Watkins Glen

Great Saturday!  Sunday sucked!

Saturdays sprints went far better than expected.  I missed going to WGI last year so I was a little rusty and had no expectation of getting out of mid-pack.  Well, surprise surprise! Thanks to at least one competitor's mechanical woes I saw a 4th in Sprint 1 and a 3rd in Sprint 2.  In sprint 1 I let a D car go by me in T11 and that was really stupid because right behind him was the 4th place SPB.  That SPB followed the D car right on by me and I was unable to get the position back.  I really should have picked a better spot to let the D car go.   Lesson learned.

Sprint 2 was a truly fantastic race.  I got passed by #200 early in the race for 3rd but we did a lot of side by side and very close racing.  It was a huge thrill getting squeezed up the esses flat out.  What a rush!  I kept pestering #200 so he couldn't forget me.  I had a better line thru the toe that allowed me to really harass him from the toe thru T10 but in T11 he just sailed away.  Then it happened.  Lap after lap I chased him until he hit the curbing inside T11 a little too hard and upset the car.  He had to get off the gas and that's when I was able to get the run on him down the straight away.  Once I got by him he stayed glued to me for a while then he dropped back.  I thought that maybe he cooked his tires and so I relaxed a little and thought I'd cruise to a 3rd place finish.  Then he was there!  On the last lap he suddenly appeared going very very fast and it was on til the checker!  Truly some of the best racing I've been involved in.  Nose to tail and side by side at Watkins Glen.  What a ball.  Here's the vid:

Sprint 2

Then Sunday happened.  Lap three, in the rain, I pitted because I couldn't see out the windshield.  I should have called it a race at that point but I went back out and BAM!  The hood flies up on the back straight.

Hood!

All in all a great weekend of racing with far better results than I anticipated.  My best lap time was a 2:15.04 which is pretty quick.  Still a little off the track record but getting much closer :)