FINALLY, after a couple years of effort, I logged my first win since Back In The Day (1991) on Saturday, yesterday, at Mid-Ohio. To add icing to the cake, I won again in today's race, this one over my good friend--and fellow SMRT member--Brad Waite.

After a winter's work on weight reduction (mostly on the car, unfortunately, as the driver could use a little weight reduction of his own), and after a full season last year chasing new settings in my then-new suspension, my car is finally, at least for now, awesome.

Saturday's race was in the dry. I qualified on pole for our class by a touch over 2.3 seconds. For the record, that's a lot. We race in a mixed-class group so I started 5th for that race, behind 4 other cars from faster classes. At the beginning we (the faster-class guys and I) literally ran and hid from the rest of the field. I thought it was going to be a cake walk until, about 3 laps from the end, Jim Child and Carl Picelle were suddenly a little too close behind...and closing.

Ultimately I was able to hold them off and notch my first-ever win in this car (and, for that matter, this millennium), but it wasn't without a few moments of concern. But Sunday's race? Sundays race had the real concern.

Sunday was a wet race. Really wet. It had rained most of the day Saturday and pretty much non-stop Sunday. The track was soaked and had running and/or standing water in several places. At the apexes of pretty much all the corners, high-wear coatings made the surface treacherously slick.

I again started 5th overall, but this time second in class behind Scott Giannou, the organizer of Targa Newfoundland, and a very nice guy. I thought I was fast in wet conditions but Scott is even faster. He qualified 3 seconds ahead of both Brad and me (who were separated by a few tenths), and we, in turn, were fully 5 seconds clear of the next few guys.

At the start I got a great jump and got past Scott on the run down to the first turn, a right-hander, at the end of the backstraight (where we start our races). Sliding through the snot-slick apex, Scott inadvertantly hit me in the right rear fender, spinning me off the track and him into the middle of it. As we got going again, most of the rest of the field streamed around and past us.

Scott got going first and the two of us made a big run through the field. From my seat, it appeared he and I were turning pretty comparable laps but the best news is we eventually caught Brad, who was leading our class, late in the race.

After a lap or so, Scott got past him and took off again. Another lap or two and I was on Brad's tail as he stayed busy doing absolutely nothing to make it easy to get by. Seriously, he was doing a great job, pushing very hard on a very slippery track, teetering on the brink of traction. Two laps from the end we came through turn 7 and saw Scott Giannou stuck in the mud off the side of track. That meant Brad and I were racing not for second and third but for first and second.

The game was on.

It had taken me several laps and several tries but eventually I got past Brad with a late-braking move into turn one on the next-to-last lap. Once there, I was able to pull out a few lengths of room for the first lap and then, when the white flag came out for the final lap, I was able to drive the last lap keeping a series of lapped cars between us most of the time, pretty much eliminating any chance of a last-minute push for the win from behind.

All in all, it was a really satisfying affirmation of my winter's work. I can hardly wait for Putnam Park next month!

Oh, I almost forgot...in the earlier debate regarding whether in a power-to-weight limited class it is better to have higher power or lower weight, my vote goes for low weight.

1. Vitor Pereira04/14/2008 03:14:42 AM
Homepage: http://www.vitor-pereira.com

Congratulations! What a great weekend! I'm glad the winter work paid off.

2. David Leedy04/14/2008 07:40:10 AM

Congratulations! It's nice to see hard work pay off. Hopefully you didn't take too much damage to the fender.

3. Scott Good04/14/2008 11:57:22 AM
Homepage: http://www.scottgood.com

David,

Actually--amazingly--it was nothing more than a scratch. I was expecting the whole thing to be caved in and then almost couldn't find it.

Go figure.

Scott

4. Benoit Dubuc04/14/2008 12:34:07 PM

Congrats for that super weekend. I hope the rest of the season will be as successful

5. Jerry Carter04/21/2008 09:31:55 PM

Congrats! -250 lbs = faster than 2nd

6. Steve Cowans04/30/2008 06:49:59 PM

So that's what you've been doing!! Never see you at the office anymore. Congrats!!!