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Zauskycop · 05-06-2015, 12:09 AM

A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 4

It appears that the rumors of the demise of the 370Z were greatly exaggerated...
We woke this morning to a slight tequila haze and wet weather greeting us in Pueblo, and it appeared that our rain dances worked! After munching down a quick breakfast (the quality of breakfast is directly correlated to the quality of the hotel it seems) we were on the road to Pueblo Motorsports Park, which was a mere 15 minutes away.
PMP is a multi use facility that appeared to have not only a 1/8 mile dragstrip and connected road course, but also a large amount of land that appeared to be set aside for dirt bikes and ATVs. I say appeared because we did get quite a bit of rain during the day, and no off roaders appeared.
Note, also, that I said CONNECTED dragstrip. And this is where the problems started. With all of the rain, the dragstrip itself (at least the start to finish lights) was unusable due to all of the rubber and the VHT compound. All of us found it odd that a compound that was used to give traction could be so absolutely ice like when some water was added.
Brock Yates Jr. weighed all sorts of options as to what to do with the event, and ran them by the competitors. The rain had already cancelled the Low E.T. event scheduled, and they ranged everywhere from using a pit access road instead of the dragstrip (too many close guardrails) to an autocross (no timing lights available). We settled on starting where the pit access road connects to the dragstrip, and following the road course until it finished at the drag staging area. This kept us off of the strip, and only lost 1/8 a mile or so off of the course length. It did, however, mean that these were One lap runs so it became basically a Solo 1 autocross.
We had already walked the course planning on running in the wet, so Tracy took over the driving duties for both sessions. Having a lot of Spec Miata experience in the rain, we felt that it would carry over into a solid performance in Pueblo. Once again we disconnected the rear swaybar and headed out onto the track. We both felt that the car looked good and felt it was a solid time, but no results were posted before we had to head up to the line for the second runs.
...And then the rain stopped. We were the 17th car in line and looking at a wet, but drying track. The luck of Mother Nature had reared its ugly head as we went out in wet conditions. Within 15 cars after the track had started drying (which is apparently very common in Pueblo...quick drying tracks) and the last 15 or 20 cars had a very nice drying track to work with.
We quickly packed and on the road to Texas we finally received our results. Our first run netted us a great 13th place overall finish...ahead of MANY top running cars. Unfortunately our second run, while improving our time by 2 seconds, only netted us a 19th place finish as many of the last cars were able to drastically improve their times in drying conditions. Sadly, we only finished second in class both runs, as Gas Monkey Garage and their Brenspeed 700 HP Mustang won both ends of the event and brought themselves up into the hunt for the overall lead. On the good side, the class leader finished 3rd and 4th in their two runs as everyone closed in. So now we sit 2nd in class, and 16th overall!
In one of the oddities of One Lap scoring, we are behind Jim-Bob racing in class points, but 3 spots ahead of them in overall scoring!!
It then was a long 10 hour drive to Texas, and our next destination, Motorsports Ranch - Cresson. Saw some beautiful scenery on the drive through southern Colorado, into New Mexico, and western Texas...along with some spectacular roads to drive. If you ever have time, you may want to explore these backroads!
On a side note, Jason did a wonderful job as when we were about 30 miles from our destination, and going through a right hand bend in the road, we were rather suprised to see another car coming at us IN OUR LANE!! Yikes!! Thank our racing reflexes, and our frequent driving shift changes, and Jason did a little off roading and safely brought us into our hotel for this evening.
And that, my friends, is where I leave you for the night. Please don't forget to follow us on Facebook at Team Blenderblaster for daily highlights and summaries.
...back to doing rain dances....

05-06-2015, 12:09 AM	#17 (permalink)
Zauskycop Base Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: Hinckley IL Posts: 228 Drives: 2012 370Z, '16 Miata Rep Power: 13	A Week in the Life of a One Lapper - Day 4 It appears that the rumors of the demise of the 370Z were greatly exaggerated... We woke this morning to a slight tequila haze and wet weather greeting us in Pueblo, and it appeared that our rain dances worked! After munching down a quick breakfast (the quality of breakfast is directly correlated to the quality of the hotel it seems) we were on the road to Pueblo Motorsports Park, which was a mere 15 minutes away. PMP is a multi use facility that appeared to have not only a 1/8 mile dragstrip and connected road course, but also a large amount of land that appeared to be set aside for dirt bikes and ATVs. I say appeared because we did get quite a bit of rain during the day, and no off roaders appeared. Note, also, that I said CONNECTED dragstrip. And this is where the problems started. With all of the rain, the dragstrip itself (at least the start to finish lights) was unusable due to all of the rubber and the VHT compound. All of us found it odd that a compound that was used to give traction could be so absolutely ice like when some water was added. Brock Yates Jr. weighed all sorts of options as to what to do with the event, and ran them by the competitors. The rain had already cancelled the Low E.T. event scheduled, and they ranged everywhere from using a pit access road instead of the dragstrip (too many close guardrails) to an autocross (no timing lights available). We settled on starting where the pit access road connects to the dragstrip, and following the road course until it finished at the drag staging area. This kept us off of the strip, and only lost 1/8 a mile or so off of the course length. It did, however, mean that these were One lap runs so it became basically a Solo 1 autocross. We had already walked the course planning on running in the wet, so Tracy took over the driving duties for both sessions. Having a lot of Spec Miata experience in the rain, we felt that it would carry over into a solid performance in Pueblo. Once again we disconnected the rear swaybar and headed out onto the track. We both felt that the car looked good and felt it was a solid time, but no results were posted before we had to head up to the line for the second runs. ...And then the rain stopped. We were the 17th car in line and looking at a wet, but drying track. The luck of Mother Nature had reared its ugly head as we went out in wet conditions. Within 15 cars after the track had started drying (which is apparently very common in Pueblo...quick drying tracks) and the last 15 or 20 cars had a very nice drying track to work with. We quickly packed and on the road to Texas we finally received our results. Our first run netted us a great 13th place overall finish...ahead of MANY top running cars. Unfortunately our second run, while improving our time by 2 seconds, only netted us a 19th place finish as many of the last cars were able to drastically improve their times in drying conditions. Sadly, we only finished second in class both runs, as Gas Monkey Garage and their Brenspeed 700 HP Mustang won both ends of the event and brought themselves up into the hunt for the overall lead. On the good side, the class leader finished 3rd and 4th in their two runs as everyone closed in. So now we sit 2nd in class, and 16th overall! In one of the oddities of One Lap scoring, we are behind Jim-Bob racing in class points, but 3 spots ahead of them in overall scoring!! It then was a long 10 hour drive to Texas, and our next destination, Motorsports Ranch - Cresson. Saw some beautiful scenery on the drive through southern Colorado, into New Mexico, and western Texas...along with some spectacular roads to drive. If you ever have time, you may want to explore these backroads! On a side note, Jason did a wonderful job as when we were about 30 miles from our destination, and going through a right hand bend in the road, we were rather suprised to see another car coming at us IN OUR LANE!! Yikes!! Thank our racing reflexes, and our frequent driving shift changes, and Jason did a little off roading and safely brought us into our hotel for this evening. And that, my friends, is where I leave you for the night. Please don't forget to follow us on Facebook at Team Blenderblaster for daily highlights and summaries. ...back to doing rain dances....