Thanks guys.
The main on Sunday was in the rain, we only had one set of rain tires between the three cars and decided we would run slicks on all three and go out on our shields together. Ryan and I started 1 & 2 and my dad started in the rear after an incident in a previous race with another car.
We ran first and second for a lap and then the rain tire guys started to make their way up to Ryan and I. By the third lap we were in 2nd and 3rd and the rain tires were starting to pull away. My dad, the rain dancer, caught me on lap 4 and I pointed him by, he then caught Ryan on the following lap and was again pointed by, we know the old man is good in the rain.
I got split by some BMWs on rain tires and I began to fall back. Ryan started picking up my dad's rain racing line and they both started to reel the leader who is on rain tires in. It took a few laps but my dad got to the lead, where he stayed until he got a punctured RR tire. I was relegated to fourth, Ryan had now passed the leader after my dad's flat tire.
I passed my dad with his flat and went up to the corkscrew following a BMW, missed the line a touch and went over the right side curb. While it is paved on the right side of the curb, there is a large "sausage" curb right in the middle of the curbing area. The car bottomed out on the "sausage" curb and broke the RR shock off the car. Punted the rear in the air, spun the car around and into the mud. Ok, no big deal, engine is still running and I hadn't lost any spots, still in third. Start to pull away, clunk clunk clunk! Shit, I got a flat. I pull into the pits with my dad pulling in right behind me. His tire is off the bead and completely flat, my RR still has air, "What the hell?" That's when I looked underneath and discovered the broken shock.
The pit reporter is reporting back to us Ryan still has the lead. It has now stopped raining and the track is beginning to dry out. Ryan is pulling away, sets the fast time by 5 seconds on the last lap, and wins the national championship.
Several competitors gave up mid race as we don't race in the rain often. This just Ryan, my dad, two others, and I on the track. Because the others gave up so early my dad and I would finish 4th and 5th on slicks, Ryan won on slicks and 2nd and 3rd were on rain tires. After a post race inspection lead to the disqualification of the second place car for an illegal rear end gear, we have to run a spool or welded spider gears, his were no longer welded; allowing him an open differential and better handling in the rain. This moved us up to 3rd and 4th. Not too shabby for racing in the rain on slicks.
In the dry Ryan and I had the field covered by 2 seconds a lap and we had some good racing all weekend. For basically the first time back in a race car since 2011 Dad put on a hell of a show as well, gapping the field by a second a lap and putting on an absolute clinic in the rain.
Here is Saturdays Qualifying race in the dry. My rain video is crap as the camera lens has drops on it the entire time. While we live close to Monterey I have never driven this track as it is almost twice as expensive to run here than our regular tracks. My dad has also not ran this track since it was reconfigured from the old Formula 1 track in the 80s. So between learning the track and fighting the miss in this video (sounds like missing shifts but I'm not, I swear) I think we did very well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QSjuqbb9nk&t=1s
