Cannot believe it is 2026!
It has been a crazy year to start and is still is crazy.
First Race
Our first race was May 16-17 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Justin had his engine rebuilt and we put it back in 2 weeks before the race.
He did very well with 2 wins and a 2nd.
I was running the engine from last year and on old tires. But I ran into brake issues the first day and had to rebuild the front brakes overnight. I still managed a 6th, 4th and a 5th (I run in a different class than Justin)
Both cars were in one piece and went back in the trailer and I was hoping for a easy turn around for Lime Rock.
PS - We were the last group - by the time we got out of the track it was after 6, got home around 11, and had to be up at 6 to go work at Lime Rock. Who scheduled me? Oh - I did. 😒
Prep for Lime Rock:
Next up was Lime Rock on June 12-13. Almost a whole month. This should be easy. Worked on my car and Justin brought his over about 12 days before. A quick checklist and an alignment and we will be good to go - right? Well his car was running hot at New Hampshire, so I was working on some cooling mods when my hand brushed up against a nut and it turned. It was not supposed to......
Called the engine builder and he said not to run it. So we are a little over a week before the race, what to do? Well I did have a spare engine that was destined for another car. The decision was made to put in Justin's car. So one engine out and one engine in 5 days before the race.
So with the new engine in and a modified cooling system, and me getting new tires, we were off to Lime Rock.
Now we were Group 1 this time. I hate Group 1. Because of noise regulations we cannot run engines and drive cars around before a certain time - 10 minutes before practice. But I had a work around - a muffler. So I attached the muffler and sent Justin around the paddock just to make sure everything was working. 2 minutes later I get a phone call - the car dies and will not restart. Running over with tools and a new fuel pump, it turns out the needle and seat were stuck - shut. Back to our pits, we put the car back together and make the grid for practice with minutes to spare. But the story gets better.
Justin takes off and I am breaking in my tires. After about 5 laps I start picking up the pace. Coming through West Bend, the car loses all power and I shut it off and coast into the pits and all the way to the impound area, where an official tells me Justin came in on lap 3... (I will upload the video someday)
I get back to my pit area and Justin says we lost a new oil cooler. So now we have 2 broken race cars. I have a spare cooler for him, so we let his car cool off. I get lucky and pull off one valve cover and find a broken push rod. Talk to the engine builder and he suggests just replacing it and see what happens. Luckily, he had not picked up Justin's original engine, so parts were stolen form that.
One oil cooler later, both cars were ready for race one. The race started with both of us way in the back. We were helped by a crash that brough out a full course caution. This allowed both of us to catch up to the drivers in front. In the end, Justin made it up to 2nd and I got 5th in our respective classes.
A quick alignment in the pouring rain that evening and both cars were set for Saturday (Lime Rock cannot race on Sunday)
The 2nd race also had its incidents, and when the dust settled, Justin won by 9 thousandths of a second, and I took home a okay 7th. Oh - did I mention that I had a problem with one of my new tires and was now running a 2 year old tire....
All hopes where on for a good final race. It started off well with Justin leading his class and me running competitively until...the race was stopped for another crash. This time it was red flagged and we really had to stop. When we got going, the scoring went back a lap and this put Justin behind some cars in the other class - this is important. When the race restarted, one of those cars spun in front of Justin and he had no where to go, He hit him in the left front which straightened the other car out and he continued, while Justin spun off the track.
By the time he got going again, he was way behind. Even with a broken nose he fought his way back to 3rd in class.
Me? I got held up missing spinning cars and was just out for a long boring race when I saw I was catching the car in front of me. Up for a challenge I kept going faster until on the last lap I was almost up to him. I figured my best chance was to draft by at the finish line. Well almost. He drove his best lap and I just missed by 62 thousandths of a second. Later I found we were fighting for 3rd! He got the medal, I got close.
So the next race is back at New Hampshire. And guess what? I have Justin's engine back and he wants it back in his car! Here we go again!
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