This year, my friend Ankur joined me in the goonery. We left Friday evening from LA in our designated race car, Mrs. Harper, my ’98 Mercedes SL 500.

Tech was still in the Sierra Cafe parking lot, but we didn’t see anyone since we got there pretty late. We didn’t see anyone in the Dow Villa hospitality suite; later, we found out that this year’s hospitality suite was at the Best Western Frontier Motel.

We checked in at the usual Dow Villa Motel in the heart of “downtown” Lone Pine and grabbed a couple beers at Jake’s Saloon. Just as we were about to leave, we ran into Earl, Pat, and Scott. The drinking and talking continued until closing time.

4 hours later, we had to wake up and get ready for a long day of working/running at the Manzanar Airstrip. For Saturday, we left the hard top on & roll bar engaged because off roading last year was something I didn’t want to repeat but wanted to be as prepared for as possible. The course was back to the original awesome high speed & safer (compared to 2009) layout.

The banquet was fun and we won some neat door prizes! I decided to finally helmet ears spread the love this year & gave some cat/dog/fox/whatever they are helmet ears out. The helmet ear invasion will spread across autox parking lots across the state now, haha.

Despite my super conservative driving, I managed to get a 3rd place finish in Street Modified, YAY!

I loved the after party @ Jake’s Saloon on Saturday, it was really nice to unwind and hang out with everyone off the track. I don’t know if it was a good idea to drink so much beer and sleep another 3-4 hours before the Sunday race, but it was definitely worth it!

I finally ran Sunday’s course for the first time this year, and boy it was fast! Can’t wait for the 2011 41st Anniversary Lone Pine Time Trials!