2020 Round 2 Cresson Recap

[smitty328]

It was great to be racing again, I had a blast. Yes I chickened out on the camp fire on Sat, but as a new dad, I sure did appreciate the extra sleep.

https://youtu.be/Vr9e1MNmzJU Here's my first race. I think my second one did'nt record

[Trublu]

It was great to be racing again, I had a blast. Yes I chickened out on the camp fire on Sat, but as a new dad, I sure did appreciate the extra sleep.

https://youtu.be/Vr9e1MNmzJU Here's my first race. I think my second one did'nt record

Mark I’ll make you a manager of the AICMC YouTube channel so you can post the vids there

[Al Fernandez]

Awesome!!
Where’s the cmc story?

[BryanL]

Great writeup TruBlu! Was such a great weekend with so many things that I miss and enjoyed over the weekend.

My week started out way behind schedule as life and other cars got in the way of getting the race car ready to go. The frustrating part was putting my power steering reservoir/pump back together and having it puking fluid while running. But just like I remember the Indy 500 it was a 80 cent o ring that once a new one was put it in it was dry as a bone. It was good to see that I made my first PTFE lines and replaced an oil cooler line so not having any drips was encouraging.

Best thing about the weekend was the first time I had my son with me the whole time without Mom there ruining our fun. Heading to the track with him after school was out was a great feeling as if your like me you love the tow going to the track and the excitement. Installed the seat belts I picked up from G Speed and just enjoyed being at the track around a fire with good friends new and old. I was worried what my son would think when a large bald guy wanted to hug me but when I told him I was in his Ranchero when it was totaled he understood (not). Todd Who? Friday night around a good fire with no wind drinking medium/mild salsa from HEB doesn't get much better. Thanks to Craig for getting Dax settled on his couch so I could stay out by the fire Friday night.

Saturday morning started off early making sure the last things were in order and big thanks to Marshall Mosty for getting me the tech on my car to make practice. Thanks to Gary's wife and Patterson for getting my belts adjusted or I wouldn't have made practice. Wow do tires from 2017, 9 months not being on track, and a cold track make you shake off the cobwebs from the campfire. It's certainly different trying to check all the things on the car while your 9 year old is asking you every question in the world about what is going on and me asking why he won't put on his shoes but I wouldn't want it any other way. Practice was just that-making sure things wouldn't blow up, the driver knew which way to turn, and getting back to have some breakfast. IE I didn't care about my 1:34 as I didn't feel like there was any grip in the tires till the last lap. Things felt better in Qual and felt fine that I was within a second fo all but Jay throwing down a low 23 (stickers).

R1 start was a complete mess but ended up making it a blast for me. With the standing start aborted, going full yellow, getting the green on the second lap and Corey breaking a tie rod it allowed me the option to pass Todd Who with four in the grass and set the stage for having fun with someone who I really learned about CMC with when Todd totaled his Ranchero at TWS and I came home lying to my wife about the bruises on my chest from the seatbelts. The highlight might have been seeing Todd get it completely sideways out of Ricochet as he later said he found 1st instead of third? Anyway Liebbe flashed into my head and I held back making sure he got it under control. Felt fine with my 5th but no Toyo bucks with only 8. Big congrats to John Martin for taking down a long standing track record from Glenn who also came out sat night and was great to see.
R2-don't know that I have done a standing start on an invert but standing starts are great unless you burn the tires down. Had some great close racing and another 5th which I was fine with on who knows how many heat cycles the tires as they were from 17.

Sat night was great with an awesome steak dinner for me and Dax! Thanks to Jordan Motorsports as well for the hospitality and watching Dax while on track. Had some issues with the fire and wind but things seemed to pick up with some new CMC faces hanging out. Dax thought it was cool setting up camp in the Suburban and I did go to bed a little earlier than normal to make sure he would get a decent night of sleep. I was happy to see him the night before staying up with Craig's kids who had already conked out and saturday night I didn't care if he was still on his ipad at midnight. He is with dad at the track and if you want to eat banana pudding for breakfast then go ahead.

Sunday I looked out and seemed damp and was dark so didn't know about our 8 am warmup. I wanted to make it out as I took Gary's advice and mounted up a sweet set of RR's from 2016. I decided to rest a little more and let Dax sleep in so he could get in lots of 4 wheeler rides. Qual surprised me as I broke into the 24's but still in 5th.
R3 I think was smooth other than the Jordan's still fighting some issues. Even Dax told my wife after the race they had some bad luck-then he turned to me asking what the belt meant. He didn't understand throwing a belt but I loved all the questions he had and things he learned as later in the week he said he had a dream he won two races at Cresson and everyone was asking for his autograph. I laughed and said what class. AI!!!! Anyway I picked up some Toyo bucks in 4th and had fun staying close to the podium cars dealing with traffic at times.
R4-man I sent the video of this one to my wife later in the week to show my son. He laughed and said "oh yeah, that was when Jerry got hit and dad took it up the middle". I was being careful and let too many by on the first lap as I tried to build some heat in the tires but the second time going into big bend Josh and Jerry meet and go different directions while others exit stage right. I was hard on the brakes until I saw Josh's momentum wouldn't take him back across track so I nailed it through the middle and then had an uneventful finish to 2nd.
Several more 4 wheeler rides while packing up we headed home happy as could be having run every lap of every session without a bit of issue from the car and a bonding with my son that I wouldn't trade for a new set of RR's or Nankangs. He is just going to be bummed when I tell him ECR is for sure postponed as he was looking forward to it. But holding out for Hallett as he is intrigued by getting to ride around the track when it goes cold.

I'll see if I can get some vids together but like always the Thunder group was awesome all weekend and look forward to many more races with everyone new and old!!! I know I left things out which is why you just don't need to miss it if you can possibly make any event.

[centerville]

Great write up Brian.

[Storm Trooper]

Thats Awesome Bryan! I love having my kids at the track.

[Sook]

Late reply from me. We had a great weekend with the freshly redone CMC #50 in a late 70's period appropriate CMC theme. Excellent close racing at the front of the pack ALL weekend. So good to be able to run with folks that you can race hard and trust. Multiple passes per lap, two wide and a few three wide corners. I love standing starts 5 wide into rattle snake.

Standing start for R1 was a fiasco, with NASA not having enough physical green flags (uh, what?). The first pack got a green and we got waved around for another warm up lap (again, WHAT?!). I was able to secure the win for R3 - Cresson has been somewhat of a bad track for me. Usually running up front but not being able to secure the win. We did one last year but came in underweight. Happy to say we were 5 over this time around, woohoo!!!

The R4 invert was incredibly exciting racing! Pass here, get passed there, cars all over the place. A racing incident between Jerry and I ruined our race - luckily no real car damage. My right front to his door in big bend sent us spinning. A PDR place pulled the dent out of my freshly painted fender. Finally got the race uploaded, incident clip here: https://youtu.be/UsE7FbckUz0?t=358

For an excellent first few laps start at the beginning: https://youtu.be/UsE7FbckUz0

Too bad we won't be doing Eagles on schedule, stay healthy everyone!

- Josh