First Time Trial

This past weekend NMS South loaded up and headed four hours north to take on NCCAR. This was going to be my first time trial event, so I had to borrow a transponder from a friend. Similar to racing, each car gets a transponder that sends a signal to timing and scoring every time you cross the start/finish line so they can track, well, timing and scoring. Other than a transponder, the Miata was ready to go!

I arrived Friday and set up next to Lemons teammate, John and later Kyle joined the party and stayed in the NMS trailer for the weekend. With approximately 200 square feet of living space, the trailer is probably just as good as some small apartments.

Saturday we ran the course clockwise and Sunday we ran counter clockwise. Not many tracks are designed to safely run both directions so this was a neat opportunity. The morning each day would be three qualifying/practice sessions and the afternoons would be three timed, competitive sessions. A third timed session was going to be added in for the final scoring but rain and lightning put a damper on the later half of Saturday afternoon. 

In the end the final results would be calculated based on the best time Saturday, plus the best morning time on Sunday, plus the best afternoon time on Sunday to give a final total time. I finished 3rd of 3, but not too far behind 2nd place. The Miata is no way prepared for the time trial rule set, so there was certainly performance left on the table. I had a great time and improved all weekend and brought everything home in one piece. The next few weeks we'll dial in the Lemons Miata and set out for our second 24 hour race in September.