Sebring - ugh, again...

Well...

Where to start. 1250 mile tow, 7 vacation days burned, $$$ spent that I don't want to dwell on to do this thing.

The track - holy crap turn 17 has some bumps. You thought ECR had bumps, this is magnitudes greater than anything out at ECR.

Thursday practice - learned the track, nothing stupid, no drama, car did fine.

Friday - set pole time and won qualifying race 1. Almost got cleaned out by Wes Dearing losing his brakes in Turn 3. He hit the wall hard, but is ok. Video later.

Saturday - qualified third with no clear lap, got into lead during the race. Got hit in Turn 7 which took out my door and rocker, and knocked out my ABS. Struggled with that plus a new issue of not being able to get the trans into 3rd gear, and salvaged a 3rd place, reset the computer on the cool down lap by cycling the key. Wish I would have remembered that during the race, but it's been about 10 years since that happened. The results plus lap time gave me the pole for the champ race.

Saturday night - repaired car damage, and worried about the trans.

Sunday - Lead the first few laps, was having a great race with Bruce, then the trans started acting up. About the same time, the diff or axle broke going into Turn 7. It made the car basically undriveable. I limped it around for a lap and dropped to 5th. We had a red flag for Billy backing his car into a wall and catching fire. He is fine. There was no point in continuing with a broken car, so i retired it.

Grats to Bruce, Dennis, and Pat on the podium. All local guys, and great to drink beer with. They'd fit right in with us in TX. They made some great ribs on Saturday night also. Hopefully about 5 or 6 of them will come up for next year.

Thanks for those that followed live, and the condolences via text. Nice to have y'all supporting, and I was happy to represent the group.

Yeah, I'm disappointed. Another Champ race, another major mechanical. Just how shit works sometimes.

Tearing into the car on Saturday to find out what broke. Then a manufacturer will get a call...(2 events on diff, 6 events on axles).

COTA next year. I'll give it another try. That may be my last attempt.

MP

You did great out there! I was watching all the races and you were holding your own against all those Mustangs!

The announcers noted a few cars went into the pits after the red flag during the championship race, I thought maybe something on your car didn't like the sudden increase in heat due to coming to a complete stop.

That sux Mike... better luck next time at COTA.

I'm sorry to hear about the outcome Mike. Marshall and I were talking while following the race on Racehero and it looked like the top 5 cars had an awesome battle going!!
Looking forward to seeing some video from the races and hearing some stories.

Bummed to hear it Mike. Small consolation knowing you were up front and if not for the mechanical you had a great chance to finish there.

Talk about the worst luck over and over at Nats. Would love to hear more about all of it but awesome winning qually races, being on pole, and leading the race before a mechanical but I'm sure its terribly frustrating. Still impressive that the Camaro was up there with all the stangs. Yeah without a big haul you have to do COTA next year.

Do you know if Billy's car had a fuel cell or factory tank?

Thanks for representing Texas so well!