On the way to the track, a few sprinkles began to fall...but there were some green/yellow/red blobs on the radar that were clearly heading our way. As the morning session got started, the rain really started coming down. Chris had done a track day at Dominion before One Lap, but he hadn't been on the track in the rain and we weren't sure how the Fiesta would manage on worn RE-71Rs in the ~55F temps.
It turns out we didn't need to worry - the track still had quite a bit of grip in the wet, Chris knew the track, 55F was enough for the RE-71Rs, and the combination of front wheel drive (and a little help from modern stability control here and there) help him go after it! In fact, he caught up to the last car in the run group in the morning session on his third lap, around 5:15 in the video:
Between the road course events there was supposed to be a banked oval track event at the same site. Unfortunately it just wasn't safe to run the event in the heavy rain, so it was cancelled. It was too bad, because it's always fun to try something different with the car...plus, I had been reading about front wheel drive oval racing (which apparently is a thing), and I had some ideas for how to set up the car.
Chris went out for the afternoon session when the rain was a little lighter, and got even faster:
We finished 34th in the overall in both the morning and afternoon sessions - our best finishes all week - which helped us quite a bit in the overall standings. I can't recall, but I think this was where we finally cracked into the top 50, and we had closed the gap on several more cars in front of us in the overall as well. With good results at Gingerman and the skid pad, there was a chance for the mid-40's.
Since the oval event had been cancelled, the afternoon session got started a little early, which was great since we had our longest transit that night; 750 miles to South Haven, Michigan. The route book took us west on some state routes, avoiding I-95 and DC traffic that GPS recommended. Even in the age of smart phones and GPS, the route book was handy to have - we drove through some areas with no coverage, it has tips and reminders for the route, and it keeps most people to the same routes in case of break-downs or other issues. So a big thank you to Brock for continuing to put these together.
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