We were racing again at Mid-Ohio this weekend. Saturday was an easy win with a 7-second margin over my friend Brad, who finished in second place with a 14-second margin over third.

Sunday might have been more of the same, but the operative word in that statement is "might."

I qualified on the class pole with a 1:38.7, my first-ever Mid-Ohio lap in the 38s. Even more encouraging is that it was sloppy; I know for sure I can go faster than that and am now dreaming of a 37....

So I was feeling good. Brad qualified second, also with his personal best Mid-Ohio lap (a 1:39.421...the only other car in our class under 1:40).

During qualifying, my brakes had felt a little soft. So, before the race I took the time to bleed them to make sure I didn't have any soft-pedal issues during the race. After all, we had all the time in the world between our 11:30AM qualifying and the 4:30PM race. Had to do something.

I took my time with the brake-bleeding and other routine maintenance I was doing, trying to be more methodical than I usually am, and savoring the available time. So, I don't really have any excuses, but somehow I managed to not tighten one of the bleeder valves quite all the way when I was done.

You can see where this is going, I'm sure.

Although he qualified second to me in class, Brad's time put him three positions back on the grid. I started 9th overall, he started 12th. But he got a great start, getting past both the guys between us and putting him right on my rear bumper going into the first turn.

The first lap of any race is pretty much a full-fledged melee, anyway, so we fought our way around the track while things spread out and calmed down a bit. My first hint of trouble was going into the next-to-hardest braking zone, the Keyhole, where my brake pedal was very soft.

Not good.

On the other side of the Keyhole is the back straight, the highest-speed portion of the track. Even our comparatively-underpowered cars will hit something North of 125 mph by the end of the straight and then have to brake for a 70-or-so mph corner at the end. But my car really did not want to stop.

Uh oh, I thought.

And Brad, with spectacular brakes, was not making matters any easier. We continued on for several more laps with me pulling out a teench of track in the twisty parts, and him making up all of that and maybe more under braking, until he finally shot past at the end of the straight as I fought to get it to just stay on the track, let alone make the corner and keep him behind me.

It's a minor miracle I didn't run into the back of his car as he went by because I came really close. Really close. So close, it's probably good he doesn't know how close it was. The next lap I let a higher-class car through in the same spot and almost hit him, too. That was the point I decided nothing good was going to come from me staying out on the track and gave up and headed for the garage.

An end to my hope for a(n almost) perfect season.

Bummer. Worse, sitting there in the car trying to get it to stop, I knew for sure not only what the problem was but which bleeder was causing it (inside front left), because it had been giving me trouble during the bleeding. And I knew whose fault it was, too. (lowers head in shame)

So...I'm an idiot.

Brad, I am really pleased to say, went on to win the race easily for his first-ever racing win. It was well-deserved and a long time coming. I only regret I couldn't have stayed out and made him work a little harder for it.

1. Chris Blatnick08/20/2008 10:41:14 PM
Homepage: http://interfacematters.com

Wow, Scott. Glad to hear that you stayed safe at least! Here's to an even better season next time around...

2. Scott Good08/21/2008 08:06:09 AM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

Thanks Chris,

This season's not over yet. Next month, September 11-14, are the NASA National Championship races. If I can keep brake fluid in the thing, I'm going to try to win the GTS2 championship.

Crossing my fingers.

Scott

3. Jerry Carter08/21/2008 09:58:22 AM

Uh, maybe this is a good time to start discussing succession planning around the office?

Glad you didn't wreck! I kinda had my stomach in my throat reading through that. Nice job keeping it on the track!