Pocono or bust
The Tri Region SCCA National at Pocono was an experience. One of our trailer axles broke on the way down. After unsuccessfully trying a field repair in the parking lot of a Tractor Supply store, we limped into Pocono late Friday night.
My first time at Pocono in 30 years. On track, the car was running great and I'm getting the feel of the new radial slicks.
The race was strange. I started behind the similar Scirocco of Johannes Krause. On the first lap he got mixed up with an EP Miata on the wall right where you get on the tri-oval, but kept going. When the pack got to the chicane, a RX7 clipped one of the styrofoam blocks knocking it on track with a bunch of dirt. I didn't see what had happened and when I got into the chicane I just slid out and broadsided the styrofoam block putting a huge dent into my door. Who knew that styrofoam could do so much damage?
The car seemed OK but I pulled into the pits and some officials had a look at it and said that the wheels looked OK so I went back out. Johannes had stopped for a check too and was at the tail end of the pack, now behind the pace car.
On the restart I stuck with Johannes. I could close on him under braking into turn one and through turn two. We were pretty even through the infield but as soon as we turned back onto the tri-oval he would get away from me. I think that power-wise we were close, but he had a slightly taller FD and a taller second that helped him a lot getting on to the tri-oval.
I passed him once for the lead going into turn one but he got it back on the speedway part of the track. I tried everything to catch him. I followed him on the high part of the banked turns, I tried to cut NASCAR One as straight as possible and ran it up close to the wall but could just not beat his better gearing. We were within car lengths at the end.
So I have a bunch of work to do fixing all of the Pocono damage to the front fender and door as well a replacing the axles on the trailer. We ended up ratcheting the broken axle up and driving home safely on two wheels.
Who knew a styrofoam block could do so much damage? With the broken axel from Pocono.