Day Eight  The day after

It is all behind us now and we are headed home. We drove the 500 miles from Zacadecas to Laredo, then about another hour north and called it a day. Only 1400 miles left.

Here is a quick recap of the week and what we accomplished and what we did not. The car came off the trailer and performed as we expected. We qualified 42nd out of about 120 cars.
Day One, we did fine; middle of the pack.
Day Two, we were placed 49th. About as expected on the slower, tight uphill stages. The car is  
      running well.
Day Three, the big crash day. On our second run the gas pedal broke. We sort of fixed it and
      completed the stage with a time that was about 10 minutes longer than it would have been if we 
      had not broken. The third run our temporary, field fix failed. Again we put it together and drove 
      slowly to the end of the stage. At service we fixed it properly. We finished poorly.
Day Four, we started at the back because of the gas pedal problems. So be it. We were quick and our 
      times had us finish the day in about 30th overall.
Day Five, a great day with speed stages ideal for our big heavy Chrysler. We finished the day in 
      42nd.
Day Six, another great day. The car was great. We finished 30th for the day.
Day Seven, our last chance. The car was great, we made some adjustments and finished 27th overall.
      Best yet.

We finished 62nd overall for the seven day event. Not as good as we had hoped. 

We made one fundamental mistake that took us from finishing in the mid 30's to 62nd. Last year, we had mechanical problems that kept us from finishing several speed stages. This year, my main objective was to finish every stage, no matter what. That's why we fixed the gas pedal on the side of the speed stage, twice, and limped to the finish. I achieved my goal. We completed every stage. Success. 

One mistake with my strategy. The rules state that if a car does not finish a stage, that car gets the slowest time in that stage plus three minutes. In our class, that would be about one minute longer than our time plus the three minute penalty. So, about four minutes longer than what we would have posted had we not broken. In my "finish at all cost" mentality, that was all I thought about. Our fix and completion of the stage was more than 35 minutes longer than it should have been. Simple math, 35 - 4 equals 31 minutes. So, had we skipped the rest of the stage, our total time for the day would have been 31 minutes less. Rolled into the seven day results, that 31 minutes took us from finishing 35th or so to finishing 62nd. Oh well. I did what I wanted to. Next year, it will all be about where we place.

In the next year, the car will go on a diet and loose about 300 pounds, get a new, more powerful engine, a new rear end, closer ratios in the transmission and improved ventilation, and a number of small modifications.

Many thanks to Jackie and Mac, the gang at Savannah Race Engineering and especially to our support crew, Mike and Alan. They were on top of everything with the car as well as making our day easier.

We will get more photos up in the next few days. 
 Thanks, Philip and Kevin