A hat-trick weekend!01:29:37 PMI spent the past weekend at Mid-Ohio, racing with NASA. Other than a downpour for 45 minutes between sessions on Saturday, the weather could not have been nicer.
Friday afternoon was a 90-minute Enduro race which included a mandatory pit stop to load 5 gallons of gas. Running in E1, the next-to-slowest class of cars in the group, 90 minutes of qualifying-level laps along with some excellent pit work by my friends Jim Child and Scott Berkowitz ultimately resulted in a classic turtle-and-hare finish with me winning overall and just one car remaining on the lead lap.
Special thanks to John Zemon from A Part Above for his amazingly quick delivery of the fuel filler neck that made my fast fueling possible.
The video above is from the first 15 minutes of the Enduro and gives you an idea of the back-and-forth racing going on.
Saturday and Sunday, though, were the really good parts of the weekend.
Coming into this weekend, I have managed to set new track records each weekend I've raced this year. Jim Child and his black Porsche 968 held the GTS2 record for Mid-Ohio's Pro Course with a lap of 1:39.040. On Saturday I beat it, lowering the record to 1:38.411 (if memory serves), then lowered it again by another tenth on Sunday.
But that's not the good part.
Back in April when we were last at Mid-Ohio (but running the longer Club Course), I blogged about my new wing and the changes it had made in my lap times. At the time I said I thought a 1:37 lap was do-able and a 1:36 maybe possible. Well, I'm halfway there.
In Sunday's qualifying, in what I have to say were almost perfect conditions, I ran a first lap (before the tires were completely up to temperature) in the mid-1:39s, then a smoking 1:37.5 and then was on an even faster lap until I over-cooked the next to last turn, slid around a bit, and had to settle for a 1:37.8. I really think that lap had the possibility of getting close to a 1:36 but, well, I guess I'll just have to go back and try again in August.
Qualifying laps don't count toward lap records with NASA so, other than getting me a great starting position, these numbers aren't good for anything other than bragging rights but I'm OK with that...but dreaming of a 1:36....
Anyway, a great weekend all around. Three races, three wins. That makes me 6 wins (and one 2nd) for 7 starts this year. Not too shabby. If you can make it to Mid-Ohio the weekend of August 14-16, be sure to look me up.
