Friday
9:00am - Practice session
Rain, rain...
and more
rain.
Disconnected
the anti-roll bars and put on rain
tires. Some people didn't even
go out since it was going to be dry the
rest of the weekend.
Running
just one session in the wet doesn't help
too much because you drive a
different
line through the corners than on a dry
track. It was fun though
to
spend the session sliding around!
With such a slippery track, it
makes the car feel like it's got 800
horsepower - able to spin the
tires
at any time!
Friday
5:30pm - National
Qualifying
This
session went very
well with
little
traffic at first. A cloudy, cool
evening meant the lap times
would
be fast, and fast they were. I
turned a 1:28.86 but then the very
next lap I ran into some
traffic. While attempting to
pass
another
car in turn 1, we hit
side-to-side. It bent my
steering arm and
broke
a rod end.... resulting in my
departure from the track. I only
managed
to get 10 laps in all session.
Saturday
9:00am -
Regional "Festival Trophy Dash"
Qualifying
Another
cloudy, cool
session led to
another
fast qualifying period. In fact
the track record was broken, only
it wasn't by me. I had traffic
the whole session and only managed
to get 3 clean laps out of 16.
My best time was slightly better
at
1:28.82, this was good enough
for 2nd on the grid.
Saturday
2:50pm -
National Race
Starting on
pole
position for the
first
time in my life, I led the field to a
slow and steady start. The
first corner had me and the 2nd place
guy side by side. And again
through turn 2, but I got forced out
on the exit and took up a spot
directly
behind him. As we went into turn
4, someone hit me from
behind.
I managed to keep control of the car
without losing any
positions.
In turn 7 the leader slid slideways,
which gave me a good run on him
through
the back straight. I passed him
before turn 10 and ran away with
the victory leading flag to
flag. It was my first win.
Saturday
6:00pm -
Regional "Festival Trohpy Dash" Race
Again on
the front row,
this time I
was
starting from position #2, and
followed the leader through the first
part
of the track. After he bobbled
in turn 6 I got a good run on the
back straight and made my pass.
Then a couple laps later he
passed
me back going into turn 1. I
decided to follow him closely, and
chose
not to fight for position, in hopes
that we could work together in the
draft to put some distance between us
and the rest of the pack.
After
4 laps I went for a pass on the back
straight again. He then
followed
me for 2 laps, spinning in the chicane
breaking a his suspension.
This left me with a good lead.
However, it didn't last long as
the
yellow flag came out to remove his
broken car. This closed up the
gap I had on the rest of the
field. The restart went very
smooth
and there wasn't much of a
battle. I was able to drive away
for
another
victory!
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