Sunday's Race
The weather forecast Saturday afternoon was 100% rain from 7 am to noon. Chris and I talked after the race and tried to figure out what i did to cook my little engine. I have a nasty habit of bad shifting. Previous race weekend had a money shift, not the first one on this engine, At some point I actually bent the shift lever, take a look at the way its made and you will know I am brute force shifter from time to time. With the engine gone and wanting to qualify for the runoffs, I only had 3 finishes in 5 races and thought I needed to get a 4th finish to qualify. Chris didn't hesitate, he said take the back up car and race it tomorrow. I hadn't turned a lap in the new car and it was set up for him so we had some work to do to get it ready for Sunday. It was a huge sacrifice for Chris to step aside because we both wanted to win the last race at TWS so badly it is all we prepped for all year. It is why we built the second car so Chris and I, who started in Spec Miata together, could go out and win the last big race at the track. Nothing seemed to be going right for us this weekend. I would be starting last in a large, talented field. The goal was to race hard and make as much ground early and just get a finish.
Sunday morning the skies opened up like predicted but about 3 hours earlier than predicted. As we were leaving the hotel the storms were clearing out but the track was going to be covered in water and the ground soaked. Quite possibly the hardest conditions for drivers to guess what to do for set up. I had raced in similar conditions in February and new that a drying track was treacherous and would be difficult at best for many of the participants, impossible for some, especially on dry tires. I expected most of the field to run out on wets, but as people came over they kept telling me they were going on dry tires. I needed to feel the car under me and went out in the hardship session on new rains and was praying it would start raining again. Ran 2 laps and got use to the car, which handles incredibly crisply compared to my VVT. Love the way 99s handle and this one is super crisp, had to slow my hands down tremendously to keep the car under me. Puddles everywhere but only a few were going to affect the racing line and with a big field they would get dried up quickly. Came into the pits amped up very excited, a steward followed me back to the pits and chastised me for driving in the paddock too quickly. I got out and talked to Chris about what I wanted, he thought I might be crazy as I said I want to go on rains and risk the race being shortened. He took as much pressure out of the tires as he dared and sent me on my way to grid. Luke asked me what I was doing and I told him and he trusted me judgment and went on rains also. At grid every car went by was on dries. I knew how slick the track would be early and couldn't have been happier with my choice. On the out lap, I didn't see people aggressively testing their grip and was expecting some chaos at the start. I tried to time the start perfectly but it was waved off and we had to go back around again. The pace was a little quicker on the restart and I didn't hit it nearly as well and was only able to get around the row in front of me until their was contact between Corely and Thomas and both went spinning into the infield, this caused several cars to check up and I just kept the pedal matted and went shooting into the herd at turn 1. The seas parted almost magically and i was able to run though untouched and under control to turn 3 and had already made it to row 5. The double yellows came out in turn 4 as i was mid pass on Steve Ott who was kind enough to give room to show him my drift moves. It seemed like i was one of the few that saw the flags and several folks kept racing though to turn 7 when finally i think everyone got the message and checked up. That put me p9 as we picked up the pace car and did two pace laps to let Corely's car which was stuck in the mud get removed from the track. At this point I knew I had to get to the lead as fast as possible and was not going to miss the restart. I timed it perfectly and got around Ott by the start finish line to P8 and put the car into turn one on full tilt hoping to take advantage of my grip. Hustled the car through 2,3 and 4 and by turn 5 I was in P4 knowing that the slick turns were coming and that my tires would hold (ok praying). I took the inside line at 5 under Taylor at the same time Blake was sliding off track at 6 with Luke squeezing by. Taylor checked up and I lifted just in time as Blake made a miraculous recovery and manged to get the car back on the track without losing it. This checked up my momentum a bit but I knew I could hold the inside line at 7 and hustle 8 and 9 as that is where the dry tires were really struggling. I absolutely nailed those turns and was back onto Luke, who was also on rains, coming into the carousel I was able to squeeze inside under braking and Luke gave me room and I was by cleanly as we went to turn 11. Now in the lead all i could think about was put as much time on the field as I could while the track was still damp. I put my head down drove as clean a lap as I could and stretched my lead to about 6 seconds between the time i passed Luke and the end of the next lap. Blake got around Luke on that lap and was in hot pursuit and I knew I was going to burn my tires down going as hard as was at that time. The next lap i backed it down through turns 1 and 2 to try and save the tires and used them up where it was still slick, this cost me about 1.5 seconds and at the same time Blake was getting his grip and his time was dropping about 2 seconds a lap. This was going to have to end soon if I was too win. Lap 6 had a few cars off in bad spots and lap 7 there were more and I was stunned they hadn't gone double yellow. I knew if they did Blake probably had me as my lead would go away and i wouldn't have enough tire to finish the race. Lap 8 the double yellow came out at turn 5 as emergency vehicles were pouring onto the track in front of us. We came around and picked up the pace car and as we got to turn 4 the corner stand threw the red flag at us. Never been on the track for a red flag and knew it could not have been good. At that very moment i was happy that I probably had won the race but concerned for those off track that were clearly hurt somewhere. Didn't know it was Willie and Lee until we were in impound and they started bringing the cars in.
The result was what we hoped for not the way we hoped for. From last to first in 2 hot laps, sure sad I didn't have video running, it was like no race i have ever been involved in before.
Congrats to Blake for a great result in tough conditions and congrats to Luke for his podium finish.
Chris has struggled to balance racing and working on cars lately and has decided to hang up the helmet for while. Without my qualifying partner I don't need the 72 anymore, it has a pedigree that few others could match in its short life. It has a p2 at Nola Majors, outside Pole at Road Atlanta Majors, would have been better if we found the diff bearing issue sooner. P4 and P1 at TWS Majors, with two different drivers from 13th and 26th respectively. I need to sell it to fund my travels to Runoffs and NASA Nationals. I will sell it for what I have in it, body damage repaired before delivery and single color paint of your choice. 25k.
Thank you to Chris Haldeman of X-Factor racing for being my mentor, mechanic, qualifying partner and friend. The cars have been great this year and I look forward to proving it on even bigger stages in the months to come.
Thank you to all those who congratulated me here and at the track, your respect means more to me than you know.
Thank you to my father, who helps me with the cars financially and physically, my mother who supports us at our hobby and my wife and kids who are generous with their time and allow me to live out my dream of being a race car driver. Hopefully they are proud of me as I am of all of them. They are all so special.
Fit is fast, I will write a book about it in another thread, but at 44 I am in better shape than i was at 24 and without a doubt it has helped my racing.
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The rear camera makes it look like a long distance...how far was it actually from the track to Lees car?
