Thursday was a test day and all was going well. It was my first time on the famous Mid-Ohio sports car course but it didn't take me long to pick it up as I was P8 the first session out. After a few more practice sessions I had a pretty good grasp on the track and the day was over. We packed up, went back to the hotel and got cleaned up and then headed over to the local watering hole... Applebees.
Friday morning brought rain... and lots of it. First session out on Friday was POURING down and only around 10 brave drivers went out. I'm pretty sure most of us spun at some point. Puddles and streams don't make for good track time.
Shortly after our first session the rain subsided and we had one last opportunity to go out before qualifying. The final practice session went well and I was excited about trying to throw down a huge "flyer" in qualifying. We bolted on a new set of BF Goodrich tires and got ready for the session. I went out and for the first time this year I actually set my quickest lap (1:37.7) on the second lap beating my previous times by almost a second. This put us at P12 for the race, although the times between P3 and P12 were only separated by 7/10ths of a second. We were all prepared for some super close racing come Saturday.
Saturday was our race day and I was super excited for the race! Our race was at around 12:30, so we had to play the waiting game for a while in the morning but as soon as the time came around we were ready. I signed a few autographs for some kids, hopped in the car and got all situated for the race. After we all grid up on track and take the green things seem to be going well, except for the high speed understeer the car picked up between qualifying and race time. I ended up racing with Leo Capaldi for 12th spot and we had some great action back and forth for a few laps until some unfortunate contact caused Leo to spin on the crest of turn 5. This caught Grand-Am's attention and they deemed it necessary that I come in for a drive-through. I understand where they were coming from in making that call, but it's just a bum deal because after the race I talked to Leo about the incident and we both agreed it was just racing and anywhere else on track it would have just been a little "rubbin is racin!" Oh well... I get back out on track after the drive-through, raced with a few guys and just cruised around until the end of the race. I ended up in P12 after all... at least I didn't come in behind where I qualified.
Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible and to those who came out to enjoy the races!
