NASA Nationals Day 1 - Afternoon/Evening

9/8/2011 - Thursday Afternoon/Evening

After piloting through the rain to a 2:13 I started 2nd in grid.  The track wasn't perfect, but it was nearly dry for the afternoon session.  I knew there'd be some very impatient high HP cars wanting around the 12 or so of us that had gridspots because we braved the rain in the morning.

And sure enough, it was an absolute mess.  I had cars dive-bombing me on the backstraight nearly every lap.  Some were safe passes; others not as much.  The worse part was when they would then hold me up through the next several turns after dive-bombing me!
In addition to the crazyiness at the front, there was some politics in the back.  A few of the high HP guys that didn't go out and were gridded in the back decided to gap themselves way back behind the field in order to get themselves open track - even though it's against the rules and was expressly mentioned NOT to do that.  So all kinds of fun stuff.  Oh, and still several offs and yellow flags to work around.  Ended the day with a 1:35.7; 2nd of 14 in class.  Good enough to slot myself into the #12 spot on grid of the 34 cars; pretty much where I thought I'd be.

That night... we got to tour Mansfield Correctional Facility!  This is where they filmed nearly all of ShawShank Redemption, as well as parts of Air Force One and Tango and Cash.  Attached is a shot of the room where Warden Norton shot himself!  Creepy...