So this is normally where I talk about all of the racing results from the past week. While I will give kudos to Dale Jr. for his first win in 4 years, I’m not going to spend a lot of time any other team’s results. I want to give proper thanks to MY crew for their efforts this weekend.
We got a very late start Friday night on our way to Summit Point Raceway. I had some trouble with animals at the shop, and a groundhog climbed into the engine bay of our tow vehicle and had himself a snack on my wiring harness. After we got the mess straightened out we set off down I-81S towards Summit Point.
We arrived around got a spot in the pits, (one of the last that were available) and headed to the hotel for some much needed sleep. The only problem, we had to be back at the track in less than 3 hours, it was going to be a long day.
I have to give a shout-out to Holiday Inn Express, every time my wife and I have traveled in the last couple of years, we have always been very happy with our stay. This past weekend was no different, after a quick power nap we were having breakfast and leaving for the track.
This was our very first race with NASA, and it was also HyperFest, which is one of the biggest races that are held for NASA. The pits were packed, the teams were hard at work, and the driver’s were signing autographs. As for my crew, they rolled the car out of the trailer, and polished it up, all the work was done- that’s a rule in our organization- all work is done before the car is loaded up. I went to and returned from the driver’s meeting with the schedule for the day. Our morning practice wasn’t for another hour, so we watched turn 10 for a little while.
I do not often get nervous at the racetrack; it is more like a second job to me anymore than anything else. For me it’s where things make sense, and I feel like I have some sort of control over things. This weekend, however, was different. Not only did I have a brand new racecar, it was a brand new track, and I hadn’t even been able to shake the car down. “Go big or go home, right?”
Practice came and went and I spent the entire session learning and figuring out the car. We ended up 7th overall on the speed charts, which wasn’t bad considering PT-A (our class) wasn’t supposed to be able to compete with the cars in our group (SU GTS ST ST2). I didn’t really want to make any changes to the car; I just needed more laps in it.
Qualifying saw us lose a little bit of speed from the morning session, but I think it was due more to the heat of the day than anything else. We wound up starting 6th in the first wave. In this type of racing the start is made up of 3 waves, or evenly divided groups based on speed and class. The waves are spaced out and take the green about 30 seconds apart. It aids in track congestion, and also spaces out the action for the fans.
The green flag for our Main Event flew around and I raced hard with the cars in my group. In road racing, there is so much more to worry about, you not only race the cars in the group for the overall win, but you race the cars in your class for a class win as well. You can’t get wrapped up in racing with someone if it doesn’t benefit you at the end of the day. I ran in the top 10 for most of the race, but got passed on the last lap when I moved over for the overall leader to go by. We did win our class, though, and that is what we came to do. We had a lot of people drop by our pit area after the race was over. Turns out we made a splash with the new car. A lot of people liked the way it looked and sounded, and it was really cool to have that many people drop by.
Sunday was a much nicer day for us, we were able to get a full night’s sleep, and come to the track well rested. After a quick wipe down, the car was gone over for the day’s events. We decided to make a gear change, to get a little more top end out of it. We seemed to get beat coming off the corner and down the straights on Saturday. We figured by dropping the final drive ratio, we would be able to get a little bit more out of each gear.
It worked like a charm and qualifying went great- except for lap 7, when yours truly had his first off track excursion. I overdrove turn 5 and locked up the RF tire and slid off the track into the grass. With no real damage, other than to my ego, I got back on the track and headed for the pits. No sense in continuing if something was wrong.
Sunday’s Main Event was scheduled for . We were again the first wave, and supposed to start 6th again. However, 5th and 3rd place had catastrophic failures and could not make the start. I’ll take the spots anyway I can get them. The start was fast and we piled into turn 1, the leaders got loose and checked up- in turn I checked the structural integrity of 3rd place’s rear bumper with my front bumper. In case you’re wondering, he needs another piece of tubing to stiffen it up.
With cars that were roughly the same speed as mine, I was able to run the corners faster and make my way to the front. I passed for the overall group lead on lap 6 going into turn 1. The problem with that was 2 GTS (a class much higher than mine) cars passed me 4 corners later. That means, while I did pace the field for a short time, I wasn’t given credit for leading a lap. I kept the leaders in sight for most of the race, just in case they did anything stupid. I was on track to finish on the podium overall, and win my class again.
Sometimes the racing gods smile on you, and sometimes they don’t. I’m not sure what happened, but with 2 laps to go, we ran out of fuel. We don’t have a very big fuel cell, but our calculations had us making the distance, but not with a lot to spare. The bad news is we lost the podium finish, I think the good news is that we had enough laps on the field that we won our class again. We will make sure and let everyone know.
I want to thank everyone who is involved with our organization; you have all been a part in the big changes and moves forward. I want to thank OC2 Interactive, it was nice to carry you on the side of the car this week, and I look forward to working with you guys this season. Everyone needs to check these guys out; they specialize in web based design projects, and if you need to get noticed- talk to them-“on time and in budget”.
Mostly, it was good to get back to the track, the sights, the smells, the sounds- you just can’t go to long without being there. I look forward to Pocono in July, we have an appearance up that way Saturday night as well, so that should be fun. Check us out on youtube, we will have video from this past weekend, incar- roofcam- as well as driver cam. Till Next Week. . .
Justin, we are so proud to be racing with you! You've got a LOT of people supporting you here...way to go!
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