Well, the July Sprints were lightly attended, probably because the Majors event was a few weeks prior at the same venue. Understandable for those drivers, but I missed having part of the regular crew around to race with.
That being said, it was a fun weekend......until the end. Here is a short Danny Steyn-esque recap.
Thursday:
I was up for an open track day event with Aaron Povoledo. Great track walk, and good coaching. Had an electrical issue (I actually shorted out the battery!) but a new battery, some wiring changes, and I was back in action. Probably got about 2 hours of track time in.
Friday:
Relaxed, waxed my car, reset my front toe (was 3/16" out....), learned how to string box a car (thank's Ed), and helped Marc Ulan with some video. Good times!
Saturday:
Things were going really well for me. I poled the car in SM2, and was fourth or so in SM (again, light competition). I was really happy with how my 1.6L car was performing. I thought I was a bit slow, but so was everyone else apparently.
Saturday SM2 Qual race: I led the race until I caught lapped traffic twice in the bus stop and the carousel. This let Jason Livingood catch me (along with a blazing lap he had) and he passed me at the line for the win. Congrats to him on that! We went door handle to door handle through the toe of the boot, the heel, the off camber left......then I botched turn 11 from the lead.
Saturday SM Qual Race: Kind of a blur because lots of action. Catania had a mechanical and had to pull out, which left me battling for the podium with Paul Redante, and Ugurlu. Paul got me into the bus stop on the last lap to take third and put me to fourth. At one point we were flying in the draft, and i got down to a 2:20.7 I forget what the fast SM time was.
Sunday:
After an awesome dinner at the new BBQ place, we were ready for Sunday.
In the Pro IT race Kevin A and Yosh H put on a heck of a show. Yosh had his 1.6L down to 2:20.3 or so. Just wanted to shout out to those guys because they had a great race.
Sunday SM2 race: Jason got held up on the start, and I drove around him to take SM2 lead. It took me a lap or two to pass an ITB VW, but then I had clear track for a while with jimmy Locke behind me by a bit. Jason and Paul drafted up and Jason got passed me into the bus stop. He held the lead for the rest of the race, while Paul and I swapped second and third at least once. End result was Jason, Vicktor, Paul.
Sunday SM race: Spec miata happened. See the below video. Paul is ok, but his car is totalled. My car needs a drivers side rear corner I guess. Still haven't taken it apart.
I'm not going to say anything except we need to be leaving each other more room. We were moving at about 105 when Paul got clipped. He got me as he came sliding backwards back across the track (he was just a projectile at that point, not his fault I got hit).
I drove it back in. Paul not so much. I took some time to collect myself and then went to help Paul load his car into his trailer. Thanks to the other 7 or so guys who came to help (especially Smarty and Weaver).
In hindsight, I should have thrown paper if just to make a point that we need to leave eachother some room.
-Vick