Well that was a wild, but successful weekend.
Q1 was the first time I drove the car at all on the big wheels/tires and brakes, so it was all tire scuffing, brake bedding, and feeling out if the brake balance is even close. Then as I started leaning on it a bit, getting ready to turn a real lap we got a black flag all for a rolled over rabbit. I think everyone was yet to turn a good lap because somehow I ended up 3rd on grid.
R1 we were all watching the weather, wondering if I should get the rains mounted up. In the end I, and 90% of the others, rolled to grid on slicks. So naturally it began misting as we rolled off grid. I got a strong jump on a pretty slow rolling start, and LaManna and I split Brannon’s pole sitting Fiat into T1. I had the inside line, and came out ahead. Which just meant that I got to explore unknown grip levels entering every corner with Jason on my tail. It was dry enough to run the dry line, but grip was a bit off. We had a pretty fun dice for a while, and he capitalized on a mistake I made in 9 to work his way around me in the carousel, after we slithered through 10 side by side. I was able to get back under him at 1, and we continued running nose to tail. Jason ran wide exiting the keyhole, which gave me some breathing room, while the rain picked up and the line transitioned over to a wet line. Wow so many different grip surfaces on that track. I came out with a win in the 3rd dry to wet race I’ve run in the past 11 months.
Then the skies opened up, the sideways rain came, the sideways rain switched directions, the tornado sirens went off, the sun came out, and we got the announcement that all remaining sessions were cancelled. Since Sunday was run on the pro course we were unsure what would set grid if Q2 was cancelled (it was). I had the 3rd Q1 lap time, the 2nd R2 lap time, and 1st finishing position, so would start in one of those spots.
After looking around for information on the new schedule/plan for about an hour on Sunday morning we heard an announcement at 7:45 that “closed wheel hardship” was called to grid. Found an email at 7:30 with an updated schedule showing a 15m session at 8:00. We put tires on, and I suited up because our whole goal was to test this new setup, and we hadn’t really learned anything in the shakedown/qually, or the slick (fun) race. I was able to take few laps to get things hot, and then lean on it a bit for a few laps on a drying track. It felt good, and I was able to focus on a few details I noticed on our Sat night track walk to do better. I made me a lot more confident for the race.
R2 was gridded by R1 finishing position, so I was on pole despite not running the fastest lap in Q1 or R1 (though my warmup time was better). It was 80 and sunny for the 20 lap race. I was able to get away at the start and just pounded out 20 push laps, focusing on four spots on track where I was losing time. I worked my way back to a good T1 on the same lap that I finally nailed 9, and improved on an already strong 10. That knocked 3/4 sec off my lap time for a 1:42.1 (so still 1/2 second slower than last year). There was still some time out there, but that was decent. I continued exploring different options, and pushing brake zones until we completed 20 laps. Unfortunately a teal CRX found the wall on the back straight, and suffered a big hit on the penultimate lap, so there was no victory lap due to lots of equipment rolling on track.
Super fun weekend with the HP crowd. I really would have learned more about the setup with 4 proper dry sessions, but will look at the data this week and decide if we run the big tires at VIR, or swap it back to 13s.
