So I guess this will just be a continuation of the last post.  I am now flying back to Denver from Loudon.  And the pattern continues.  Again, the plus side, is that we were a lot better this weekend than we were last year in Loudon.  Or at least, we got there.  We were good in Q trim, chased our tail a bit in race practice (a bad set of tires didn’t help), and we were really good today.  It felt good to lead some laps at a track that wasn’t 1.5 miles long, that definitely feels like growth/improvement for us.

Unfortunately, something in the transmission broke with about 40 laps to go, and we were stuck in 4th gear for the rest of the race.  And that wouldn’t have been terrible, we could almost have scored a top 5 from there, which I would have been happy with.  Except the end of Loudon races tend to get messy, and this one was no exception.  Every restart we would get passed by 10 cars, and fight back from there.  We ended up 16th, with at worst, the 2nd best car.  So a lot like Kentucky.  Ah well.

My parents and the Faulkners came down for the weekend which was fun.  We found a couple of good spots to eat in and around Concord (Kan-KUD I believe), which seems to be a nicer area every time I visit.

And that’s about it really.  This is a fairly uneventful week, other than the Brickyard being at the end.  This is one that we as a group really want, perhaps most of all.  You can bet we are going to give it everything that we’ve got.

I saw Brian Fallon play in Denver a couple of weeks ago (I know some of you saw him play in London).  Ever since, I have been unable to get Honey Magnolia out of my head.  In an attempt to remedy this, I’m going to try and get it stuck in yours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yEx272Vn90

So where are we.  It’s been a few weeks since I wrote anything.  I’ve been alternately busy and frustrated since then.

Sonoma went really well, which was very encouraging, since that was one of our worst tracks last year.  We had a shot at the pole, and a shot at the win, which I guess is all you can ask for.  I would have really liked that one.  And it was just a good weekend overall, good restaurants and lots to do out there, including a night in San Francisco.

Daytona was pretty much what it always is.  It’s a fun weekend, we stay right on the beach, and the garage hours are pretty short.  Plus we had a day of deep sea fishing in honor of one of our long term road mechanics last Daytona weekend.  And the race went the way they often do, we got stuck unable to move in a pack, and got caught up in the inevitable accident start by the 1.  See pretty much every July Daytona race of the last 10 years, there’s definitely a pattern.

Last weekend was Kentucky, and that was another track we weren’t very good at last year.  Qualifying was rained out so we started 7th by owner points, but we were a top 5 car all through practice and thought we’d be good in the race.  And we were, it was us and the 4 the first half of the race, and then we were more or less in a class of our own the second half.  Unfortunately, we were given a pit road penalty based on an apparent rule that we can’t find in the rule book.  So long story short (and I really don’t want to get into it now, I’ve been a part of way too many discussion about it this week) we ended up 10th with the best car.  That also, unfortunately, seems to be a pattern.

I spent most of the last 3 days in Indianapolis testing.  Testing is boring and stressful, but I do really enjoy being at that track.  It’s so historic.  Plus we go for dinner at St. Elmo, which is a steakhouse downtown, and one of the best places I have ever eaten.

And now, onto Loudon.  This isn’t a great track for us, I personally will be happy with a solid top 10.  But I’ve felt that way a few times this year, and we’ve been better than that, so fingers crossed for the best…