I went to the 12 Hour for the first time this year and had a blast!
We also ran in E2, in the white Progress Honda CRX (#41).
Unfortunately, we holed the block after an hour and a half into the race. We had a spare motor and did the swap in just under two hours, but lost a total of around 2.5 hours.
I got my turn in the car at 4:30 pm, just as the sun was going down. I'm used to driving our all wheel drive USTCC Subaru WRX, which has a lot more power and handles completely differently than the CRX. What a fun car that CRX is! It's so light, and can brake so late and you really have to carry speed through the corners to get quick laptimes.
The team kept me in for two straight hours with a stop after the first hour for fuel and to fill up our oil (which we were consuming at a rate of 1.5 quarts per hour). There were so many cars on the track that it was two hours of non-stop action! I had never driven the track in the by-pass configuration, and it turned out that was my favorite passing zone on the track. What a roller-coaster ride that turn is!
Our headlights were set perfectly, so the darkness was no problem at all. I set my fastest lap time of the weekend well after dark, probably in the middle of the 2nd hour. When the team called me in at two hours, my only thought was "Wow, that was over quick!" I wanted to keep going!
It's too bad that we lost the motor. I think we could have had a great race with the yellow #11 Civic that went on to win the class and finish 2nd overall.
The only thing that troubled me this weekend is that the cars weren't gridded in the positions they qualified in. What the heck was qualifying for if the cars were just going to be randomly thrown onto the track?
Anyway, it was a fun weekend for us even with our trouble. A big thanks to the Progress team of Miguel, Bernardo, Gus, Ryan, Carlos, Adam and Richard for letting me play. These are a great bunch of guys!
Gary
Sheehan Motor Racing
www.teamSMR.com
[This message has been edited by GarySheehan (edited December 09, 2002).]