Summer of 2021 I decided with all the uncertainty in the world, I had to do some things while I still could... I didn't want to be that guy in 40 years saying "I wish I would have..."
I registered for my first Ultimate Street Car Association event at Road America. I put my old tires back on for Road America, so I could save the Yokes for KOTM. This hurt my times quite a bit, but being my first time on a big roadcourse, I was more concerned with being smart and keeping the car together than my finishing position. Of 21 cars in GTV class, I finished 11th overall. 6th in the Autocross, 7th on speed-stop, 13th on the road course, and dead-last on Design & Engineering judging... that was kind of a kick in the pants, but I knew having no radio, horn, or reverse-lights would hurt the score there.
My best lap at RA was a 2:56.379 (full course + the "bend" motorcycle chicane instead of running the "kink") Ran over 130mph in 3 places on that track (138mph on the front straight, 135mph down into T5, and 132mph into Canada Corner.)
My last lap, I was finally comfortable enough to put down a flyer, but accelerating up the hill out of T5 the car started billowing smoke. I thought I blew it up, but oil pressure was good and no knocking sounds... I had less than a week to fix it before KOTM, but hadn't really figured out the problem yet. I thought I filled the catchcan and burped oil onto the header, but was wrong about that...
One other highlight of the Optima event at Road America for me was the karting enduro. My team didn't win it, but I narrowly beat out pro-driver Billy Johnson on lap-time, scoring the fastest lap out of everyone!
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