CMC Mustang - NASA MW/GL Quals/Race @ Putnam Park 5.19.2012

After the difficulties with the water temps on Saturday, I was not sure how Sunday would unfold.  And I would know right away with warmups at 9:30am.  The outcome; water temp issues persisted still.  I left the car in the owner's hands again with Qualifying coming up around 11am.  At this point I was pretty much leaning towards heading home and not wasting my entire day once again.
After a chat with the owner prior to Quals, he explained an updated repair plan.  The new plan was to swap out the water pump with a new model - thinking that Ford made 2 models and it could be broken or possibly even the wrong one.  So that change along with another full system flush.  A repair like that would fit between Quals and the 3pm race - but not before.  So I was instructed to top the car off with water and just run 1-2 laps to get a Qualifying spot while the owner ran quickly for parts.

I went out late for Qualifying and fired 1 hot lap as best I could.  I ran a new weekend best of 1:23.1 w/o the tires being fully up to temp and navigating a bit of traffic front & rear (see vid).  It felt a bit better actually but I just simply needed more seattime in the car and with all the issues I was not getting many laps.  My time placed me in 7th today however, about 1 second out of 4th, with only 8 cars making it out as there was some attrition.  Below is a pic of the in-class cars (me in the #20) of CMC - Camaro-Mustang Challenge.

After Quals, the car went under the knife again and I relaxed with the wife and chatted up some friends around the paddock.  The car returned later and was deemed ready for action with about an hour to spare.  We packed up most of our gear for a quick post-race getaway and I got suited up for the race.  I hopped in the car to start it about 10min before the race and it would not crank over.  The owner immediately hopped under it as we jacked it up and with some quick 'massaging' to the starter it cranked over.  We all hopped in our cars and headed for grid with a few mins to spare.  Crazy crazy quick fix!

The race was another standing start, and again I was not the best out of the gate.  I think I made 2-3 laps keeping an eye on the water temps and they were unfortunately shooting up quickly once again.  Coming out of T8 it felt like something burst and the car slid sideways briefly as I decided to exit immediately.  Turns out the radiator hose came off.   Total laps for the day:  9.