It says to turn around, so we do. After following the directions for 5 minutes, it takes us right back to the same closed on ramp. Not much help there. My GPS doesn't give me the ability to indicate the the ramp is closed, just to avoid an entire section, which I don't really want to do. Mike gives me a hand with his phone to try and find an alternate route.
We pick an alternate route and start driving again. My GPS recalculates and gives me a new route that looks really strange. It looks like it is going by all kinds of side streets. Mike is familiar with this highway, so we stick to the highway.
On the way there, it rains in places and I start wondering how much time I can shave off against my competitors if it is wet. Will it be enough to move me back up into the trophies? This weather was also most unexpected. I checked the forecast on Saturday morning before I left home and chance of precipitation was listed at 10% for both days - yet it rained both Saturday and Sunday. As a result, I wasn't prepared and didn't have my rain gear with me. Oh well. It's not the end of the world. Right now, I was more concerned with getting to El Toro and still have enough time to do all the prep since we ran first.
We arrive 15 minutes later than originally planned. Not too bad, but that did leave less time than I wanted. We do a quick walk of each side and then prepare the car with the intention to walk again if there is time. As it turns out, there isn't time, so we have to settle for one course walk.
The car is running, the camera battery appears to be holding it's charge, the MaxQ is running, and it's drying out rapidly with no more sign of moisture, so it's now or never to catch up.
I'm lined up to start on the left side this morning. With a decent right side time, my primary concern is getting a decent run on the left side without getting a red light. I make my run and I don't red light (yippee), but I hit a cone. My right side run is uneventful. Everything is going by in a blur. My 2nd left side run is now do or die. I make sure to wait long enough to not get a red light, giving me a lousy reaction time, but at least the run was clean. It was a good 1/2 second slower than my fast time on Saturday. I continue to attack the right side and my time drops to a 46.1 so I'm happy. Now we have to see how the other drivers do to see if I move up in the standings.
Mike takes his runs, and goes faster on both sides, but unfortunately not enough to change his final position.
Now we head off to impound and much to my surprise, the final results were brought out within minutes of us pulling into impound instead of a long wait. There was a big crowd of STS drivers around the results sheet and I couldn't see my result, so I wait. Mihai is kind enough to look over everybodys shoulder (he's tall) and tells me my final position - I had done it. I had worked my way back up into 3rd place, behind Andy Hollis and Kevin McCormick. Given this weekends events, I'm happy with the result.
I put my hat into the drawing for the bonus challenge. I want another shot at the course. After the drawing, I'm not one of the lucky eight, but Mike is. He gets a make up session for missing his Saturday afternoon runs. I'm exhausted and head home early to be with my family.
Mike ends up placing 2nd in the Bonus Challenge, which earns him some money towards ChaseCam products. Very cool. Congratulations Mike.
At the end of the day, this is how the International Allstars/Lucas Oil/Hyper16Valve team performed:
2nd in Bonus Challenge (Mike)
3rd in STS (Stephen)
3rd in Honda Tuner Challenge (Stephen)
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