SFR SCCA Round 5 @ Marina

Mileage: 90890

I woke up bright and early at 6am this morning (really 5am to my non-DST-adjusted body) to head to Marina. "spring forward" my ass, I was dragging. Since it was my first time going to Marina, I budgeted some extra buffer room for mistakes.

I made it to Marina around 7:20, which was definitely early for the event. Note to self: the drive from Mountain View to Marina takes ~1.25hrs if you drive ~80mph. When I got there the course wasn't setup, so I helped put out cones for an hour. This counted as my work duty for the day, so I could bail early.

Marina is smooth concrete, which took a bit of getting used to. It was really windy, and borderline cold. My fleece wasn't up to snuff.

The course was challenging. There were a bunch of new elements that I hadn't encountered. My first run sucked at 54.8s, but I got a bit better for a best time of 52.4s at the end of my 5 runs. The fastest car in my class (an STi) was doing 47's... I've got a way to go. I fought with coming into tight turns too hot and sliding on the way out. On my final run, I still didn't nail the 2 tight turns. I kept coming out on the far side with the frontend plowing and my wheels turned way too far. I know the theory is that I should've braked a bit to get some traction on the frontend, or turned the wheel back out to stop the plowing. Connecting theory with practice is always a challenge. I couldn't get myself to do it better despite thinking about it before each of my later runs.

I noticed the car smells like gas after driving. I tracked it down to a little fuel leak on the driver's side ... it looks like it's an issue with the new fuel line that B-Line put in. Looks like it's time to cash in on the warranty.