Missed Opportunities...

   Have you ever wanted to relive a five minute section of your life before?  It happened to us yesterday and it will take me a while to recover from it.  On our way into Augascalentes we were being escorted by the police to the Parc Isla where the driver's meeting and service area for the night would be.  Knowing that the car needed to be full of fuel to make weight, Dad and I discussed pulling into one of the 5 Pemex stations along the way to fill up in case of a surprise weigh in (which has never happened in the history of LaCarrera).  We were very tired and didn't want to think so we opted to not stop so we wouldn't have to navigate our way through the busy foreign city on our own.  Five minutes.  That is the time it would have taken to stop for gas and since we were driving in on fumes, the 132 pounds of fuel load would have made us pass the first time ever surprise technical inspection.  We didn't pass.  72 pounds light and no variance for fuel load would be given so the car was immediately disqualified from the event.  Yesterday we were the fastest car in EVERY speed stage again excluding the unlimited Subaru of Kevin and Mark.  We gained 1:20  on the race leader and for the first time this week I felt that we really had a chance of making up the penalty from our rookie timing error.  If you ever come down to LaCarrera to race remember that your A time plus your section time equals your Z time.  Say it. A + Section = Z.  Live by it.  That all doesn't matter now as we are an Exibition car  just like last year and can only race for the fastest time which will not be recognized by the officials.  That is our job now, the fastest time for the whole event which was our desire all along but now it is all we have to look forward to until next year since we will not be scored as the race winner even if we are.

   Thank you all for your support over these last days.  It was hard to keep going at times but knowing all of you are watching from home really helped keep us driven during the really hard times.  My goal this year to bring the world class trophy from the LaCarrera Panamericana home to Washington will have to wait until next year but in our hearts we all know who really should be standing on the top of the podium tomorrow evening.  I can't wait to come home and see all of you. It feels like I have been gone forever.  I miss my family, I miss church, I miss going to work and doing what I love to do with the best fabricators in the country.  I will not miss having to use hand signals to communicate because I do not know the language. I will be home Friday evening and will talk to you all this weekend.