T
tsiboosted
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Round #5 of the Grand Bayou Race Series did not start off on the best of notes. On my way over to Louisiana, I was coming through New Orleans and my car hauler had some MAJOR issues. All 4 bolts that hold the pivot ball onto the truck on the driver’s side front apparently had come off somewhere and now had me all over the road heading through the crescent city. Luckily for me I felt it before it was way too late and pulled off the freeway and it actually fell apart on a side road doing only around 10 MPH. The guys at the local Firestone shop helped me out tremendously to get me back on my way within 2 hours. They were GREAT !!! They also said, if this had happened at 70 MPH on the freeway, I would not be posting this blog for you to read right now. A scary thought to me for sure. But now that things on the hauler are good to go, we are off to the races!!!
Practice - With all the rain Louisiana had gotten over the day, the track was really slippery in the morning sessions. Also adding to that was the fact that I was on brand spanking new Hankook slicks. They were all over the place before coming up to temperature. It took the better part of 3 laps or so to get them to where I could actually get around the track without the rear end being all over the place going though turns at speed. Once the tires came up the car felt really good. I wasn’t pushing it too hard, I rarely ever do in the practice sessions. Basically I get out there, drive my line and just get back into the rhythm of racing for the day. I am little worried about my Hawk HP+ pads in the front, I have had them on now for 3 events and I am sure they are getting rather low. Will have to keep an eye on them today for sure.
Qualifying - With more than 20 touring cars registered for this round of the series, the track was tightly packed on the grid before the qualifying session began. 2 by 2 we are sent out by the grid workers and have about 3/4 of a lap to get the tires scrubbed in before we get the green on our session. I tend to either want to be the 1st one out off the grid or one of the last cars out onto the circuit. It seems to give me a little more room to run my qualifier and not worry about others around me or faster bracket guys coming up on me and holding them up. Being one of the last cars going onto the track in this session, I pretty much had the whole track to myself in the 15 minute qualifier here. The car felt really good and it feels as these Hankook tires are a bit more grabby than the Avon's I have been running all season. The car feels more aggressive in some tight "esses" in the back of the track than the Avon's ever did. I was really able to send it into that turn now. Well after my fairly clean run I actually qualified lower than I thought I would, 3rd in the class with a 1:30.881. Not bad for the bracket time but not good enough to take the pole either. Pole was 1:30.601, not too far behind, but still not the pole. I am ok with that, the feature is a long race and there will be plenty of time to get to the front of the pack.
Heat Race - Well, starting 3rd in the heat race means I am behind a Mustang and an RX7. So, as we get our 1 lap with the pace car we come to the flag station and GREEN FLAG!!! I am left foot braking a bit to keep the boost up in 2nd gear and stomp it when I see the flag, I rocket around the RX7 who did not get a very good jump and right into the 2nd position behind the Mustang. I am right on his tailpipe for the first lap. Heading into the 11, 12, 13 turn complex again I am right there on him. Turn 14 is a long sweeping reducing radius turn heading onto the front straight that I can take better than him in my FWD car. I see the rear of his car start to step out a bit so I get on the throttle a little heavier and try to duck to the inside of him here. I get to the inside of him which sets me up for the outside of the straight away, where you want to be for turn 1 at 120 MPH. But as I creep up on his passenger side door, we are running out of real-estate FAST. I see that he is not going to let up at all as he is on the inside even though the "line" is to the outside which I am on and I have about 3/4 of a car length on him. As he does not lift, I have no choice but to take the escape route at the end of the straight away to avoid slamming him into the wall and possibly flipping me over as well as I would go sliding sideways into a tall rumble strip to the outside of turn 1. Better to live to fight another day than crack up the car in a heat race I thought to myself as I limp on around back to the paddock area.
Feature Race - Well after the trouble I got myself into in the heat race, I am forced to start in the rear of the pack in the heat race. Not to worry, it is a 20 minute feature race and there is plenty of time to get through the field here. Lining up 4th is new to me here and I am really itching to see the green flag and get right to it. As we are scrubbing in the tires, I notice that everyone has slowed way down and quit scrubbing their tires in. I look off to the left out of turn 3 and see a Miata turned upside down on its roof. Apparently, I would find out after the race, he lost it going into turn 2 and got caught up in the mud and grass in the infield and went over quite a few times. No serious injuries thank goodness. Now, as we approach the flag station, I see the starter holding the leaders down and get us a bit tighter which is fine by me back here in the rear.....Green Flag drops and we are off and racing. I quickly step around a BMW from a lower bracket and attach myself to the rear end of the Orange RX7. We stay like that until the front straight away and I punch it around him to tuck in front of him before turn 1 and into 3rd place. I now set my sights on the Grey BMW in 2nd. His car has a little better (more) suspension work than I do so he is a little quicker through some of the corners than I am. So I hang back and wait to get a run on him on the short shoot straight between turns 9 & 10. We go through 9 and I am in 4th full throttle and around him on the inside into turn 10. Stand on the brakes and make a pretty sharp right hand turn heading into the 11, 12 and 13 complex. Down the front straight and into 2nd place on the 3rd lap here. Right where I want to be to make a run for 1st position. As the race wears on, the BMW and I exchange 2nd and 3rd place about 4 times before I get around him on lap 7 and start to pull away and track down the Mustang. Lap after lap I see daylight inside of a few turns and lap after he slams the door on me. Heading down the short shoot straight away between turns 9 & 10, I see the Red bracket (fastest bracket) taking the checkered flag. I know this is my last shot of the race to test him for the lead. I set him to make the pass coming out of turn 14 and onto the front straight away. This time, he gives me a little brake check heading into turn 13 and forces me to hit my brakes and lose the momentum I just had. We go through the sweeper and I am hard on his bumper and throttle. I swing to the outside after a brief draft off of him and try to make the pass on the inside of the straight away. He had just enough ponies to keep me behind him as he beat me by 2 tenths of a second for the victory and all but wrapping up his points championship for the season. The Mustang ended up with a 17:53.497 and I had a 17:53.735. A good clean race and no incidents to have to deal with.
Wrapping it up - Heading home that night, I could recall the mess I could have been in if I had my hauler issues on the freeway and find myself VERY, VERY lucky to have been able to race at all this weekend. Not getting the victory was a bit of a letdown and pretty much assured me of not winning the overall chase, but at the same time, it did insure me of finishing on the podium for the season, which in my rookie year is great in my mind. Can’t wait till the final round and the overall points to be played out and the end of the season banquet to have some good times after the event instead of having to worry about the 4 - 4.5 hour pull back over to Florida. Well until next time.....
Practice - With all the rain Louisiana had gotten over the day, the track was really slippery in the morning sessions. Also adding to that was the fact that I was on brand spanking new Hankook slicks. They were all over the place before coming up to temperature. It took the better part of 3 laps or so to get them to where I could actually get around the track without the rear end being all over the place going though turns at speed. Once the tires came up the car felt really good. I wasn’t pushing it too hard, I rarely ever do in the practice sessions. Basically I get out there, drive my line and just get back into the rhythm of racing for the day. I am little worried about my Hawk HP+ pads in the front, I have had them on now for 3 events and I am sure they are getting rather low. Will have to keep an eye on them today for sure.
Qualifying - With more than 20 touring cars registered for this round of the series, the track was tightly packed on the grid before the qualifying session began. 2 by 2 we are sent out by the grid workers and have about 3/4 of a lap to get the tires scrubbed in before we get the green on our session. I tend to either want to be the 1st one out off the grid or one of the last cars out onto the circuit. It seems to give me a little more room to run my qualifier and not worry about others around me or faster bracket guys coming up on me and holding them up. Being one of the last cars going onto the track in this session, I pretty much had the whole track to myself in the 15 minute qualifier here. The car felt really good and it feels as these Hankook tires are a bit more grabby than the Avon's I have been running all season. The car feels more aggressive in some tight "esses" in the back of the track than the Avon's ever did. I was really able to send it into that turn now. Well after my fairly clean run I actually qualified lower than I thought I would, 3rd in the class with a 1:30.881. Not bad for the bracket time but not good enough to take the pole either. Pole was 1:30.601, not too far behind, but still not the pole. I am ok with that, the feature is a long race and there will be plenty of time to get to the front of the pack.
Heat Race - Well, starting 3rd in the heat race means I am behind a Mustang and an RX7. So, as we get our 1 lap with the pace car we come to the flag station and GREEN FLAG!!! I am left foot braking a bit to keep the boost up in 2nd gear and stomp it when I see the flag, I rocket around the RX7 who did not get a very good jump and right into the 2nd position behind the Mustang. I am right on his tailpipe for the first lap. Heading into the 11, 12, 13 turn complex again I am right there on him. Turn 14 is a long sweeping reducing radius turn heading onto the front straight that I can take better than him in my FWD car. I see the rear of his car start to step out a bit so I get on the throttle a little heavier and try to duck to the inside of him here. I get to the inside of him which sets me up for the outside of the straight away, where you want to be for turn 1 at 120 MPH. But as I creep up on his passenger side door, we are running out of real-estate FAST. I see that he is not going to let up at all as he is on the inside even though the "line" is to the outside which I am on and I have about 3/4 of a car length on him. As he does not lift, I have no choice but to take the escape route at the end of the straight away to avoid slamming him into the wall and possibly flipping me over as well as I would go sliding sideways into a tall rumble strip to the outside of turn 1. Better to live to fight another day than crack up the car in a heat race I thought to myself as I limp on around back to the paddock area.
Feature Race - Well after the trouble I got myself into in the heat race, I am forced to start in the rear of the pack in the heat race. Not to worry, it is a 20 minute feature race and there is plenty of time to get through the field here. Lining up 4th is new to me here and I am really itching to see the green flag and get right to it. As we are scrubbing in the tires, I notice that everyone has slowed way down and quit scrubbing their tires in. I look off to the left out of turn 3 and see a Miata turned upside down on its roof. Apparently, I would find out after the race, he lost it going into turn 2 and got caught up in the mud and grass in the infield and went over quite a few times. No serious injuries thank goodness. Now, as we approach the flag station, I see the starter holding the leaders down and get us a bit tighter which is fine by me back here in the rear.....Green Flag drops and we are off and racing. I quickly step around a BMW from a lower bracket and attach myself to the rear end of the Orange RX7. We stay like that until the front straight away and I punch it around him to tuck in front of him before turn 1 and into 3rd place. I now set my sights on the Grey BMW in 2nd. His car has a little better (more) suspension work than I do so he is a little quicker through some of the corners than I am. So I hang back and wait to get a run on him on the short shoot straight between turns 9 & 10. We go through 9 and I am in 4th full throttle and around him on the inside into turn 10. Stand on the brakes and make a pretty sharp right hand turn heading into the 11, 12 and 13 complex. Down the front straight and into 2nd place on the 3rd lap here. Right where I want to be to make a run for 1st position. As the race wears on, the BMW and I exchange 2nd and 3rd place about 4 times before I get around him on lap 7 and start to pull away and track down the Mustang. Lap after lap I see daylight inside of a few turns and lap after he slams the door on me. Heading down the short shoot straight away between turns 9 & 10, I see the Red bracket (fastest bracket) taking the checkered flag. I know this is my last shot of the race to test him for the lead. I set him to make the pass coming out of turn 14 and onto the front straight away. This time, he gives me a little brake check heading into turn 13 and forces me to hit my brakes and lose the momentum I just had. We go through the sweeper and I am hard on his bumper and throttle. I swing to the outside after a brief draft off of him and try to make the pass on the inside of the straight away. He had just enough ponies to keep me behind him as he beat me by 2 tenths of a second for the victory and all but wrapping up his points championship for the season. The Mustang ended up with a 17:53.497 and I had a 17:53.735. A good clean race and no incidents to have to deal with.
Wrapping it up - Heading home that night, I could recall the mess I could have been in if I had my hauler issues on the freeway and find myself VERY, VERY lucky to have been able to race at all this weekend. Not getting the victory was a bit of a letdown and pretty much assured me of not winning the overall chase, but at the same time, it did insure me of finishing on the podium for the season, which in my rookie year is great in my mind. Can’t wait till the final round and the overall points to be played out and the end of the season banquet to have some good times after the event instead of having to worry about the 4 - 4.5 hour pull back over to Florida. Well until next time.....