NASA events were too far apart, which is why I decided to run a few SCCA regional events in the downtime. Besides... SCCA Spec Miata is tamer than NASA Spec Miata (because NASA combines Spec Miatas and E30s).
Chris decided to come with me, and this was his first SCCA event. We decided to share paddock space with my mechanic and some of his clients - (I'll call her) "Julie", Josh and Kevin (Kevin was new - Julie and Josh I had run with last year). This made the downtime between track times quite the communal gathering.
Warmup and qual on Friday was uneventful, other than I set my best lap time ever during the second warmup (1:52 - front video & cockpit video). Chris qual'ed significantly behind me, so we started the race quite apart. Last year, I was significantly behind Julie and Josh, but this year I qual'ed ahead of both of them (a good sign, IMO). Despite that, in the SM race, another car and Josh were behind me, and the first car pushed me wide in a turn (which slowed me down) and Josh took advantage of that to pass me. CRAP!
Next in line was Julie. As I climbed the Rahal Straight, she was gaining on me. Her first attempt to pass was in the entry to the corkscrew. It didn't go well. Her coach told her to pass me between the corkscrew and T9, but she didn't really have the opportunity. Then, much to my surprise, she decided to do an inside pass on T10. I wouldn't have opted for this, personally, but hey... whatever works... That said, I'm not giving it away so she's going to have to work for it. It doesn't end well for her. (video) Julie tried to battle back, and by the last lap, she was right behind me again, but I held on and took the checkered flag ahead of her.
I come in 25th out of 37 (13th out of 18 in class) and Chris comes in 28th (15th out of 18 in class).
Next up is the Group 5 race, which is a very mixed group. I'm running STL (Super Touring Lite), but it also includes Spec Mustang (which are really fast). At one point, I end up chasing a brown Miata, looking for an opportunity to pass. For about 1/2 a lap, I don't see any opportunities, and then he decides to give me some help. Sometimes, you just hang back and wait for the other guy to make a mistake. (video)
This race I came in 30th out of 46 (2nd in class).
In the same race, Julie's car went off and hit the wall. I didn't see it, but I took pictures. Fortunately, it was the left side of the car, since they had just rebuilt the right side of the car after a crash in March.
The damage wasn't too bad so our mechanic took it back to his shop to fix and align it. It was back in the paddock by 10:30PM.
The next day, SM was up first. There were a lot of cars going off, so the safety crew spent a lot of time on the track. This means double yellow flags, which means no passing. Now, usually when you approach the safety crew, they point you by, but as I came up on them on the back straight, they made it clear that I was to slow down and follow them. (video) There isn't a much better way to kill a lap and let everyone else in front get farther ahead than being stuck behind the safety crew. Ah, well... they save our a** when needed so I guess I can cut them some slack.
After a few laps, we finally had a restart, which led to an immediate crash in T11, including Chris - though his damage was minor. The restart didn't last more than 1/2 lap before the double yellow flags came out again. As we all were approaching T11 (under double yellow), the guy behind Chris apparently wasn't paying attention, and he ended up going into the dirt and taking out one of the braking markers. After we pass the start/finish, we see the wreck that caused the double yellow. The car doesn't show up in the video, but the pictures pretty much tell the story.
You can see how much the engine was pushed up in the crash, as well as how much of the front of the car was crushed.
They let us run for a couple of laps under double yellow, and then dropped the checkered flag to being everyone in while they dealt with the wreck. I'm told that the driver was taken away in an ambulance. Normally, our safety equipment protects us, but the roll cage in his car was built to a former standard and grandfathered. Unfortunately, the way they built cages back then, it allows much more compaction of the front of the car than current standards. It was the first crash I had seen where the driver didn't escape essentially unscathed.
I finished 24th out of 36 overall, and 14th out of 19 in my class. Chris finished 21st (14th in class).
Next up was STL (among about 10 other classes for a very mixed group). There were less issues than the SM group, but we did have an interesting 3 car pileup coming out of T4 (video). Julie was part of it, but initially her car seemed OK, so she continued the race. But, her car would no longer track straight (indicative of a problem) so she pulled off on the back straight, electing not to take a broken car down the corkscrew. Here are some pics of the right side of her car (yup! the side that had just been rebuilt from before).
You can't see it in the picture but the front of the rear wheel is tilted out, not straight - which is why the car was handling funny as she drove away from the crash.
But, I garnered a second place finish in my class, and 24th overall (out of 38 starts).
And, then we packed up and headed home.