The thread of discussing my stupid cars and how I waste my

[sharkythesharkdogg]

Thread necroooooo!!!!!

So, believe it or not, I have still been racing. Not a whole ton, but a fair amount.

I'll give you guys a team Dread Nought Racing update.

My friend Nate bought our 93 Spec Miata a few years back, and he's been running some hillclimbs for the team (and for fun!). Typically for the event someone pays a rental fee and shares the car for the weekend with Nate. The co-driver basically.

Nate got first place in SM (spec Miata) at the first hillclimb, and his co-driver got third or fourth.

He got second place the next hillclimb event.

Then this happened with Nate's co-driver at the next event.

So we rebuilt #93 and sent Nate out to the next hillclimb. Unfortunately, it seems like the previous impact caused some internal damage to the car's differential. We inspected the pieces during the repair process, but the cracks were so small we must have missed them. So the vehicle's differential disintegrated. Nate drove back, dropped off the 93 car, and loaded up my ITA #3. He managed to get 3rd place in an unfamiliar car in the rain with no rain tires. He did well.

As for me, the only event I've really had a chance to run was a race weekend at the end of August at Barber Motorsports Park.

I went faster there this time then I did when I was there a few years back by about 3-3.5 seconds. I only managed to get 3rd place out of 4 or 5 cars in my class for both races, so not a stellar result, but I'm pleased with the fact that I went faster than last time. Hopefully if we get more experience with the track I'll get up to speed. I need to gain another 3 seconds to get competitive with the track record for my class, and the only way is practice. After that, we packed up my car and went home. (SPOILER)

The happiest point of the season (it's been pretty limited racing for us), is my father's recent results and the ARRC. He's been struggling with getting his car up to speed and working properly for a few years now. It was always one issue after another. This year we planned to go to Road Atlanta for some test days, and if things went smoothly he would go ahead an run in the race to get some competition hours. There were a few snags during testing (a starter switch burned up, the transponder wasn't communicating during a qualifying session, and the car struggled to crank during temperatures close to freezing), but over all the car responded well to the testing. Over the course of practice and qualifying both driver and car began to find a decent amount of speed. So he qualified third for the race.

During the race, with the car working more reliably, dad was able to find even more speed and eventually ran down first place in his class. He passed him, and proceeded to pull out enough of a lead to take first place. Considering the we started off the even focused on testing and tuning, we were very pleased with the results. Hopefully with more time and development the car and driver will really begin to find speed. The third place finisher had something pressing to take car of, and couldn't make it to the podium, but here's some pictures.

(SPOILER)