Day 4: Getting Lucky with Lady Luck

Getting to know a road course takes study, practice, and hours of track time. The challenge that 1 Lap presents is that it allows just one reconnaissance lap, followed by 3 hot laps; hardly enough to learn much of anything. Driving an unknown track, then, can be likened to picking lottery numbers..........there may be method to the madness, but in all reality, it's simple luck and guesswork that gets you the pot of gold.

Simple luck and guesswork, if you don't have hair on the bottoms of your feet that is. Sebastian smoked the morning session by again catching the car in front of him. This time, the victim was a massively powerful supercharged Ford SVT Lighting that I'm guessing was putting out 500+ hp. Regardless, Little Skittle piloted by Big Polak ripped through the course for a 34th place finish. Enough to catapult us to the next faster running group for the afternoon session. As pleased as I was with his result, it eased my nerves little for my upcoming run.

The period from morning session to afternoon was interesting in that I had too much time to contemplate all the track days and training that I've participated in the last year and little of it was going to matter for the 10 or so minutes I'd be thrown on the track. Going with the next faster grouping didn't help my confidence any, but the one solace was that I was the last of the 6 car group to get on the track; meaning I wouldn't be passed and would have a rabbit to chase. The green flag dropped and picking early apex or late, it seemed to matter little as I tossed Little Skittle from one end of the track to the next. I recall little of reality during my driving stint as my mind's focus and physical vision were so myopic that all I could concentrate on was the 20ft patch of tarmac immediately in front of the car. Wrestling the steering wheel was tough considering I have the upper body strength similar to that of a pre-adolescent girl, but at session's end the clock somehow showed an astonishingly quick time! 30th for the session, which brought our standing to 40th for the event. We're creeping closer to our goal and we have another week of competition to sort it all out.

It's 10:30pm and I've managed to retain my sanity for yet another day of Sebastian's incessant ramblings. Tomorrow has us at Hallet Raceway in Oklahoma where I'm hoping we can motorboat Lady Luck's implanted double D's just one more time.