Chacho asked us to start first so we were assured some open highway ahead of us. It felt pretty nice having the pole position, but with Doug Mockett and Angelica Fuentes in our rear view mirror, we felt a little pressure not to mess things up in front of the pros. In our first transit of the race, we quickly fell into a comfortable 100mph for most of the way to the first stage. We didn't "need" to drive this fast to arrive in our 59 second window, but when the cops are there waving you on, it's tough not to go for it. Federalis, we hug you.
The first stage was 40 kilometers. So much for shaking the cobwebs off on a short jaunt. (We weren't as scared as this picture makes us look - the sun was bright...)
We started the race pushing about as bad as I can possibly imagine, and were a little worried our "shaking stuff in the engine compartment" mechanical prep. should have been expanded to shaking some of the suspension bits. Once the tires warmed up, however, it didn't seem possible to take a corner too fast. Hint to our future competitors in an STI or EVO: don't bother doing any suspension work or adding a wide-body kit so you can stuff giant rubber under the fenders. Total waste of time. Trust us.
After the organizers repeatedly warned everyone during the driver's meeting to take it easy the first stage and the entire first day since that is when most of the crashes occur, we thought it might be a good idea not to take it easy. They say endurance races can't be won on the first day. While technically true, you can sure lay down a nice lead on people the first day. We had a solid first stage and beat second place by two minutes. Those minutes would come in quite handy the second day when we were assessed a whopping five minute penalty for inadvertently breaking just about every rule you can think of. More on that later....
We wanted to meet Denise at the service (lunch stop) in Madera but could not find her. We learned later she was on one of her many racing adventures that had very little to do with racing, and a lot to do with keeping another car up and running. Carlos and his son Carlos, who were not in the race but drove a nice red M5, showed us the way to a hamburger stand they said was good. After the cashier attempted to fleece us (Cuidado, MF!), we had fantastic hamburgers for lunch.
The rest of the day was smooth and I have a video somewhere around here to prove it. Coming soon...
We returned to the Westin Soberano, took a shower, and attended the first award ceremony where Chacho would present a first in class and first overall medal to what he began referring to as "a certain black Japanese sedan."
1 comment:
Sweet Jesus! Look at the front of that car. There must be 15 pounds of bugs. Did you miss any?
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