So this was one hell of a day. Manassas isn't exactly close to Baltimore, and they start at 8:00am and I needed to be teched by 8:45am, so I was up early. I think I left a little after 6am and I was making pretty good time most of the way. But when I got into VA I ran into some trouble. Let's just say VA road system sucks. I think it was I-66 I needed to get on and I'm pretty sure I got on it, but the signage was so small and poor that I wasn't sure I was going West or East. I needed gas soon anyway, so I took a smallish exit to find gas and get back on the road going the right way for sure. Well, this turned out to be a mistake. First of all, I had to pay a toll to take the exit, but you weren't informed of this, nor could you see the toll, till after you took the exit. So I had to pay $0.50 for no apparent reason. Next there were no stations for quite a while but I finally found one. I could see a sign for I-66 East ahead so I felt confident I was where I needed to be. So after I fill up I keep going down the road where I-66 East was. But there was no exit for West that way as it turned out. So I turned around and drove back to where I got on this road. No signs or exit of any kind, so I keep going for a while. I end up driving all around the area finding nothing and getting nowhere. I was getting pretty pissed, especially since it was already past 8:00am. Also, I some how managed to find a couple more random tolls to take my money, only to turn around and have to pay again. By about 8:15am, I was again back where I started and just took the unmarked turnoff next to where I entered. Now I got really pissed because this road wasn't labeled, PERIOD! I drove for miles in what I hoped was the right direction and not ONCE did I see a sign telling me WTF road I was on! Anyway, it was close to 8:45am and I knew my dad was there and already teched, so I called him and got him to tell the organizer that I was lost as shit and to ask it I could get signed in for one of the later heats and tech whenever I got there. Luckily, he let me do this. Otherwise, I would have lost my 3 morning runs which would have sucked. Finally, after driving past numerous exits with tolls going to roads and place I had no clue existed, I found I-66 West or something. I can't remember, but the point is a figured out a way to get where I was going, but I'm pretty sure the other highway was taking me North or something quite a way out of my way. I finally get there and got teched and my day could finally start. Seriously, I should never be allowed to drive without a co-driver, more on that later.

So I forgot to mention, I got a helmet of my own before this race. Its the snazzy black one in my profile pic. Its a flat black o'neal one with very nice padding inside. Very comfy, and it looks pretty badass. The screen comes off easily too, which is really good for a hot day like this was.

Anyway, my dad ran his G35 first and did pretty well. All of his runs were pretty good and his times only got better throughout the day. He was actually pretty brave with his nice new car. He got the rear out a decent amount, but I'm not sure it helped his times much. My runs were pretty close to a disaster. This group loves to make challenging courses, and this one was pretty mean. The first time, I just lost track of where the track was and pretty much forfeited the run. The second and third runs went well, except for these damned cones at the end of the center straightaway. They were used twice for the two loops. They matched the second loop's path pretty well, but were completely bizarre for the first loop. Basically, the straightaway curved to the right approaching a hard right turn. But the last pair was WAY off to the left. Almost everytime I just reacted and went to the right of the pair because that just made more sense.

I was a little annoyed but still had fun. My afternoon runs went better. I got my dad to co-drive the first run, but he sucks at it and I still made the same mistake. The last two runs I got one of the instructors to co-drive and not only made it through the course but got some good tips and dropped two seconds from the first full run to the next. I wish I had known the course earlier and could have ran it right, cause I think I could have improved a lot more.

I talked to a couple good people too. I talked to this woman who turned out to have a nice WRX. She was pretty nice, and didn't look half bad, but she was married and probably a little too old for me. Otherwise, I don't think I would have hesitated to get her number.

I also talked to this guy with a turbo'ed RS. It was one nice car and he had some good runs. So I talked to him about his setup and all. Good conversation, not sure why I felt the need to share all this here though.

They posted the results to the race today. Even though I had the second to last raw time , I had the 11th best indexed time out of something like 70 or 80 racers. So even though I was still slow as shit, I had one of the best improvements in my skill there. I'm pretty happy about that. Not only cause I got, I think 93 points, for it, but I can still improve a ton, so my next race should be really good, and have one of the top indexed times.