Heroic Drive by Mathew Strand

[problemchild]

We all know "moral victories" suck. We all know that sometimes Goliath beats David. I watched the F500 race at Daytona. Mathew Strand finished 2nd, but was my hero of the week. If it was up to me, he would have won the President's Cup, Donahue award, or whatever the Runoffs top award is. I have never seen a driver in a "restricted" class with similar mechanical components, who so outpaced the other top cars through through the corners and brake zones. He sometimes passed for the lead when braking for a corner when 8 carlengths behind. Don't care about the politics. Don't care to diss any other teams or drivers, but this guy was awesome!

Disclaimer. Never met the guy. Never heard of him before. Would not recognize him or his car if I ran over them in the paddock. My comments are as a spectator and new fan. I thought he deserved a thread without any political banter, backhanded compliments, etc.

From the results .......
#36 Matthew Strand / Covington GA / FLA Satellite Racing / Simcraft FDS 003 Suzuki

Someone should post a pic of Matt and his car.

[RussMcB]

That was a fun race to watch.

[Daryl DeArman]

Yeah, I wanted to comment on the other thread about being impressed while not impressing easily (I've seen many a ho-hum in-car video) but thought it may come across as elitist. Notice, I've never posted any in-car of my own

He certainly was giving it all he and the car had.

[mcs11]

Appreciate the kind words. I don't know if I'd call it heroic though I just did what a race car driver is supposed to do. My dad always told me in karts if I didn't push til the end we'd just go home and stop racing. I pay for it myself now but I still worry he'll pull the plug lol

[Hardingfv32]

That was a fun race to watch.

Although much like a NASCAR race. Why do we need to wait around for what we know is going to be a last/one lap race at the end?

Did the competitors have the same feeling or were efforts being made to try and break the pattern that was unfolding?

Brian

[mcs11]

Efforts were made up to and including me going a half second faster through the infield the last 2 laps then I had the entire race to try and get away from him. I sat behind him a few times to try and scare him into making a mistake too when I could of passed him sooner. I couldn't draft passed him. I couldn't even draft up to him unless he let me so I only had 2 options really. Let him pass on the last lap just before the busstop and force the issue in the corner to see if something happened, or play it cleaner and just try to get far enough away in the infield. Option 1 did cross my mind and you can see me feel it out somewhere mid race from my onboard video when I took a fairly big look to the outside on the entry to the busstop. I could of stuck my nose in and been fully alongside before we got to the rights in the busstop but ultimately I went with option 2 because I don't like pushing people off track intentionally or otherwise.

[problemchild]

When Matt left corner 6 on the last lap, he had his biggest gap. I looked at the guy watching beside me and asked "enough?" and he just shook his head. It was like watching a F2000 car race against a F1600 car. Ten car lengths just disappeared as they accelerated out of the corner.

Again, trying to avoid political or technical discussion, but think Matt deserves an "atta boy". He stole the show! He was the show!