Thursday, October 20, 2011

I WON!

I WON!

I really did! It was a GREAT weekend. I started out with some goals. I wanted to see at least one lap time under 1:27. I had been able to get a low 1:27 at the August DE with PCA and I was hoping that racing with other Spec Boxsters I'd get a little quicker. Racing always makes you faster.

Turns out I was able to get down to a 1:25.948! Very happy about that. The track record is a 1:24.8. The next fastest lap times are 1:25.8, and 1:25.948 and 1:25.97. That makes my lap time the 3rd fastest Spec Boxster at Summit Point. Pretty stoked!

Friday was fun with the practice starts. I was in the low 1:26's on Friday so I was feeling pretty good about my chances for the weekend. Saturday morning was just horrible. It was raining hard. Really hard in the afternoon. It was cold too. Not much fun at all. We raced anyway. This is the first time I have ever driven this car in the rain. Toyo R888 are a handful in the rain to say the least. All the other classes were out there on Hoosier Wets and just FLYING past me. My competitor was 5 seconds faster than me in the rain. Not a very impressive performance on my part. I just couldn't get on the gas with out nearly spinning. The video is pretty funny. Then the window fogged up. Just not a very fun day. In sprint one my competition spun out of T9 on lap 1 so all I had to do was get to the checker. Not as easy as it sounds. I came in DFL because I had to pit (who pits in a 25 minute sprint!!!) so my buddy Jeff could defog the window for me. That lasted about 3 laps then it fogged up again.

Sprint 2 was equally as miserable. This time I was armed with an ice scraper with a towel wrapped around it. A Jeff special. Every time I came down the front straight I would clean the window. Just no fun at all. I did win sprint 2 since no one else gridded up to race :)

I do think that 90 minutes in the rain helped me learn the car. Sunday was fantastic. Really great day. Sprint 3 saw a real challenge from my competition. I got a hell of a start. A few laps in he was right behind me as I was caught behind a slower D class car. It's not always easy to get around a car no matter how much slower they are. Thankfully, there was a local yellow in T1 that prevented P2 from making any pass attempts there and then it happened, I made the raciest move I've ever made! I dove to the inside of the chute and with inches to spare I out braked the D car and got ahead of him. P2 was never able to get around the D car so that pass won the race for me. My confidence in the brakes and the handling on this car went up dramatically over the weekend. I would not have tried that move in the 911. I'm liking this car! After the pass I really concentrated on just driving as fast as I could to put distance between me and P2. In previous races I would look backwards more than forwards. I was always trying to drive defensively which is sloooooow. With the cars being so equal I realized that no one is passing me if I just drive hard and hit my marks. I still have some work to do on consistency but I had enough of a margin that P2 never got a good shot at me. I placed 4th overall in that race.

The enduro was a hoot. This car is so much easier to drive. It's still work to drive fast but with power steering it takes less effort than the old car. 60 minutes is a walk in the park compared to the 911. I won the enduro too. The other Spec Boxster didn't get a lot of practice time (it wasn't his car so he drove fairly conservatively) so he struggled and the other two decided not to do the enduro at all.

This was the first time we used radios also. They are invaluable. I was able to call Jeff about my window and he was able to let us know how many laps were left. Calling the green flag is crucial if your class is towards the back of the group. Love the radios!

Overall it was a great weekend even though Saturday was miserable. I got much more comfortable in the car and my times came down dramatically.

Next up SEBRING!!!!! This year I'll try not to crash :)

Videos:




Another perspective of Sprint 3 My car is the dark blue Boxster with the light blue/white stripe.