north to sears
In my quest to get on the track, especially new tracks, the boy and I trudged north to Sonoma to run Sears Point (Infineon). Sunday saw us heading north out of LA. The boy got to see the Golden Gate bridge for the first time.
We stayed at a friends house...I'd met Don online at the PelicanParts BBS. He has a very nice place in Petaluma and a great family. Calvin got along great with Don's son, and they played computers games until late hours.
As for me I had two interesting days at the track:
I went out first session with Tyson and started to learn the track. And what a track it is...very difficult and scary. After the first 20 minutes I began to at least figure out which turn came when. Second session I was getting the hang of it, but there were some very slow cars, so I came into the hot pit to get some space. I got it, but after a few laps it backed up again. I came in again but this time also got blackflagged for "smoking in 10." I headed to the pits and luckily my mechanic/friend was there (Tyson again), and he figured out that the cam feed line was leaking. After a couple of calls we located the part in San Rafael, so I borrowed Tyson's car and Calvin and I were off to find the part.
Following a 20 minute delay due to a dump truck being overturned on the entrance to the race track, we were back, and Tyson quickly had the car fixed. I only missed the 3rd session, and was able to run 4th and 5th. That night we headed back to Don's house for dinner and then wine with Tyson and Jack.
The next day was clear and warm (even warmer than the first) and we were off again. I was starting to push a little harder, and was having a great time. That was until the 2nd red session where I heard some skids then a thud. I remember thinking, "I hope that's not Jack." About 5 minutes later in come Jack...with a pretty tweaked car. Drivable, but tweaked. Jack was OK but shaken. Needless to say that put a bit of a damper on my next sessions. Sears has a lot of blind turns and big walls very close to the track...very easy to make a mistake and mistakes are punished fairly harshly. I did two more sessions, then about noon we packed up and headed back south.
Rolled into LA around 7:30pm, tired but in one piece. And that's what counts...