We arrive and earn they are not only running it in reverse, but the press box has been made about 6 times bigger. I take the first opportunity to watch practice until the massive line calms down since there were 5 hours of solid practice time. Not even 30 minutes in, 2 huge wrecks into the new press box wall. No one was able to run a good line around the course. This make the judges feel the course was not exciting and they change back to the normal layout CFRC runs. The main problem now is this nice big press box, now creates a blind first turn. Practice finally resumes on the new layout and I again watch, trying to see what problems others have. After another hit, now into the outside retaining wall, I start to walk to the pits and get in staging. Before I even get to the car, it begins to downpour.
The gnarly clouds dumped a few inches in less than 30 minutes and then the rain finally slows up. I get in staging and on the line, still sprinkling, I take off. Some real bad traction issues on this soaked surface, and mid-drift we are moving only maybe 10-20mph with 90mph wheel speed! You can’t get ANY speed in the corners and the entry will eat your car if you go in with any decent speed on the ice rink. After the 2nd run in, the rain starts getting worse again and my windshield is so fogged up, I can’t even see if someone is in line in front of me. I had to park it without the ability to defrost. Shortly after, the day was called and no more practice. Almost 5 hours of practice, dwindled into 2 ice racing runs. We would be back in the A.M.
Morning showed promise of a good day for weather, and we got to practice early. A few more cars were getting bit by the wall, and on the puddled course I managed a few good runs. Next run, all of a sudden cones were pushed out, and right in my path. Figured they were just hit by another driver, I learned later they changed the course shape without telling us, thanks!! Once dried up, we had a few great runs and were feeling confident going into the qualifying round.
In staging, I did a normal warmup burnout, and then went to turn the corner to the staging area. Car plows into the grass. Somehow, my tie rod snapped in line, but not on the last 75mph entry I did. Though very lucky it didn’t happen on track, we had to fix the car right there in line. I ran in my firesuit to the pits, drove the truck back, and we put a spare on right there, with no real alignment chance. Pulled up to the line, and got ready to test the new tie rod hahahaha.
You can’t see others runs so I was going to just drive like practice. I overheard someone mention they wanted us more outside by judges stand. This was odd because in the drivers meeting that corner had “no clipping point”, not inside or outside. Then I remembered they did move the cones out there… So I went for it. So as I tried to force the car out there, I had a correction and that in turn cost me some speed so I didn’t hit the outside clip after that section. Well it turns out they wanted us outside as in “not riding the cones” but not outside “on the wall”. So my practice lines were just what they wanted (I didn’t learn this until after qualifying).
My 2nd qualifying run I was on a mission, WAY out at the first wall, then I tried to get outside again by the judges, and the car went into a heavy understeer, I tried to do a quick recovery but ended up looping it. I watched the final qualifying runs and felt pretty confident with my first run, thought it was a tad off, I connected it. Someone else with a straight section got a mid-50 score.
Qualifying order placed me 27 of 33, only one person below me didn’t get 0-0. WHAT?! WHAT?! Really? I asked Chris Forsberg (an XDC judge) about the car I saw straighten fully, and he said “Well, he had big angle in other places…” I don’t agree with that explanation, and realize that my run wasn't perfect, and possibly not top16, but I was seriously next to last place? I continued to watch the comp, rooting for friends. There was a few more calls I was unsure of as I watched the battles.
I’m not sure if its typical XDC style or we just got a bad taste, but it didn’t feel like a Pro/Proam type of event. I am disappointed in my runs to an extent; I cant blame myself for being unsure of the judges wants. However, at the end of the event, there were 10 hits into the wall (pics below), with more than half of those being total rebuild scenarios. Just keeping the car healthy was a win it seems.
Next we will be throwing down with FormulaD again while they have the first Florida event in series history!
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