We didn't make it to the two West Coast races, Laguna Seca and Phoenix. Logistically, it was just goint to be too difficult for us to pull it off.
Right now the car is being prepared for the Lime Rock Park race, which is the end of May. Lime Rock is a relatively short track, only about 1.5 miles around.
Our ST cars will have our own race Saturday afternoon (normally we race with the GS cars on track at the same time) and right now it looks to be about 30-35 cars. That should help keep the number of cautions down to a reasonable number.
However Lime Rock presents its own challenges - there aren't a lot of places to pass without taking risks. The front straight going into turn 1 is the best opportunity, and if you can get a run coming down the diving turn leading onto it, then the RX-8 should be able to pass folks under braking going into Big Bend. But the rest of the track is pretty tight. The right / left esses are difficult places to pass - if you dive under someone going into the first ess, all they have to do is keep you on the outside going into the second one. The no-name straight is really pretty short and it winds a bit, so its easy to get blocked and its difficult to get enough run on somebody before the uphill turn at the end of it. Likewise the "back straight" is very short, but if you launch better coming up the uphill turn leading onto it, sometimes it's possible to get on the inside of cars going into West Bend. If you don't manage to do that, your next opportunity is to get on the inside of them coming down the "diving turn" - the downside is that two cars going side-by-side through this turn will almost certainly give up "exit speed" onto the front straight. So if a crafty driver behind you takes the turn better, he will pick off both of you on the front straightaway.
Also its been a rather rainy spring for them in the northeast. Expect a lot of cars to go off track, and get stuck in some of the boggy areas surrounding the pavement, particularly in the esses. And there are a few areas with little or no runoff. So it will be important to keep the car on track. And if it rains (like it has been for the past month), all bets are off!
It should be an interesting race. Stay tuned for an update.
Mark