A Little Bit Of Rain. . .

So the engines were alive at Indy again this past weekend.  It was the inaugural Brickyard Grand Prix.  NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray was able to put his Daytona Prototype on the pole, but it was the Starworks Motorsports duo of Sebastian Bourdias and Alex Popow who brought home the trophy.  Andy Lally and John Potter took GT honors.  The only things wrong with this event was, it was run on Friday afternoon.  I can’t imagine the ratings were very high, and that is a shame, because it was an excellent race.  It rained very hard for the moments leading up to the start, and then cleared off as the cars got on the track, but Mother Nature kept it interesting by raining about 45 minutes later.  It was a very entertaining race to watch, and I loved watching the drivers in the rain.

           I love racing in the rain, for 2 reasons I guess.  First- and this is plainly economical- the race goes on, no matter what.  Second- Rain is the great equalizer.  If you watched the Brickyard GP, you saw that in the rain; the GT cars were faster than the DP cars- Speed isn't always fast in the rain.  The rain separates the true racers from the pretenders.  When I attended Bertil Roos- it rained quite a bit.  So for me, the first time on a road course was in the rain.

            Its funny, most guys hate the rain.  I mean- it is scary as anything you’ll do.  135 mph and you can’t see 30 feet in front of you.  The brakes lock up right away, and the car pushes and twitches all the time and you can’t get on the power hard.  Its frustrating, mentally draining, physically exhausting- and that’s why I love it.

            Throw the set-ups out the window (for the most part), and all your onboard telemetry doesn’t do you any good, its just you and your racecar.  Don’t get me wrong- its you and your racecar all the time- but there is something different when it rains.  I will never forget what Dennis Machio (owner/instructor of Bertil Roos School) said to me- “Constant evaluation of the track and the conditions- the track is never the same lap to lap; even corner to corner.  Its either getting worse or its getting better- almost never does it stay the same.  A driver that can accurately assess the conditions and make the necessary changes is going to be fast.”  You know what?  He’s right.  I hope it pours at Nationals.

            As for me, I am fulfilling family obligations this week/weekend.  My sister-in-law is getting married out of town, so my wife and I are helping her get ready for that.  While I haven’t been in the shop- that doesn’t mean progress isn’t being made.  The guys have been hard at work and we think we have a good handle on what happened at Pocono- and by "we" I mean "they" because they're doing the work.  They've gone back to the drawing board and are confident that when we roll into Summit Point we will have it fixed.

            So, when I get back in town- I’m going to head over to the shop and check in with everybody; but until then I’m helping my family out.  Remember, follow me @justinonderko, and check out the website (www.justinonderko.com)- we have some new video up from Pocono.  Until next week. . .