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Although this weekend is usually reserved for Indy 500 action, Gina and I camped out at Grattan Raceway and crewed for Glenn (my father-in-law). It was a successful as well as educational weekend. A few pictures are in this gallery. I’ve never visited another road course before. Grattan is larger than our home course and has a long (130 mph) front straight. In the second race of the weekend, Glenn finished 4th among a field of experienced drivers despite some of their best efforts to bounce him off the track. (Another driver rear-ended Glenn 3 times, eventually causing the tail-section of his car to fly off… and take the offending driver out of the race. Karma’s a bitch, but nobody was hurt.)

Monday I competed in an Autocross at the Silverdome. The course was laid out to resemble Indy… and was full of things to remember. So far, it was the longest solo course I’ve driven. The weather conditions varied wildly throughout the day. Driving in we had heavy rain, the coursewalk was overcast with light rain, the first heat was still very wet with puddles, but there was very little rain, the second heat was treated to a torrential downpour that ended halfway through the heat. The third heat had beautiful sunny skies and very dry pavement. [ Event Results ]

I was in the first heat. Not the best conditions, but with some tire pressure adjustment, I’ve been able to predictable rotate my car (nice oversteer). I finished in the top 10 (unofficially). I worked the 3rd heat. (race 1, work 1) Although our race heat only lasted about an hour and a half, our work heat was over 3 hours long. Sounds like somebody should work on their math skills.

Gina and I enjoy racing, but are looking forward to a break from cars… until I install by front brakes an uppipe. 😉