I woke up of the morning crew of Jeff and Kris double checking all the bolts, adjusting the valves, and tidying up the details.
The motorhome awning kept most of the car out of the rain.
Our pit.
Poor sleep-deprived Jeff tires to revive himself with a bagel before the day's racing begins.
Of course this thing is a full-on racecar, check the diffuser!
Endurance-racing-sized fuel cell and rear bracing.
Front bracing...roll cage plus!
Engine bay complete and swapped.
Simple lightweight HVAC drew a lot of attention in the pits. I guess some teams didn't consider cold/rain. Note the simple and accessible wiring and fuse block.
Last minute details.
Thanks to Chassis Works for alignment help!
Ready to line up in grid and it isn't really any warmer out.
Team Size Matters lines up ahead of Team Free-M-W.
Cars lining up.
Our crap-tacular car stands out from the other crap thanks to our oversize rear wing.
Last-minute check. We didn't have a radio, so communication with the driver was tricky and sparse.
The race starts under yellow.
We were in 47th place when the random green flag dropped.
View of the front straight from our pit. This was my main perspective for most of the weekend.
Lineup on the pit wall...early on the first day.
You can't see it here, but this tire was steaming a lot. We got a full day out of the tires, but pulled the wheels here because we were doing another differential swap! GAH! And we were running as high as 6th place before the ring and pinion whine got bad.
Frantic diff-swap action!
A half-hour later, we were back out on track, somewhere in the high 50's or low 60's in terms of position. At least the infamous Dirty Drifters tiki bar lends a cheery touch.
Our car blasts back out on track after a refueling stop.
Night falls and we just kept working our way up the field. Darren was covering our team at the event and came down to film some action from the pit area.
Where is he? We needed some distinctive external LEDs or something for nighttime ID on track.
Red flag for track cleanup after an accident. We are behind the camo Ford Taurus SHOe.
All of us not in the car took advantage of the red flag to grill up some burgers. Jeff and Blake chow down.
Quick DD confab around the Corolla. Note the Motoring J Style Isuzu in the foreground.
Kris and Jeff's dad was kind enough to grill us burgers.
Darren was mostly running around or filming from different vantage points, but he did stick around for a bite.
Nighttime refuel/driver change.
Frantic activity...send him back out there!
Joel drove the tough last stint into the night. Cold, dark, fog, red flags, and an off-track excursion!
Racing is done for the first day.
We survived, but Blake points out some light damage.
Joel stuck to our roots! Once a rallycrosser, always a rallycrosser, right?