September 12, 2011 - Our trip in to North West brook was very quick.
Quick enough that we were 30 seconds ahead of our minimum average speed of 124 km/h at one point. I backed off, but needless to say we zeroed it. Remember, it's not the fastest car that wins. It's the one with the least penalties. I think we came across the line about 10 seconds early.
We lined up for the return trip, called Southport. I was looking forward to it - roads like this are like catnip to a driver, even if they do carry a high pucker factor - and Janel was starting to warm up to the idea. The car was working well, with just one point where we bottomed out. Quite a bit better from our 2008 visit.
Unfortunately, while we were lined up to start, the ambulance had to take off to take care of a local. It was going to take 30 minutes to bring in another ambulance, so the stage was scrapped for the remaining cars. Instead of a high speed run, we got to follow a marshal in a Corolla through the closed stretch of pavement. It was still quick, but less than 2/3 of the pace we would have carried. The saddest part was waving to all the people camped out on the side of the road to watch. They missed the chance to see the fastest cars go through other than in a noisy parade. I did try to give them some gratuitous acceleration noise just because.
This cancellation, combined with the shortening of the previous stage and an earlier one that was also truncated for a funeral, meant that we only got about half of the stage miles that had originally been planned. That's a shame. Still, it was a good day.
tags: 2011 race, Southport |
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