Just got back from the first race weekend of 2016. Oh, man, was it cooooold... My Pit Crew took good care of staying warm:
Friday practice was "interesting"... It was pretty cold and times were vert slow. Not much else to say about that... Car and driver both felt out of sort and times were low 1:30's, with a high 1:29's. Where did my speed go????
Saturday Qualification was... in the snow....That is sure to be a first for me. I got to actually use my windshield wipers (who look very shinny and black, thank you Sam). Gridded 15th, qualified 18th. Doh... still slow... Video here
Saturday Race was fun, but again a bit slow and disappointing. Video here. I vaguely remember being much close to the top laptimes at the end of the 2015 Season. Watched the video of the race in the evening, following a way to big Mexican food dinner and a Margharita. Sam mentioned that I was a P^%@ and he might have had a point.. maybe bing more aggressive in the turn in's is what I need and I thought I'd try that on Sunday.
Sunday came and after a short visit to the Waffle House (yeah!), we got to a dry but so very cold race track. Prepped the car (Pit crew stayed warm :-) ), greeted my favorite fan (yes, that it you, Beth!) and Parviz who drove just to see how badly I can drive.
For once, I was not really stressed and decided that I would just have fun. A 20 lap race really feels like Eternity and I was unsure how I would cope. I gridded on position 17.
The race was so much fun and my laptimes kept coming down. It took the whole weekend but I got back into the/my own groove. There was an unfortunate crash in the first couple of laps and some fast cars had to catch back up. I opted to not bother putting a fight and instead stayed behind and watched... and learned. It must have worked since my last few laps where all in the 1:28's. Had a good time racing car 155, same car I spent most time racing on Saturday. A couple of small spin in turn 5 for me (hey.... that is was pushing is..) and a bigger spin from him later gave me the edge. Had to watch my tail for the last dwq laps as car #27 was ready to pounce. Made sure to not spin in turn 5 anymore (fun has to stop as some point...) and finished ahead. Finished 12/30 with a fastest time of 1:28.6s. I ended up wishing I could go back out and race some more. Here is a video of the 20 laps Race 2.
Thanks to all the drivers out there, and everyone else in the pits. The weekend was great!