Well I survived another one. What a crazy weekend, I expect a little rain friday and saturday, we get over 2.5in between midnight friday and noon sunday. At least I have real rain tires to play with this time.
Wake up saturday and guess what, its raining. The system that was supposed to blow through friday just after midnight just blows. Drivers meeting at the very early 7:30 am gets me up and moving but somehow I still feel like Im sleeping. Get back to the paddock and check tire pressures and get some breakfast. I dont know if somebody didnt want me going fast or what but I had over 55psi in three of the four tires. I dropped them down to a reasonable 35 all around and went out for practice.
The track is packed over 50 cars in the small bore group, and with all the rain we had and are still getting visibility kinda sucks, especially down the back straight at 100+mph. I just wanted to take my laps and try and find where there was or wasnt any grip. The car and track feel pretty good and Im passing just about everything I see in front of me.
Qualifying time, and ......rain. I head out to a what should be a green track to find a miata that must have been in a hurry to get pole position for qualifying but for got one thing hood pins. Well at least he parked right next to the track so everybody had to tiptoe through until workers could get him moved. Traffic and yellow flags prevented me from getting a good lap in but I still managed one good enough for second in class and tenth overall.
Time for the race, I make sure to get to grid for the race nice and early ever since the previous year here, qualifying second overall and starting from the back of a split field really sucks. So needless to say I was waiting and getting wet, bc it was still raining. Either everyone else was asleep or I jumped the start but either way I was up to p3 before turn one, pushing the second place car up the hill and around the first series of turns, and up to p2 before the back straight. I tried hard for the first couple laps to catch the overall leader, but I already had the class win in hand and didnt want to through that away. I settled in for a couple laps when a red 944supercup started hounding me for a way through. I slid wide through t2 a couple laps in a row and that gave him room to get beside me and once he was there he went by. I ran the rest of the race with another red 944supercup on my tail, but this one couldnt get by and thats how the race finished. I was happy that the car was still running well and didnt need any work before I would go for the repeat win on sunday.
here is video from saturdays race http://www.vimeo.com/3694909
Sunday morning was more of the same, a real soaker. We were the first session out for qualifying and I was ready. Unfortunately a lot of people went off causing yellow flags and tow vehicles on course. I did what I could but was back in seventeenth overall, but still second in class. This time third in class would only be one spot back on the race start, so I would have to be ready on the green flag.
While there was a chance that the clouds would break early enough to get the track dry it wasn't to be. Rain tires stayed on for all that had them and it was time to race. Once again I got a great start running past several rows down the front straight. But I had a fellow H2 driver behind me and that wasn't enough. We ran together for 5-6 laps before I saw an opportunity. We were already coming up on lap traffic and I made the pass, I took four cars under braking down at the end of the back straight, he only managed one. I took that small gap that formed and continued to stretch it out for the remainder of the race. I even passed the 944 and bmw e30 that got me the day before but a M3 took overall. I ended up with another first in class and a second overall for my work.
Sorry video wasnt rolling sunday, but hopefully I can find some pics soon
pic of the pass that got me some breathing room sunday
and some others trying to keep up
Wake up saturday and guess what, its raining. The system that was supposed to blow through friday just after midnight just blows. Drivers meeting at the very early 7:30 am gets me up and moving but somehow I still feel like Im sleeping. Get back to the paddock and check tire pressures and get some breakfast. I dont know if somebody didnt want me going fast or what but I had over 55psi in three of the four tires. I dropped them down to a reasonable 35 all around and went out for practice.
The track is packed over 50 cars in the small bore group, and with all the rain we had and are still getting visibility kinda sucks, especially down the back straight at 100+mph. I just wanted to take my laps and try and find where there was or wasnt any grip. The car and track feel pretty good and Im passing just about everything I see in front of me.
Qualifying time, and ......rain. I head out to a what should be a green track to find a miata that must have been in a hurry to get pole position for qualifying but for got one thing hood pins. Well at least he parked right next to the track so everybody had to tiptoe through until workers could get him moved. Traffic and yellow flags prevented me from getting a good lap in but I still managed one good enough for second in class and tenth overall.
Time for the race, I make sure to get to grid for the race nice and early ever since the previous year here, qualifying second overall and starting from the back of a split field really sucks. So needless to say I was waiting and getting wet, bc it was still raining. Either everyone else was asleep or I jumped the start but either way I was up to p3 before turn one, pushing the second place car up the hill and around the first series of turns, and up to p2 before the back straight. I tried hard for the first couple laps to catch the overall leader, but I already had the class win in hand and didnt want to through that away. I settled in for a couple laps when a red 944supercup started hounding me for a way through. I slid wide through t2 a couple laps in a row and that gave him room to get beside me and once he was there he went by. I ran the rest of the race with another red 944supercup on my tail, but this one couldnt get by and thats how the race finished. I was happy that the car was still running well and didnt need any work before I would go for the repeat win on sunday.
here is video from saturdays race http://www.vimeo.com/3694909
Sunday morning was more of the same, a real soaker. We were the first session out for qualifying and I was ready. Unfortunately a lot of people went off causing yellow flags and tow vehicles on course. I did what I could but was back in seventeenth overall, but still second in class. This time third in class would only be one spot back on the race start, so I would have to be ready on the green flag.
While there was a chance that the clouds would break early enough to get the track dry it wasn't to be. Rain tires stayed on for all that had them and it was time to race. Once again I got a great start running past several rows down the front straight. But I had a fellow H2 driver behind me and that wasn't enough. We ran together for 5-6 laps before I saw an opportunity. We were already coming up on lap traffic and I made the pass, I took four cars under braking down at the end of the back straight, he only managed one. I took that small gap that formed and continued to stretch it out for the remainder of the race. I even passed the 944 and bmw e30 that got me the day before but a M3 took overall. I ended up with another first in class and a second overall for my work.
Sorry video wasnt rolling sunday, but hopefully I can find some pics soon
pic of the pass that got me some breathing room sunday
and some others trying to keep up
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