After landing a couple of 3^rd place finishes during Round 4 at a blistering hot Buttonwillow Raceway in June, we packed up the P.A. Construction Corvette and headed to Laguna Seca Raceway for some cool breeze and racing. Laguna Seca, nestled in the hills east of Monterey, has been typically home to major race series such as ALMS, Indy Car and even Formula 1 back in the day. But over the Fourth of July weekend, they opened up their doors to NASA Socal and Norcal's finest and let us go door to door around the track.

Laguna Seca's most famous corner, the Corkscrew, is tough on even the professionals.

Practice

We put ourselves on the top of the time sheets during practice, running a 1:35.2. This was all great, because we still had plenty left in the car. I felt a 1:33 could be achieved, so I put on a new set of tires for qualifying.

Qualifying

Halfway through the first qualifying lap, I could see on my Racekeeper Predicted Timer that we were on a flier, a 1:33.8. I kept pushing, but exiting the corkscrew, I caught Chuck Matthews. He held me up a little, and the predicted lap dropped down to a 1.34.5 as we pushed into the final corner. As I setup for the turn, I lost all engine power and coasted into the hot pits. With the help of some good samaritans, we popped the hood and discovered a torn coupler on the air intake had caused the engine stall. A roll of duct tape later, we were back out there. We never found room for a clean lap with multiple yellow flags and 25 cars on track, managing only a 1:36.6. However, later in tech, I was notified I passed a car under the yellow flag, which disqualified me from the session.

Duct tape and zip ties, holding race cars together for 50 years.

Race

With the DQ in qualifying, we would have to start at the back of the pack instead of on the front row next to Brinkop, Norcal's top dog. No problem, I figured I could make a good jump on the green flag.  By the end of the 1^st lap, I had moved up to 6^thout of 12 cars and ready to make more hay. My day and weekend would end though on lap 2. Exiting turn 4, I dropped my left side tires in the dirt and spun rear first into the outside concrete wall. With the car and my head shook up, I drove it off track where corner workers and emergency crew attended to me.

The podium ended up with Brinkop (Corvette) 1^st , Thordarson (Corvette) 2^nd, and Oviatt (Porsche) in 3^rd.

Ah nuts.

Car Diagnosis

The car has been dragged back into the garage, and tear down already complete. The damage was mostly contained to the rear, with the frame rails aft of the lower cradle and the fiberglass rear tub needing replacement. We hope to find a racer friendly shop to complete the frame repair.

I hope I remember where all these parts go. 

In the meantime, we were able to borrow another ST-2 Corvette for this past weekend at Auto Club Speedway. Thanks Robert Hall Racing! Stay tuned for the Rd.6 recap later this week.

Regards,

Jim Tway