Racing at a track like this with open-wheel cars has every prospect of winding up like a demolition derby of bumper cars at the county fair on a Saturday night. For additional merriment I propose that every driver pledge to show up with a blood-alcohol content of not less than 0.2%. I'm working on my second bottle of wine right now.

All was going according to plan until about half distance or so. The front tyres got very hot. I had to brake earlier & use the gears to slow the car. Even so I had a couple of brushes with the scenery which meant giving up places to Dave & Albert without much of a fight. Albert was rather unlucky on the last lap running across Eric’s Cooper with a sick engine. I got one place back that I did not really deserve.
Getting to the chequered flag at Laguna is a bit of an accomplishment, so not too disappointing.

I qualified tenth with a 1:11.xx, then with about ten minutes remaining on the clock filled up the tank to practice with a full load in the Honda. A few minutes later I cranked out a 1:10.xx, a PB, and moved up a couple of slots in the ladder. Who knew?

With some early retirements in the first half-dozen laps I found myself lying fifth overall, cruising along at the same pace behind Ricardo and managing to keep Billy at bay. But the whale is clearly not a competitive car at tight, gnarly tracks like this. Eventually the leaders showed up in my mirrors, along with the ever-present Billy, now joined by Dave Curtis. I managed to let the leaders by but quickly thereafter made a small mistake. Billy and Dave overtook me and began to disappear. Albert next showed up with laps two or three seconds better than mine, and I let him through without a fight.

The evening looked like a wash, what with qualifying eighth and finishing eighth. But simply completing a race here at speed in the whale is no mean accomplishment, so I took the checkered flag with a smile. With five races in the Honda now behind me, I can look forward to the remainder of the season in much faster cars. It's about time.