rest of the way up the hill.  I figured all was not lost with this minor delay.  I went flat through turn 5 and carried my speed very well.  The tires started to chirp and the car began dancing.  Great, I was at the limit, but didn't run out of room on turn 5's exit onto the mountain "straight."  Screaming down the straight, I tapped the brakes and got back on the gas turn turn 6, also known as 'oh shit.'  I was flying into the braking zone for turn 7, got the car slowed down, and managed a snappy 4th-2nd downshift.  So far so good.  I ripped through 7, 8, and 9, and hit 10 (the Pagoda) fairly well.  I kept my foot flat over the kicker into turn 11, and the tires were chirping again as I COOKED through 11.  The car held on and I kept it flat through the final uphill straight.  I tried to straighten out the lines as much as possible to cut off any unnecessary distance.  In doing so, I hit a big dip next to the timing relay tower.  As I screamed through the finish, I began shutting down.  It was only then that I noticed an unusual noise.  Hmm ....

Checked the brakes, no problems there ... steering is good, the car isn't that noisy.  Any louder than usual, that is!  Still shutting down, I check the oil pressure & temp.  Everything is good.  Hmm.  If the exhaust was dragging, wouldn't it make more noise?  Ignorance is bliss!  I drive down to the turnaround, still making noise.  I bring it back and get a look from the other drivers when I get to the grid at the top.  "I know!" I shout.  Jump out and look underneath.  Sure enough, I'm dragging my muffler, but it's still attached!  Thanks to some leather gloves, I hook the muffler back onto the exhaust donut.  Looks like when I hit that dip, the muffler jumped out of the donut!  Wow!  


When I finally get to the bottom at the end of my group, I heard the good news about my time.  Surprising how much faster I was.  I'm now less than 2 seconds behind the class record, set in 2000!   I picked up 7 seconds over last year.  Not too shabby!  Amazing what a new set of tires and a chip will do!  Practice doesn't hurt either.  I think the car has the final 2 seconds in it, I just need to drive it better.  Jason and I are now 2 and 2 in every event we've gone head to head.  Both Fall Jefferson and Fall Weatherly should prove interesting.  I'm optimistic because I only lost by 0.110 at Spring Weatherly and didn't yet have new tires and a chip.  Jefferson should also go well because the car is in its element on flat tracks.  I can't wait!  I expect both records to fall with a crash!


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