Buenos Dias Mexico......

Wow! What a season! It's had its ups and downs for sure. We have reached the finale in Mexico City. Finally... I think I resonate a big 'whew!' for all crew members involved. This season has seemed to be especially long. But the end finally came!!
Most arrived in Mexico, and asked 'Are we done, can we go home now?'. The weekend started normally, unloading the trucks and setting up our garages. The truckies had most of this work done already by the time the team landed and made the van ride to the race course. The cars were setup and we were out of the track en route to the hotel. By this point in the season many people just stay at the hotel during their evenings. I'm not sure if it's because we're in Mexico or it's the end of the season and we're just tired!
Friday morning practice rolled around and the cars went out for their warmup lap. Nelson got 3/4 of the way around the circuit and I heard a phrase no gearbox guy wants to hear...'I think 5th and 7th are backwards!'. I looked at the engineers on the timing stand and they confirmed the mishap. This is a mistake all gearbox guys who've worked with a Lola gearbox have made. About 15 minutes later the switch was complete, we poured the oil back in and Nelson was on his way.
Dan had a pit lane incident coming back in after his warmup lap. He banged up the car a fair amount, but the crew repaired it in time to qualify later that afternoon. The rest of practice and qualifying was uneventful. We didn't set the world on fire, but qualified alright.

Warmup was pretty normal, no issues to speak of. Everyone was ready to go racing. The green flag dropped for our final battle of the season and the carnage began. Not even off of the front straightaway, three cars were involved in a scuffle which left two cars without front wings! One of these cars was hometown hero Mario Dominguez. You could hear the crowd 'boo' over the roar of the cars as they passed the pit lane. Dan had radio issues early on in the event and pitted to try to resolve the problem. He later had an issue with a mysterious situation which would stall the engine when he would down shift. We later found a faulty line coupling was the culprit. Nelson had a decent run keeping himself alive to finish 7th, which secured his 4th place finish in a very competitive championship points battle. We were happy to be able to garner 4th position; competing with much larger and better funded teams!

Well, a van ride and a couple of flights later, we were back on our home soil and finished with a grueling season of ChampCar racing. Looking forward to the promise of next year, but happy to have some rest! Adios...