We've had a heck of a run the past few race weekends! I've been so busy with my racing endeavors and helping with other driver's endeavors that I've been slacking on my blogging… Sorry! I'll make it up to you guys and gals today with a package deal! THREE BLOGS FOR THE PRICE OF ONE!
First of all, let me explain what I've been up to for the past few weeks. I was able to form a great relationship with another driver at our event at Barber not too long ago and it's grown into a pretty cool deal! Marv Weidner drove one of the Compass 360 Civics with us that weekend and I was able to help Marv get comfortable in the Civic and lower his lap times fairly consistently. Throughout the weekend Marv and I had several conversations about my past and my future goals in motorsports, as well as his past and future goals. From these conversations we were able to put together a great deal where Marv has been driving the Lutz Motorsports Industries/Compass360 Mustang in the Mustang Challenge series. We did some testing the weekend before his first Challenge race at Roebling Road in Savannah, Georgia and it went fantastic! Not only did Marv pick up his times to a very competitive level fairly quickly, but we had a blast working together. The whole team really got along great, which is super important in this scenario. Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio have been great learning experiences for Marv and everyone was really pleased with his progress, including himself. I'm really looking forward to what the rest of the season will bring for Marv and where we end up next year!
This brings us to the Continental race at Lime Rock. They call it the "bull-ring" and I'd say that's a pretty accurate description. It's fast, short, wild and dangerous. The weekend was without a test day so our track time was limited, but I was able to pick up the track relatively quickly and put down some quick laps in the practice sessions. After a qualifying session cut short by a car oiling down the track we found ourselves in a P9 starting position. Not bad considering I was only able to throw down a few clean laps. Rain was on the forecast for race day and I was ok with that. We ended up starting the race in the drizzling rain which wasn't a problem for us! I capitalized on the fact that my competitors were going to be very cautious during the first turn and was able to pick up a few positions by diving in to turn 1. I moved from ninth to fourth by the first corner and worked on chasing down the few cars in front of me. The competition was stiff and we all settled in to line and kept pushing forward. The wet track was beginning to dry and the lap times were coming down. Ryan got in the car about halfway through the race and began pushing his way forward as well. A few great timed pit-stops had us running in the front of the pack at then end of the race. We were running second behind our sister car, the #74, when the #81 Bimmerworld car came on strong and passed both us and the #74 to take the win. Taking a podium at Lime Rock was a feat we weren't sure we were going to be able to do… but having made it felt pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Onward to Watkins Glen! Back to back weekends of racing brought us to the Glen quickly after Lime Rock. This time around we had lots of track time during the test day and although we had to deal with some issues with the brakes on our car we were able to sort it out and put some quick laps down in practice. Qualifying brought another challenge for us. A miscalculation in fuel levels had us going out on track with a very low fuel load that only allowed me to get in one and a half laps in before running out. DOH! I put down a 'decent' lap that had us in P4 and was coming around to go for a flyer that may have put us on the front row but ended shortly after the bus-stop with sputtering that eventually led to the car coming to a stop in turn 9. Fortunately the qualifying session was short and I didn't have to sit in the car for too long. The race had a few exciting turn-of-events for us which kept this one interesting. Starting close to front makes my job fairly easy as my main goal is to keep the car up front and clean for when Ryan steps in. David, in the #74 car, and I just took it to the front of the pack and held our positions until we got the call from Ray to come in for our pit stops. Once again Ryan did a fantastic job of keep the car in the front of the pack and being there right at the end. We were running in P4 with a few laps to go when the two cars in P2 and P3 made contact, allowing Ryan to put the car into P2 for the last lap of the race!
For our final destination of the bloggage, we'll re-live the splendor that was Mid-Ohio. This was another good weekend for us, despite receiving a competition adjustment from Grand-Am. The powers that be decided we needed to get slowed down a little. We showed up for test day on Thursday and had a few good sessions before realizing there was an issue with the transmission. In went a new transmission for Fridays practice sessions and we were good to go! After a small practice session on Friday morning we were ready to qualify later that day. We had a bit of another rough qualifying session as I was only able to put the car in P9. The times were all very close and just a little bit more would have had us up front. All was ok with it though, I knew I would just fight my way to the front of the pack during the race and hand off a good car to Ryan. So… That's what I did. After a few laps of green flag racing on Saturday and I had the car in the top 5. This was all I needed to do so I held position and waited for the call to come in to do our pit stop. The call was made, I handed it over to Ryan and let him do his thing! After all the pit strategy was done Ryan was sitting right up front ready to start battling. Unfortunately, the #74 car had gotten taken out by another competitor and was having to fight back to the front so we didn't see another 2 car podium. What we did see was Ryan getting the car on the podium even with our competition adjustment! P3!!!
What a fantastic run we've been having! That was our fifth podium in a row. Ryan and I were talking the other day and we realized that no matter how the final three races go we will have been on the podium no less that 50% of the races this season! It's amazing! I can't thank everyone enough. Ryan, Ray, Karl, My Dad, all the C360R crew, Marv... you guys all make this happen!
