The NHMS National came and went, it was a really interesting weekend.
Saturday was absolutely awful. It rained heavy all day, I didn't have proper rain tires and my pads were quite aggressive, so when I would hit the brakes my car would literally slide and fishtail. I parked it after 3 laps with a pathetic 1:39 qual time, enough to put me dead last. Later in the afternoon it started to dry up. I switched to my dry tires and went out. I left behind Bill Z. and should have been clued right away that it was slippery as he fishtailed right out of the gate going about 20mph. To keep it safe I drove at about 50% for 4 laps then opened it up.
..oops
While going around the oval the rear of my car slid out and I drifted literally halfway across the bowl. I had enough time to start "trying" things to save the car. After trying to give it gas and steer out of the turn I decided to put my two feet in and start praying.
Well it worked, kinda, I rotated again, this time my nose facing traffic and an oncoming SSB Z4. Thankfully the guy was a good drive and we barely collided.
I went in to the pits and chilled out for a few minutes and cleaned the shit out of my pants, so to speak. I went out and qualed again, 4th in class and 5th in the group, not too bad. Times were still slow due to how wet and cold it was out, so I wasn't sure at that point how I was doing relative to last year. The car felt very different, I used to push on the uphill and entering the north chicane. Oversteer greeted me on both corners, which made me very very happy.
I left the race and picked up my girlfriend aka crew member. We ate a feast of Taco Bell and caught "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", which was damned hilarious. I went to bed promptly after in preparation for Sunday.
I woke up at about 9 and arrived at 930, which was way early, but enough time to see if they had switched groups, which, thankfully, they did not. I hung out for a while, changed tires, played with pressures and watched the radar on my phone. It was still raining quite heavy and I was becoming a bit worried as my rain tires would lead me to a rather pathetic end at the hands of a NASCAR wall in the God forsaken state of New Hampshire. Keep in mind that even the Hoosier truck didn't bring any rain tires! I couldn't even buy (charge) my way out of this mess!
Ugh.
Then a miracle occurred, during group 3 it stopped raining, which meant we had 3 groups ahead of us to eat up the rain. So there I sat, watching the radar and praying to the soul of Ayrton Senna to make it dry for the race.
Well, Senna apparently came back from the grave and used whatever otherworldly powers and granted me a dry day. The race was on, in the dry. I had fresh Hoosier R6s and a new setup, nothing could stop me! ...Except for the fact I needed to grow some in the bowl. I lost a LOT of time in there because of my little incident in qualifying that I didn't quite get over.
The grid was set, Kleeman in first, followed by Ziegler, followed by Brand, followed by me, followed by McCarthy.
The start was good and I was in 3rd place for a short time until a Mini and a Solstice came blowing by. I was as confused as everyone else. The race was really very uneventful, not many people changed positions, I battled an M3 for a while but he ultimately won as he is a much better driver than I am. According to Bill, Kleeman missed a shift and he blew past him. Guess you can't even make one mistake in this sort of racing!
Oddly enough, race control thought I finished ahead of the M3 and I thought that I had my first National podium finish. Turns out they messed up, ah well :)
Final Results:
1) Bill Ziegler 1:14.177
2) Brian Kleeman 1:14.362
3) James McCarthy 1:16.212
4) Charles Keane 1:17.691
5) David Brand 1:16.990
At least I beat the Lotus!
The times are pretty slow, Bill was running under 1:12s and ran a 1:13 last year in his Evo. In a warmer day I bet the field would have been at least a good 2 seconds faster, meaning I improved my time from a 1:20 last year to a 1:15.. over 5 seconds!
Not too bad, I still have a long way to go, though.
So due to a severe lack of funds, this is it until Watkins Glen. I really wish I could get out there again, but I simply do not have enough money.
Maybe a nice sponsor will come along, and for those of you feeling charitable there is always the donation button above ;) Hint, Hint!
In any case, I will try to post some video soon, the camera was set up oddly and the video isn't good, but I have some good footage of the start and the first few laps. My new computer hasn't arrived yet so the 1 or 2 people who actually read this will have to wait!
So until July, no more race related updates, unless I hit the lottery, then we are doing an east coast tour! Nothing can stop the hopes and dreams of a young dumb kid with money :) First a T2 championship and then Formula One! Just like that!
Ah well, maybe someday. But until then, this will have to do. I can't complain, even if Senna DID tell me that he thought I was a pussy for not liking to race in the rain!
