Typical New England August with high humidity, lots of fog in the morning , some burn-off and rain later in the day as well.
Saturday practice remained dry and I improved my times right off the bat by 12 seconds and took off an additional second each subsequent run after, finally breaking in to 2 minutes (2:58). The new suspension and tach were actually quite helpful. I was able to now see ( and feel) that the power starts to drop off a little after 8000 rpm, so I was more confident of when to shift and didn't actually have to look down so much. Engine ran nice and smooth despite the constant flogging.
Sunday morning was wet. I took a cautious route as I wasn't sure how the car would handle in the wet and my times stayed pretty stagnant. The slippery course took two BMWs into the woods and caused further delays.
The next run I was finally finding a line and really giving it hell. A little too much hell. As I took a series of S curves towards the finish, I felt a skip in the power...and then none. Trying another gear, I had no luck and ended up in first gear and not able to get out of it, stranded on the hill one corner from the finish. Car idling in gear and moving nowhere.
With the help of some workers I was able to get it out of gear and roll back down the mountain (with some funny noises). Upon further inspection all gears seem to engage, but it didn't look good under the clutch shaft cover. Lots of metal shavings. Tear down and photos to come.
