Saturday morning, only 48 degrees outside, we leave the 5 star hotel at the track and unloaded the car, which already had a dead battery. After jumping it a few times we figured out e had a bad alternator. Not a ONE part store in sebring had one either and after over an hrs search we ended up at a local wrecking yard to obtain one. Its a pretty easy switch but we have missed the practice session in the morning and all that's left is a 15 min qualifying race which my team mate had to do. so NO practice time on Saturday. I'm informed that sunday morning at 8am is my first race, a 20 min sprint.

Mind you I have only ever made one lap there and it was in a car plagued with problems, I spent more time looking at the gauges and trying to diagnose said problems than I looked at the track. SCCA opened the track for a one lap hardship lap that I made then it as off to the grid to line up for the sprint. I told the officials that this being my first SCCA race that I would scratch start out of 30 cars so as not to hold anyone up or cuase any problems. The track seemed daunting on my hardship lap with no one else out there to pace myself with, I was really afraid of being ran over!

The green drops and I'm in STA class with two other classes running with us. Immediately I understand that my friends car is a fresh build and is done right because I had to let off the throttle 3/4 down the front straight as not to hit the cars ahead of me going three wide. This lap (one of 7) I just kind of pace with the back of the field, they were not getting away from me at all and I'm quite please with the straight line speed of this car. Compared to most the other cars it was far superior! 2nd lap, there is a spin ahead of me going into turn 2 and the corner workers wave the yellow, separating myself and three other cars from the back of the field. Once thru turn 4 we get on it and I'm hot on the bumper of a IT7 car going down into turn 5. Coming out of 5 and thru the dog leg to the next right hander I get by him, wondering if my etiquette was correct in how I passed him. (yes, SCCA has passing etiquette!) I accelerate away from him and didn't see any guff from the corner workers. A few turns later someone else spun and there was a group of cars ahead of me once again. Confident from passing the IT7 car I start picking them off, and with ease as its much easier to pass at sebring than the two road course tracks I have experience at (Mid Ohio and Nelson Ledges). Once thru that small pack I'm in clean air but afraid I might be slowing down since I have no one ahead of me to work on catching. A few laps later tho coming onto the front stretch I see another group at the end of the straight. By the time the race was over I had overtaken one of them and would have another but he threw an un expected block on me going into 17, I figured I'm just here for the practice at this point so I tuck back in behind him and practice patience. No time to pass him however as that was the final corner of my exhilarating ride.

All in all I started 30th overall and finished 22nd, and ended up 10th in my class respectively. Corner workers and racers both came over to me after the race and didn't believe me that it was my first race. I also pulled a 2.49.5 lap time and my team mate who owns the car and has had much experience on the track only did a 1.49.7 as his best and spun the car three time during the qualifying race the day before. Mind you this doesn't sound impressive until you remember: I HAD NEVER TURNED A LAP AT SPEED ON THIS TRACK!!

Thanx so much for reading this!!