Pat continues to pilot the beast for about an hour before getting black flagged. It's our first offense for the weekend, so the judges go easy on us. Penalty: Driver change and back on the track.
Next up is Mike who also turns in some fast laps before also being black flagged. The passenger is no longer happy, but more importantly, the judges are mad as hell.
Penalty: The whole team is tied together and must walk the length of the entire paddock and back wrapped in caution tape to display our shame.
After the shaming, a driver change was required. My turn. Back on the track. I'm instructed by my teammates to take it easy. This is an easy assignment. I'm doing it. Taking it easy. Until I spin and flip the car (yes that's right) in the exit of turn one. The driver behind me noted the brand of muffler we were using as I presented the soft underbelly of the beast while in mid-air. I landed right side up and was groping around for the start button when Shawn called on the radio to ask if I was OK. More groping around, this time for the radio microphone. Yes I'm fine. Yes yes wait for the safety crew. I guess I'm done.
Thanks to the engineers at Chrysler and also to Mike Maier for building a stout roll cage.
I'm given a lift back to the pit and the car is towed in. There is minimal damage. Two flat tires and a scraping fan shroud. All is fixed in short order.
The judges say we can't go back out. We are banned for the rest of the season (three days). Their word is final. More shame. Sorry, team.
The passenger is sad.
On the bright side, I am relatively undamaged and so is the car. Mike drove the car 150 miles home last night without incident.
All in all, not a bad weekend.
More later.
For coverage of the event go to Jalopnik.
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