Thursday we drove the long 9-10 hours in our new car hauler from Ohio TO Virginia for the Nasa Event at Virginia International Raceway. Thursday was load in day, tech and setup so nothing too exciting.
Friday was practice day and that is where all the fun began. We took the white Miata out, made it around 3 laps and the transmission went out. So we luckily had the blue car as a backup car, so I used that one the rest of the day while my dad fixed the white Miata. Big thanks to the Scott/ Spencer Conrad for allowing me to use their spare transmission, without them I wouldn't have made it back out on track.
Saturday had qualifying and 1 race. The weather was perfect, the white car was fixed after we put a new transmission in it. I didn't qualify the greatest so I was in the back of the pack and about 4-5 seconds off. By the end of the race I was only about 3-4 seconds off the pack, so I knew I had a lot of work to do. The car just didn't feel right the entire time, but I couldn't really explain it to where my dad could understand what was wrong. It just didn't seem to handle properly and go where I needed it to go. We got the car dynoed and it was fine, so I knew it had to be me or the car itself.
Sunday we wake up and it starts storming like crazy for a good 2-3 hours in the morning. Racing got delayed and we didn't get a qualifying, so we lined up per our lap times, which again mine were not the greatest. We went out on the track for our race, rain dried up and we were on slicks. I started 13th place and fell a little behind but with a caution for a few laps I was able to catch back up. After the caution flag and we went green I still noticed something wasn't right. The car just wasn't again handling like it should, but I stayed on track and finished out the race in 9th.
My dad and I looked over the car when we got back and found out the sway bar was broken which was causing my car to behave the way it was. We will get it fixed and move on to our next race.
I learned a lot, got some great advice from my karting buddy Nathan Nicholson, got to see some other karting friends Ben Maier and Spencer Conrad and look forward to more Miata racing, so that I can improve more.
Thank you to my mom and dad for supporting me and never giving up on me. Also big thanks to my Car sponsors who continue to believe in me; CRP Racing, Mazda Motorsports, Rock's Trailer Sales, Carvantage, Wright Graphic Design & Printing, New sponsor Trackdaytire.com, OGIO, WELD Racing, GoPro, AND Motul!
NEXT UP IS MID OHIO WITH NASA GREAT LAKES WITH 2 FULL DAYS OF RACING!
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