June 5th 2020, we had one of our private open track days with ApexTrackExperience.com. I pulled the Radical out of the trailer, checked the oil, and torqued the wheels. The tire pressures were at my normal high starting points, and I needed to jump into the car and get some heat in them so I could pull back in and set my hot pressures. The car had a fresh set of rubber on it, and I was looking forward to going for a personal best. My previous best was a 1:11.7.
I jumped in the car and took her out for a few warm up laps. As you can see, I didn't even suit up because I was simply going to do a couple of warm up laps and come back in to bleed down the tires. Well, I'm not sure what got into me, but the next thing I knew, I was getting after it a little. Then, on a pretty casual lap with a little traffic, I clicked off a 1:11. I decided to turn it up a little and click off a couple of faster laps. To my surprise, I wound up clicking off two 1:10.7s (personal bests at Roebling) back to back on way too much tire pressure. I brought the car into the pits and set the tire pressures confident that I would break into the 0s the next time out. Unfortunately, the starter motor failed, ending the day. We all still had a blast hanging out! Our next Apex track day is October 2nd. I'm confident I will join the 0s club then.