My First Offical Race Weekend!
So, It's [FONT=Verdana]been a long time coming but I just got back from my first official race weekend, it was a double SAARC at Homestead, a track I know very well from roadracing bikes so I went into this feeling pretty good. I just got back from out of the country at midnight Friday night and had to wake up around 5am to get started. I didn't make it to the track until around 8am with practice/qualifying at 10am and still had a bunch of things that needed to get done (even though I spend 10 hours last Sunday, the day before I went out of town at James Lee's shop trying to get everything sorted), thankfully I had James Lee at the track with me this weekend so it made things a lot easier. The main problem I found testing a couple of weeks ago (as many of the fella's here know) was major understeer, we made a few adjustments and I planned on running new tires but we didn't really know if that would work until I actually drove the car. Well by the time qualifying came around the sky’s opened up and started raining pretty good, I tried to take it slow but 2 laps in I spun the car and didn't get on the clutch fast enough and fried the starter, that was the end of qualifying and practice (they were combined). I got another starter. Great, didn't know how the car would handle for the race but I didn't really care, the rain went away and the track was dry and I just wanted to race. I started in 15th place out of 23 (not bad, I thought I was dead last for sure). Fast forward to the green flag, everyone dive bombs T1 and I find myself fighting to keep myself from being driven into the grass, anyway I get through and start racing, I'm moving up the field pretty good and after a few laps I'm noticing that am not having any understeering issues actually I'm feeling the ass creeping out on me, mostly on acceleration but little by little as my speeds are coming up I feel it drifting in higher speed turns also. I turn in T1 flat and carry a lot of speed into T2 and I can feel the rear drift ever so gently until I was facing the traffic ! **** where did that come from? I wait until the field was clear and I get back out there. I get my composure back and start at it again, I get back up to speed and sure enough loopity loop I'm facing traffic again in T6, what the??? Ok, lets try this again.......T2 once again has it's way with me. I don't know what the F**** is going on, I just tested for 4 hours straight 2 weeks earlier, I couldn’t hear or move I drove so much and never came even close to spinning it.....what's going on?? was it the pressure of the close proximity racing? I don't think so, I've been in bike races where we were literally leaning on each other in the turns. I finished the race but I was disgusted and mentally shot, worse than that I can see other drivers were not happy either. I sit with James and we spoke for a while about what was going on, he told me not to get upset or worry, he tells me a few funny stories about his first races and assured me that tomorrow would be much better, that he would work on the car that night and we'll discuss more in the morning. I went home and passed out at 8pm. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]6 am and I'm up and at it again. I get to the track at 8 am and start getting ready, we talk about the track and driving and the car. He gets the car set up to where he thinks it needs to be. The weather was good and more importantly I was feeling good also. I get out there for qualifying and take it easy and increase my speed every lap and within 10 minutes I'm feeling a world of difference. I feel like everything is coming together: my line has improved, I'm using the better gears for each turn, etc. etc but most important my confidence way up, except I was a little gun shy with T1 and was letting off ever so lightly, and that was killing me inside.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I qualified in 5th. 3rd-4th and 5th were all within 400's of a second so now I'm really pissed that I was letting off on T1, I wont make that mistake again.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I spend the next few hours getting the car set up perfectly, I drink a ton of water (and a ton of pissing), I do stretching exercises, praying, yoga.....whatever it takes not to make a show of myself again. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Fast forward to the green flag and we are off, I get dive bombed in T2 and lose 2 positions right off the bat, but F*** that I'm not having it and I take one back and battle back and forth with an FC for a lap before I put my head down and after a lap or 2 I didn't see him and see the next group of two cars battling. I get in the mix and within a few laps I get by them also, wow, I'm feeling good, now I'm racing, the car is stuck like glue and I can't do no wrong.....I'm blasting through T1 flat and feeling great. I make another pass down the front straight and go in T1 flat and I don't know what happened ,I drove right over the rumble strip, which isn't that big a deal but combined with that nasty dip in T1 it set the car off and the car starts going side to side to side, my balls are in my throat, I make 3 saves, keep the pointy end forward and continue on, nothing is going to stop me from redeeming myself from yesterday!! James Lee was driving David Clarks car and qualified on pole so he had clear sailing front start to finish, He was no where to be found and I don't think I would put up much of a fight against him anyway, he was much faster than everyone the whole weekend. So I keep my head down and push as much as I can until I didn't see anyone in my mirrors, I get through some lap traffic and bring it in for a 2nd place! got a little trophy and everything! but the best thing was the guys I was racing with knew how upset I was yesterday and they were patting me on the back and were genuinely happy for me. Wally Osinga checked my seat for brown marks, he was behind me during that big wobble![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]It was a great and exciting day and weekend. I had to go through what I went through yesterday to be able to drive the way I did today. I know the car was slightly out of wack yesterday but deep down think it was more my driving attitude and being overly aggressive that made me drive like **** yesterday. I should have been calm and collected and just tried to get through the race and that's what I did today. I really think I enjoyed myself more this weekend than I have on the bike, and that's a big statement, I've been riding bikes since I'm a little kid and I feel almost like I've betrayed my years of riding bikes, but I was clearly wrong and I know I made the right decision to drive formula cars, even my 73 year dad that was out there the entire weekend said he enjoyed this much more than the bike. And especially an FB car, what a beast, I know it was a regional race but I was passing everything, this thing is a little beast !. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I just want to let everyone in on this memorable weekend, and thank all the great guys on this forum and at the track (and especially Brett Lane) that have helped me from the first minute I thought about getting a car. I could not have met a better group of guys,. Well, I'm officially hooked ! I'm still so amped up I'm going to sit back and relax with a beer, cigar![/FONT]
