The following testimony is from Sergio himself from the fordbastards board
UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE !!!!!
Boy it sure didn't start very well when I cranked the car up to leave for the track Friday AM. The alternator light was on. Looked at the volt gauge, 11.8v. Shit! OK, I'll just drive to work and replace the son of *****. As I drive out onto the street, the light goes out and the volts are at 14.5 or so. Good to go. Get to the track with no more voltage problems. Fine. Found Team Zippy, unload everything and go to tech and the Judges. Start the car and guess who's back? Mr Alternator light. Gave it about 3k rpm a couple times and it goes out. Now what do we do? Go to tech. Pass, no problem. The Judges ask, is this the car that finished top 10 in New Orleans? Yep. OK y'all are good, zero laps.
So now the big question is do we change the alternator? I said I have faith in it cause it made the 50 minute drive without trouble. 9 hours of racing on Saturday will be the test of fire for it. If it makes it, it will probably be good for Sunday too, since the race was a short 6 hours.
Jay starts. Not sure where we started, they threw the green a half a lap after he passed it. Drives for 10 minutes and says the brakes are not stopping well. But then after they get some heat into them they were OK. 3 hours without anymore brake talk, he comes in for gas. I think we were 21st by then. Martin gets in and drives for 2 hours when he says the brake pedal went to the floor once. Then came the report that he could feel the brakes grinding. Great. We told him to keep driving while we got all the stuff ready to do a pad swap. Angela went to get rotors but no one had SHO pads in the Angleton area. No problem, I have some barely used pads that should make it til 6. Martin comes in and we only put pads on cause Angela hadn't returned with the rotors yet. Filled up the tank, put some oil in and away he went. We were 6th before the stop. All the front pads were metal to metal BADLY. WHY? Well, I figured that Performance Friction Carbon Metallic pads were good enough on used rotors. Totaly different from what I used in the last 2 races, new rotors with Porterfield R4 pads. WTF was I thinking?
Anyway, Martin somehow got us into 1st. Then it's my turn to drive at 4:30 to 6pm. Trying to stay out of trouble driving fast but not taking any chances, we finish in 2nd. I don't know how the Blue Balls Neon got a lap on us but numero 2 starting spot for Sunday is excellent. 2 laps down in 3rd is the Rabbit #22, 3 laps down in 4th #38 Team JB Weld, and 5th #88 the Infinity J30, not sure if they were one more lap or the same as the 38. All I know is the first 17 places are 10 laps apart. One penalty and we could be 17th or worse.
Back to the brakes, Angela finds pads in Alvin at Autozone, gets 2 sets of Duralast semi-metalic. New pads and rotors, one new left front tire and one half used RF. Ready for Sunday.
Sunday on the grid, Jay Lamm, LeMons man in charge, comes over and says, "I'm speechless. A SHO in second place." Race starts and on the first lap I pass the Neon coming onto the back straight. Now I'm thinking what we talked about with Angela on Saturday night. You can't win a 500 mile race on the first lap. Drive smart, no stupid risks, especially no low percentage passes. In a couple laps I catch lapped traffic. So here comes 3rd and 4th places passing me. I'm not too worried cause they are 1 and 2 laps behind me. As long as I can keep close to them, I have nothing to worry about. The Neon was still in first but at least I was on the same lap as them. An hour goes by and it starts to rain. Then come some long local cautions for wrecked cars. I thinking, save gas.
Back green, the rain stops and after a while I pass the Neon. I guess we are first. A little later at 11am the time sheets were posted. Martin confirms we are first!!! Then it starts to rain again, RWD cars are spinning out everywhere. There's a big wreck on the front straight, 2 cars, one on it's roof. Both are in the gravel trap. This results in a super long full course caution. Do I get gas? We talk about it. The gauge says half a tank. That's got to be another hour of green flag racing I said. So I'm staying out. Save gas, 5th gear and coasting. The Rabbit and others go in for gas. Then luck struck. Bad for some, good for us. To turn the upsidedown car right they had to use the pit exit road. Pit exit was closed, everyone in the pits was stuck. That took the Rabbit out. When the track was green I just tried to keep the Neon behind, but not take chances. Trying to save as much gas as possible using 3rd in the slower turns instead of second. Staying out of everyones way except the ones that were close.
When the low fuel light came on, Martin and Jay got the gas ready and waited for me. We talked about who's driving next. It turns out neither of them wanted to drive on a wet track, having never done it there before. I hadn't either til that morning... We decide I should go back out. About 12:30 the car sputters out of gas in a turn, I press to talk on the radio and a get a beep tone. WTF? Look at the radio and the battery is about dead. Well I hope they are ready cause I'm coming in. They were waiting along with Tony. While they put 16 gallons in. I look at the front pads, oh crap! There's a quarter inch of pad left on the driver's side, the right was a bit more. Head back out think shit, now I have to save brakes!!! Ok drive hard but no late braking, use the motor for braking. We have plenty of gas. Rain starts again. Then the 2pm time sheet is out. The Neon is on the same lap as us 20 seconds behind. Damn the brakes it's time to go! I can see the Neon at certain parts of the track and watch to see if they are gaining or not. After a few laps I'm slowly leaving them. With about 30 minutes to go they tell me the Neon is in the pits for gas. There's that luck thing again. The 38 is 3 or 4 laps down in 3rd. Alright just drive it to the end. At 2:45 I start to countdown the laps that I think are left as I pass the finish line. At 3pm we take the checkered flag! WOW!
797 total race miles. 4qts of oil. One of the driver's pads was metal to metal at the end. The alternator made it. Drove the car home with 360 lbs of nickels behind me. Got a cool trophy. And best of all we SHO'ed the LeMon's crew that a SHO can win an endurance race!!!
Now is on to New Orleans to score more points for the Gulf Region Championship.
I want to thank my great teammates for their excellent driving and support. And I want to thank my BEST teammate ever, Angela.
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