My first Skip Barber 2000 race day

August 07 2011

What a disappointment.  I got my times down to 1:47.5's.  That's an ok time. Still nearly 2 seconds a lap off the fastest times I've seen, but in the pack with the majority of the drivers.  Enough to debut, I thought.

I started my first race (9:45pm start time) in last (out of 12th).  As I started the warmup, I hit a few keys trying to get the gear indicator box to appear (it's 'P', BTW) and my pc decided to hibernate.  Of course, no Windows based PC ever comes out of hibernation, so I had to hit the reset button and wait for the reload into Windows and then the game.  I got back just in time for the race start (missed warmup) and took off and got the first corner only to discover my brake pedals was now mapped completely wrong, so whenever I touched the brakes the car would lock up.  I managed to adapted ok but was 4seconds behind 2nd last by the time I'd got used to it.  Then my oldest daughter (4 years old) decided the gastro she'd been threatening with would rear it's vomittous head all over herself and her bed.  I had to stop where I was and clean it up.  Totally killed my iRating and my Safety Rating.  I was up to 1748 iRating and D 3.92 with my SR.

I had another crack at 11:45pm and qualified this time, in 9th position, with an 1:47.5.  I made a good start and by the fourth corner I was up to  7th and closing.  Unfortunately on the run into turn 5 (hairpin) some dude thought he would try and take me on the inside.  I stayed left and gave him room but he completely messed it up and flipped my car over.  He did appologise but it completely screwed my race :(.  I had to get a tow back to the pits, which cost me over two and half a minutes and then the repair.  By the time I got going again I was 3 laps down.  At least I wasn't the only one to lose it, and I finished the race where I started.

In two races I'd lost all the safety rating I worked to build up over the last week and most of the iRating I built up since Friday night, where I had had some good results in the MX5 car.

I'll admit I still need more practice time in the SBF2000 though.  At least I've recorded a result for this round...

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