NASA Texas held an event at COTA over Memorial Day weekend. The field was on the smallish side and didn't have names like Haldeman, Drago and Steyn attending but it was a very fun and well run event.
Sat Qual:
(99) Daniel Williams (X-Factor) 2:44.759
(VVT) Lee Thomas (X-Factor) 2:44.985
(VVT) Mark Drennan (other) 2:45.239
(1.6) Danny Soufi (X-Factor) 2:45.514
(1.6) Vaughn Duarte 2:45.527
I didn't know how I would feel after a night of celebrating my birth week so I didn't sign up for the practice day. This translated into a less than stellar qualifying effort. I could not string together a clean lap and pressed too hard to make it happen, on both of my best laps coming into turn 11 I didn't pump the brakes enough and my pedal went to the floor both times. We rarely race on a surface that has rumbles we cross on both sides of the car, this leads to kick back on both sides and requires serious pumping to get the pedal back. Excuses aside I managed a solid P10.
Sat Race: Starting 10th in a 30 minute race wasn't the worst thing in the world but it wasn't going to make my job easy. By lap one I was in 8th and lap two i was in 6th. Starting to get a feel for the track and how it would race I was getting much more comfortable. Unfortunately Daniel Williams had no pressure from the start and managed to pull about a 2 second gap on Drennan and a further 2 second gap to P3 which by lap 5 of 9 was me. I put my head down and tried to run clean laps but without a push I wasn't making headway on either of those two excellent drivers. We were all doing DE laps, Drennan and I were hoping that lapped traffic from the 944s would bring back Williams but it was not to be.
Excellent drive by Dan Williams in the X-Factor rental!! Up to this point the 04's worst finish in any race has been a p3. Chris put this car together in a week and half just before NOLA. It was an SM that needed a complete refresh and it appears it has the heart of champion after its buff and polish session.
Forgot to mention my entire family was at the track this weekend and we even had my daughters boyfriend and father in town from Tupelo, Mississippi. They were visiting UTSA and Texas State football coaches and found time to hang with us at the track.
Sun Qual:
Determined not to be out of the race before it started I was very focused on driving smooth in this session. The grid order for qual was set by fastest lap in Saturday's race and I was starting p3 behind Drennan and Williams. I was out with my good friend Trevor McAllion and hoped we could put up a good lap by working the draft and some pushing by Trevor down the straights.
We left a gap and started to push late on the out lap. I almost immediately dropped Trevor and on the first hot lap and as I crossed SF saw that I was in P1 and was gaining on the two rabbits without a push I just kept it as smooth as i could and hoped the time would be good. As I came to SF on hot lap two I knew i had a great lap going and was anxious to finish it cleanly. I had gained about 5 length on the two rabbits and was sure I was a solid P1 and pulled back to help push Trevor. All my smooth went out the window once I tried to be too perfect and missed a shift out of 11 and missed the opportunity to help my team mate. We both pulled in and I felt my time was as good as I could get. I was over .4 up on p2 when I came in and went was thinking I was all that!
Ross 2:43.400
Drennan 2:43.470
Duarte 2:43:813
Williams 2:43.840
Crickenberger 2:43.931
Drennan stayed out the entire session and managed to pull off a flyer on lap 5 that was right there with me.
The race was about 2 hours away and my entire family was going to be there to root for their favorite driver who was on pole. No pressure!