With the cessation of the rain, I noticed that the small block's temp was climbing a bit faster than normal, then suddenly I remembered that I had pulled the t-stat before we started racing today...another of my attempts at gaining ground on the Camaro. It's been quite frustrating to have that much heat in the engine before each pass, so I thought that maybe if I could keep the heat out of it, it might pick up some.
"How much further to the first checkpoint?" I asked Aaron.
"About five miles", he checked the sheet, "and it will be the only checkpoint on this route."
"Hmmm", I wondered aloud, "with only one checkpoint this early into the route, you have to think some guys will just chuck the sheet, and punch in the fastest route to their motels."
"Probably", Aaron agreed, "That would make Robert and Darren happy."
"Yeah, well they have that option, I guess, but we will stick with it. We're going to have to re-install the t-stat when we hit the checkpoint though, because once this cloud cover burns off, she's going to overheat!"

We turned into a damp, rocky, gravel parking lot, and I scraped one of the stainless mufflers on the entrance, but luckily we weren't going to need to crawl under the car, so it would suffice!