Rainy Day, Go Away

I like racing in the rain, actually make that, I love racing in the rain. It's a minority opinion I know, but I'm okay with that. Even better than racing in the rain is racing in intermediate, iffy conditions. Where one minute the track's dry, then wet, then damp. At a long track like the Glen, it could be pouring and slippy at one end of the circuit and bone dry and sunny at the other. Grip in one corner one lap, none the next. What's not to like?

While the winter has been non-existent in the Northeast here, the last half of the 944 Cup season was wet. Blindingly, hurricane wet racing. And I mean it literally. Hurricane Irene barreled over New Jersey while the Cuppers were at the track. I luckily missed that weekend as I had to work instead. Summit Point Saturday was  torrential rain and fog. Even our Nationals was under a pouring black cloud.

One of the things that sucks at a rain race is visibility. Pack 20+ cars on a rainy track with poor drainage and it quickly becomes almost impossible to see anything. Heading into turn one at the start of the race is pretty hairy. All you can do is follow the car in front of you and hope that you don't become "that guy".

rain light in action

While watching Formula 1 after the end of our season I noticed those FIA rain lights the cars were running. A little bit of research and I found a supplier. I made the proposal to Dave (Cup Daddy) and he agreed it was a good idea and added it to our rules for 2012.

I got my car back from Behe's this weekend, and the first order of business was to install my new FIA rain light.

Installed in the center panel between the brakelights

And since when it will be used, it will probably be gray and dark, I made the switch lighted on the console.

While this may not keep me from being "that guy", hopefully it will prevent somebody behind me from running into me and becoming "that guy".