Stephen's first road course race

One of Stephen's goals for the Albuquerque adventure was to buy a fast car, make it faster, and run at the local road course.  He bought a '73 Camaro that he has been working on, and he has run a few laps at the open track days.  He joined the Southwest Motorsports club, took their driver training (and instructor training) and started thinking about running some actual races.  Unfortunately, the Camaro had some engine problems and it wasn't ready for this first race weekend of the season.  But Stephen did some work on another club member's car, and in exchange he very generously offered to let Stephen run his "extra" race car! 

Stephen told me that his race was at 2:30, so I planned to arrive at the track at 2.  When I left the house it was sunny and 77 degrees.  But as I travelled West on I-40, I could see black clouds and lighting ahead, just about where I thought the race track might be located.  Sure enough, I arrived just as it started raining, and Stephen yelled to me from the car that they were running early, the camera was in the truck, and I should go to the control tower.  I didn't quite get that last part between the engine noise and the gathering storm.  I made my way to the truck but the wind was whipping up quite a sand storm and I could barely see.  I grabbed the camera and fought my way to the grandstand where I took cover under the metal bleachers, trying not to touch anything that might be a lightning rod.  Before too long, a driver came along and told me to run up to the control tower and get inside for safety, which I did.  Stephen arrived shortly after, his race having been postponed so the track workers could get out of the storm.  Fortunately these New Mexico storms, while intense, are short-lived and the race got underway before the club ran out of track time.

Stormy skies.

Waiting out the storm in the control tower.

The guys waiting for the track to dry.

Securing the harness.

Hooking up the Hans device.

Steering wheel is on.  Window net is up.

Ready to race!

Some of the competition.

Coming around to take the green flag!

Inside the control tower.

Stephen on the straightaway.

There's a little smoke coming from those tires!

A few spectators.

Stephen had so much fun!

After the race.

Post-race analysis with the winner (and owner of the car Stephen borrowed).

The race was 20 minutes long.  The cars pretty much ran in the order they started, with the intervals becoming longer between pairs of cars as the race went on.  The winning car and second place car raced pretty close the whole time.  After that a Porche and a Panoz ran together.  Another Porche and Stephen in the borrowed Miata raced each other behind them, and there was one other car trailing the field.  Stephen's goal for the race was to race clean and not have any problems.  He did that, and had a blast!