Had a really good run yesterday, felt super comfortable in the car and everything was working perfectly - I wasn't pushing at all the second (last) run yesterday, and knew exactly what needed to be done and where to drop a good chunk of time. We had qualifying on the bottom section this morning (practice on the mountain during race week is from 4am-9am) and, since I had such a great day on the same section yesterday, I was stoked to be able to get out and throw down what I expected to be a decent qualifying time - thus getting me a better starting position for the race and lessening the chances of me having to start my race Sunday in the afternoon once the rain moves in (as it has ever year I've been up here).
I waited until the end of the first session to get ready to go out, when the sun had come out enough to not necessitate headlights and the road was a bit drier. It rained pretty heavily last night, so there were some soggy spots on the track. I told myself that I was going to go out and take it easy and just get a feel for the car, and then come back down and cook it on my second run. Two turns in, I made the decision that I felt comfortable enough to go ahead and hoof it up the mountain and get a good time in, with the intention to just keep an eye out for wet spots and ease off the throttle. I made it a mile or so up the course before it happened....
As I exited a left-hand non-cambered increasing-radius turn at wide-open throttle, I felt the rear end give. Inspection of the course a few minutes later revealed a small puddle right on the center paint line, with tire marks coming out of it and leading to where the car ended up. And, to top that all off, I didn't turn on my cameras.
Whoops :-/
Luckily, the majority of the damage was to the aero, and the splitter managed to hold up (somehow); the front bumper and rear diffuser are toast, though. I was able to get the floppy bits off and make a run up the mountain to qualify, albeit a full minute slower than I was running yesterday - which is going to give me a starting position waaaaaay at the end of the day on Sunday. Shoot.
But, that's racing! For now we're back at the motel with the car torn apart, it's time to start sourcing parts so we can make it back to practice tomorrow and get things back on the right track!
