My team and I were able to get a good night’s rest and we showed up to the track early and ready to qualify. The drivers were split into 2 practice session groups for an hour of practice. I was in the first group and was ready to head out. I drove on grid and due to the amount of drivers I was only going to get in about 2-4 laps within the hour. I got to the starting line for my first lap and I was ready for my run.

I launch off the line and initiate the first turn with no problems then transition to go up the hill when all of a sudden I hear a loud bang, and lose my third gear and hear a lot of rattling coming from my transmission. I immediately get the car to my pit and unfortunately enough my transmission was the culprit. This was already my spare transmission too (my original transmission blew up back home). I tried to drain the oil and all the pieces of broken gear and thought to myself I can maybe qualify with 2^nd and 4^th gear.

    
I took out as many pieces as I could and put new oil in. I took it for a quick test drive and I could still hear many more pieces in. So I contemplated driving it still but struggled with a decision. I figured if I were to drive it like it was and by chance an FD official hears, they will red tag me right away and call it unsafe. Another possibility was if I did try to do at least a qualifying run there was a really good chance that the transmission would break open and spill a lot of gear oil on track. So after much deliberation my team and I decided it would be in the team’s overall best interest to not run the car how it was. We were really bummed out…it seemed as if we had been cursed from the beginning of the season.