I believe in omens.

Not to the extent that I won't walk under a ladder if it looks safe. I'll step on cracks in sidewalks, and if a hungry black cat crosses my path, I'm likely to take it home and feed it. But I believe in omens and gut feelings.

So at 5:00 am Thursday, as we drove up the entrance to the highway and my car absolutely refused to go above 3000 RPMs - to the point of almost shutting off, I had doubts about this weekend. Then when I had to drive from Tolland to Worchester with hot air blasting out of my vents (this is not fun in August, no matter what time of day it is) I had some more doubts. Discovering my carefully hand-picked, lovingly packed 3 lbs of grapes were left behind in the fridge didn't make things any easier. But while I believe in omens, I also believe bad things come in 3's. I need my fruit for the weekend. I bought it, but it's 3 hours south of me. It must be my 3rd bad thing. Has to be.

Alas, it wasn't.

We were at NHIS for the Thursday open practice. We wanted to test our new suspension setups before the regional race that weekend. Bikes run all morning, cars run all afternoon. There were some open wheel cars, so we were split into two run groups.

Open practice is just that: you get set times out on the track with a number of other cars. You are normally required to have a competition license to do this. You are not given lap times unless you have a way to get them yourself. Passing is completely open and allowed at any point on the track. One thing they do discourage is accidents. That cuts into everyone's track time if they have to clean up a mess you made. While you are sharing the track with other cars, it is a good opportunity to do tire testing, suspension testing and try different lines before an important race.

This day proved to be very good for my ego. In the second session, I was halfway through the bowl and realized I was *gaining* on an IMSA GT Porsche. This should not be happening, he should be doing two laps to my one. I decided not to let opportunity pass me by, and moved up higher on the track to take him on the outside. Tim was already working towards my outside as he does the bowl faster than me anyway. There was a spec racer and an ITS car in the bowl with us too.

I met Mr. IMSA GT around the exit of Turn 2. Tim's nose is on my outside rear quarter, he's planning on using his additional speed to get next to me so we can hit turn 3 together and duke it out up the hill. For those of you unfamiliar with the NHIS road course, the transition from T2 to T3 is incredible speed-wise. We come off the banked oval at 100+ mph, and T3 is a 2nd gear acute right to a steep uphill.

My nose was at the Porsche's passenger door when he seemed to realize what was happening and freaked. We can't think of another explanation for it and he never offered himself up to explain. But here I am, fully committed to passing him, Tim is fully committed behind me, with 2 other cars coming up fast. We think he looked in his mirror, saw all of us and panicked.

He came in on me. I didn't know this till later, but he hit his brakes too. My gap is quickly closing and I have no runoff other than a concrete wall. I've never hit one before but I'm pretty sure they hurt. A lot. I had no choice but to hit my brakes. Poor Tim, he wasn't even sure I knew he was there, but it was either brakes, a Porsche fender or a wall.

Somehow we all made it through unscathed and continued on. On the next lap I passed a Ferrari on the front straight. This is pretty neat, I usually don't get to pass this many cars in a real race!

We got about 3 heats in, and were buckling up for the next one when Tim's car wouldn't start. He told me to go ahead and he'd meet me out there. About halfway through the session he started giving me lap times so I knew he wasn't going to make it. When I got back in, he told me it seemed like the fuel pump died. He decided to go and get one now in the hopes of getting it back together and out on the track.

Needless to say he spent the rest of the afternoon fighting with that pump. After hot-wiring the old one and getting it to push some fuel, the new one decided to work. Just in time for the sessions to end.

The day wasn't a total waste. While I didn't get down to the time I was hoping for, the car felt good and I took almost a second off from my July lap times. And there were those few turns where the we were just perfect, everything worked together as it should and we really hooked up. I hope that someday those times will come more often than not.

Friday dawned warm and clear after a rainy night. The BMW club was running an event, but we had the day off. We took some pix of the cars, rode our bikes and set up our spot for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday is a bit grey with rain predicted for the afternoon. We go out for 15 lap qualifying in the morning and run into a sprinkle or two, but it's not even noticeable I was fighting for space with a Scirocco who was driving a little slower than me, but had just enough power that I couldn't get by him. We battled like this for quite a few laps, I out-broke him in T3 to have him pull me up the hill again. As we exit T6 together, I see a tire cruising along the track. While wondering how on earth a tire managed to get on the track all by itself, I looked in front of me to see the Scirocco was missing his right rear wheel! I back off a bit because I have no idea how he or his car will handle this. He safely pulled off the track and I was able to continue on. I qualify in my usual back of the mid-pack position, Tim three spots ahead of me - though quite a bit ahead of me in lap times! We retire back to the van for lunch and to contemplate our tire choices for the afternoon.

We still only have one set of true rains and one set of fairly new Kumho's we can use as intermediate rains. The Dirt Stockers are only good if there is enough water on the track, if it dries out the tires will overheat and go away. Neither of us know the track well in the rain, I've never even driven in rain up here. We make the change to rains but know we'll have to pull the Dirt Stockers off my car if the rain lets up. But by the time we get to grid, it's coming down pretty good.

We line up for grid in our finishing spots. I actually see the flag drop and floor it. And in few seconds I realize I can't see a thing from the spray off the tires of the cars in front of me! Far ahead I see some brake lights going into turn 1, but I know there are a lot of cars between those lights and me. I decide to just take it easy and see how it all plays out.

It actually played out great! I passed a bunch of cars and ended up 11th overall, from 21st. 2 spots behind Tim, although I was a whole 3 seconds behind him. The scary thing is now I have a large number of ITS cars behind me. Tomorrows start is bound to be interesting!

Sunday's first run is a hardship practice of 4-5 laps, barely enough to get the tires warm. Everything feels good and I'm confident of a good start for the race. I hope to stay up front for a few turns anyway. We enter the front straight and from my front position everything looks nice and tight. But they won't drop the flag. Uh-oh, are we getting a wave off? We're waiting and waiting and..... the flag is dropped! I'm right behind Tim and plan on staying there. A hole opens up next to him and I dive for it. I shift to 3rd and ...... miss! Argh! This is embarrassing, let's try again. Can't find 3rd, back to 2nd, try again. 1st!!! Of all gears to hit, sheesh. Well, I took care of my good starting position, that's for sure. By the time I got everything all sorted out, all the fast cars had passed me before turn 1, and I was back in my normal place. But the ITB guys are still in sight, Tim is only a turn ahead of me. I barrel into T3 on the inside and take a couple of cars there. This is a 25 lap race, our longest this season.

Things are starting to settle down and everything feels good. I actually pass a couple of cars. I can still see Tim on the hill down to T6 as I exit the T2. Around lap 9, I don't see him. I knew I had a decent lap, maybe he got caught up in some traffic in T3. When I shift my gaze from the hill back to T3 where I am headed, I see him. He's pulled way off into the workers station, with a trail of fire behind him leading to under the car. I'm guessing he's OK, since the car looks like it was deliberately put there. But I really don't like the looks of that fire. And when I get to T4 and look down, I am even more upset as there is a patch directly under the car. I will not be happy if that car goes up in flames!

The double yellow comes out and as we pass the car again, I see most of the fire has been put out. Except for that patch under the car. I must've taken 3-4 laps before they finally got that out. Seems until they got the hood open they didn't even know the fire was there. I still have no info from anyone. The wrecker pulls up but no ambulance, so he must be fine. The fire is out. It should be fixable.

Meanwhile we are finally gathered up by the pace car. Some of the leaders had started to pass me as this happened, so I was about 7th on the restart! Oh my, this is frightening. The green flag drops and I may as well have been standing still the way they flew around me. Tim finally gets on the radio to tell me he's fine. We finish the race and I feel I've gotten some decent lap times in.

Except I didn't. I have no idea why, but my times were back down to what they were last month. Tim didn't hit his goal either. At least I am back in two weeks to try again.

Tim was not so lucky. What most of us didn't realize by the way he parked the car, was that he hit the wall. He was sure he could do the bowl flat foot and had been building up to it for a few laps, but he ran out of track. Concrete walls don't move and Escorts don't bounce well. Most of the blow went to the right front wheel. The frame rail was moved over a few inches, the oil pan cracked and a large chunk broke off the bellhousing. It may not be fixable. If that wasn't bad enough, a rear tire shredded on the van 15 mins from home.

What was that I said about omens?