New Jersey Motorsports Park
Thursday - This was my first time running at New Jersey Motorsports Park and I'd watched several videos before getting on track the first time just to get the track layout in my head. First practice session gave me a great feel of the track and I didn't plan on laying any fast laps down this session but the track really came to me and I ended up with P6 times. Second session comes around and I let Ryan Eversley, my coach, drive for the first half of the session. Our times were about the same, with Ryan about 3 tenths faster than me. This put us at P5 for that session. Great day... everything seemed to be fitting into place.
Friday - Friday brought another day of practice for us at NJMP. We opted to continue to run on the old tires rather than put on a new set like several other teams did. This didn't hinder our times compared to everyone else too bad. The first session brought us in with a P10 time, made sense though considering the new vs old tires. The second session evened out the field once again and gave us a P7 time. Not a bad last session before qualifying.
Saturday - Qualifying always seems difficult for me and I'm still trying to work out the kinks of laying down a HUGE lap right off the bat. After having such great practice times I went out and could only muster a P12 qualifying time. It's not that bad, I'd just have to work my way up during the race and shoot for the BF-Goodrich "Take Control" award for gaining the most positions.
Sunday - RAIN, RAIN, RAIN! So much rain on Sunday. After debating all morning about what the weather was going to do it was pretty clear right before the race... it started to come down pretty hard. Awesome, I thought, a rain race. This is going to be fun. We bolted up the BF-Goodrich all-weather tires and prepared to get into line. We went out for our out-lap and I saw a few cars ahead of me Dan Aweida spun out going into the turn 3 chicane. I knew it was going to be slick out there after seeing that and the only way to do well in the race was going to be patience and car control. As we pull on the front straight all the cars bunch up waiting for the green flag to drop, I hear Ryan give me the call over the radio that the green had dropped... I couldn't see a thing. The rooster tails from the cars in front of me had my vision down to about 10%. I relied on Ryan to let me know if I was clear for turn 1, he didn't let me down, we all made it through turn 1 just as clean as could be. After all the cars got into single file and started to spread out, the rooster tails went away and I was finally able to see. I started picking off positions as I saw able and got up to 8th after a few quick laps. Things got a little bit tricky when I was punted in the rear by Andrew Hendricks which sent me spinning off the track between turns 7 and 8. This put me back into the last position. Not so bad, I thought... I just worked my way up from 12th to 8th, I should be able to do it again, I've got plenty of time. So, again, I start picking off cars as I catch them and eventually work my way up to 6th place with about 10 minutes to go in the race. I'm really excited at this point thinking I'm about to get my career best finish in the Mustang Challenge... IN THE RAIN! All of a sudden, going in to turn 4 the wheels lock up under braking and I go sliding off the track extremely fast. The ABS went out. THE ABS WENT OUT. IN. THE. RAIN! Of course, I lose all my positions trying to get back on track. This basically put an end to my race as I was unable to gain any positions back since I was just limping around the track with no ABS until the end. I ended up finishing in 13th place, but had the ABS not gone out I think we could have pulled off a 6th, maybe 5th place finish.
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
First off, I just want to say Laguna Seca is the kind of track racers dream about driving at some point in their racing careers. It was truly amazing to finally get on the track that I've driven countless hours on in Forza and Gran Tourismo.
Thursday - Our first day of practice at Laguna Seca gave me a great chance to learn the track, given we had 3 sessions out. My first session was a great learning experience, going through the corkscrew was a whole new experience for me... I didn't realize how much of a blind corner it is! I couldn't see anything on the right side of the car after making the first apex. I talked to Joe Foster about visual points to look for to make the corner and found out that all I needed to do was point the car towards the third tree to the right and give it some throttle input and I'd go right on down the hill. Sure thing, next session I go out and aim for the tree and wouldn't you know, I make it through the corkscrew just about perfect. All three practice sessions went well and I ended up being P11 in my fastest session. Not too bad for my first day on track.
Friday - One more practice day before qualifying, time to really get some quick times and work on the track some more. The first practice session didn't go so great. The inside apex at turn 10 has the motorcycle curbing on it... raised, red and dangerous. I clipped the inside apex down there after turning in a little too early and bent the panhard bar which put an end to that session. No serious damage, just had to replace it before the next session. After getting it fixed, we went out for the second round of practice and everything went smoothly. Ended up P11 with my fastest time of the day. Not bad... New BF-Goodrich tires should help us pick up some more time for qualifying.
Saturday - Qualifying! Not my forte, but I'm working on it. Focusing on laying down a huge lap right off the bat, I went out with a brand new set of BF-Goodrich tires and the determination to qualify well. I pulled off a huge lap (for me) right off the bat which was about 4 to 5 tenths faster than any of my previous times... A career first for me, setting a quicker time in qualifying than any previous session. I considered this a victory even though I still only qualified P11.
Sunday - The race. The big day. Man, I was excited. The race starts and is going well, I picked up a position or two and was working on picking off more when another car went off and got stuck in the gravel trap. This brought out a full course caution and had us all get in to single file behind the pace car waiting for the green to fly when the track was cleared. Two laps go by while we slowly pace around the track. Finally we pull through turn 10 and the pace car pulls in the hot pits. We're good to go after hitting the front straight after turn 11. We all bunch up on the front straight and wait for the flag to drop. I hear the call over the radio that the green flag was waving and I immediately go to full throttle hoping to be able to pass some cars going in to turn 2 coming up at the end of the front straight.
Here's a video of the restart and then we'll get back to the story...
A "stop and go" penalty was awarded for "initiating a pass before the start finish line." As you can clearly see, I was avoiding creating a much larger accident by pulling out instead of nailing the back of Andrew Hendricks' car because of the check-up that someone started several cars ahead of us.
This "stop and go" penalty caused me to lose a potential top 10 finish, which would have been my best finish of the season. We also have to replace the hood, front bumper, headlight and right-front fender due to this incident.
Not too much happened after the restart and "stop and go" penalty. I just pushed out a good clean race until the end. I ended up finishing 12th, but looking back at the times it looks like I could have finished around 7th or 8th had all gone well throughout the race.
All in all, I feel like these last two events have been great learning experiences for me even if everything hasn't gone my way. We'll keep pushing forward, learning more and hopefully getting some good finishing positions along the way.
THANKS!
Again, I want to thank my Dad, David O'dell, Ryan Eversley, Bruce O'dell, JC Concrete, Jacky Jones Ford, all the FRMC crew, Ford and the crews at New Jersey Motorsports Park and Laguna Seca!
