Jason still didn't want to drive the whole hour, so I started the enduro in his car from the back of the grid (32nd) since I hadn't qualified it, but he didn't care about the finishing position. The enduro was wet. VERY wet. The car was insanae to be driving, as the windshield was fogged up completely. I'd lose sight of a car that was 2 carlengths in front of me. I had a t-shirt that I was trying to wipe the windshield with; whipping it at the windshield to the places I couldn't reach! I couldn't see a damn thing. I advanced positions wherever I could, but it wasn't too long before there was a full-course caution. There were no less than 3 wrecked cars. I did my requisite one lap after the green flag dropped again, and brought the car in. I coudn't get out soon enough. I had advanced to somewhere around the 16th place that the car finished. I then waited for Jesse to come in.
I got in Jesse's car at the mid-way point and we had a couple minutes to kill during the pit stop, which he used to remind me that he was going to O’Fest next weekend and needed the car brought back in one piece! I headed out after the 5 minutes was up. He had been running around 5th, or so, behind a few C-Mod cars and a D-Mod. The car was awesome. It was really well-behaved and had lots of grip (relatively speaking) from the Hoosier Wets. It was a LOT of fun. I flew around every car I came upon, but didn't see but one of the C-Mod cars. I passed with ease, looking for more. I assumed they were somewhere ahead of me and I just wasn’t catching them, maybe because I wasn’t pushing as hard as Jesse did. I didn’t know…
Jesse told me over the radio when the starter was playing with the white flag, alerting me that we were nearing the end. As I came down the front straight, the white flag was waving. Jesse got back on the radio and said, "Uh, dood?..... I think we're winning!" In fact, it was confirmed on the next lap, when I took the checkered flag, winning overall, 52 seconds ahead of the next car! It turned out that I had passed all the other cars while they were in the pits, and then just run away from them from there! In the meantime, I managed to set the fastest lap of the race, with a 3.4 second difference between me and the next fastest car! Jesse’s car was so great to drive!
BMWCCA WGI 2009 Enduro Fast Forward to 11:06
After we were done, I jumped in a D-Student’s MINI Cooper S, since his instructor had left. It was still raining out. We were headed down the back straight and braking before the bus stop. He had a wheel lock up and pitch the car to the right. With such a short wheel base, the car rotated very quickly and we got about 110 degrees around and hit the right-side wall (about 50 ft before the bus stop) with the left front corner. We glanced off and continued our spin, stopping in the entry to the bus stop. We were both sore in our necks, so the medics braced us in the car and then back-boarded us and took us to the hospital. We both received CT Scans before being released. While we were there, another instructor and student came in after having rolled in a WRX. After that, they closed down the driver’s school. I believe everyone involved is ok. It was a more exciting ending to the weekend than I had hoped for!
