This weekend was a blast. I will start my story from the beginning.
It all started the previous weekend, Jude had finished getting the motor back in the 240 on Saturday 9/9/6. He called Steven to see if he could get it to the dyno on Sunday. Steven was kind enough to oblige. Jude, Jim and Steven got the car up and running for three or four pulls then it all went bad. There was a terrible rod knock. The sure sign that a bearing was spun or about to spin. Talk about disappointment. Jude went home to try to figure out how to get to MAM the next weekend to secure his ITA championship.
He racked his brain to come up with another ITA car to drive. Fortunately, Jim Stevens is just a great guy and said that Jude could drive the RX-7 in Group 1 and Jim will drive it in Group 4. What a guy! :)
On Saturday 9/16/6, Jude, Ruthie and I load up into the Mustang to meet Jim and the BFT (Big F****** Toter) in Warrenton. We get there and load the Mustang into BFT and we are on our way. I have to pause here to say that the BFT is one of the coolest things that I have ever been lucky enough to be a part of. It is sooooo cool to ride that high. You can look down into what the people in cars are doing as they pass you. Too much fun.
We make it to MAM in record time and Jim did a fabulous job of parking the BFT, which is not the easiest thing to do. We unloaded the Mustang and watched the Enduro for a bit. The next step was dinner. After a great dinner at the casino, we all headed back to the track to watch a great lightening storm.
At 6:00 am Sunday morning the whole crew was up and moving. We needed to register, get Curt, Jim and Jude through tech, get new tires for the RX-7 and get to grid all by 8:00 am. With a lot of hustle and a bit of luck Jude and Curt were on grid and ready to go for qualifying.
Jude qualified okay and Curt had a brake issue but all went well. Group 4 came around and Jim ran blindingly fast in the RX-7 qualifying 5th overall in a field of Miata's! Way to go Jim.
The race came quick, Group 1 was gridded up by 10:30 a.m.! Jude needed to beat only one guy, Steve Bachenberg, in order to secure his championship. So here comes the start. Jude did not get the best start but Pete Knese in the PFM ITA BMW flew up through the field! At about turn 5 Jude came in too hot and got a little tap from Travis Norwald which flung Jude off track. He kept his momentum up and got back on track dead last.
You would think that all hope was lost but shortly thereafter Travis spun off and came back on track right behind Jude. Steve was still a half of a lap ahead of Jude but Jude and Travis were making up time. On lap eight or so, Steve ended up off track. So now we have first and second in the ITA Mid-Am points race together with Travis right there.
I have never been more nervous watching a race. Jude was right on Steve and passed him a number of times but just couldn't make any of them stick. Jude ran a fabulous race. His fastest lap was 1:50.457 which is the fastest that Jude had ever run at MAM.
The next race was Jim in Group 4. Jim was qualified 5th with only Miata's in front and behind him. He ran a fabulous race with no mistakes. His fastest lap was a blistering 1:49.631. The next RX-7 ran a fast lap of 1:52.495. Jim is fast and it is so much fun to watch him run a car that we (PFM) built that well. Good job Jim!!!!
After all the racing was done, we loaded up and headed home. All of us very pleased with the weekend.
Thanks to Jim and Ruthie for all of their help.
As a note, Jude has to win both ITA races at Gateway in October to secure his championship.