Road Atlanta Race Report

NASA Competition school and my first two races are now on the books.

Leading a pack down to the end of the back straight under full course caution.

The Friday comp school was pretty uneventful, but did get me 3 sessions plus a mock race. It was mostly just jumping through all the right hoops to get my provisional license. For the mock race we were gridded in roughly inverted order based on speed. This put me in 3 of 11 since the majority of the other school guys were in Vettes and Mustangs plus one Ferrari Challenge car. Once those guys went blasting past I pretty much just drove around by myself.

On Saturday I qualified ~8, but since it was my very first real race I started at the back. I was only ahead of one other SE30 rookie, so I started 19th. I was able to pick off most of the slower guys, but didn't have any chance of catching the fast guys. Finished 12.

Sunday I went out for qualifying and just ran about 2 hot laps. I didn't get either of those totally traffic free, but managed what felt like a decent lap and I didn't want to push a sketchy transmission more than I needed to. I ended up qualifying 9 of 20.

The race on Sunday was AMAZING. It was 10X more fun than I even thought it would be. I managed to work my way up to 4th and was fighting for 3rd when I ran out of time. I did manage to run down the front straight twice at roughly 100mph with 4 wheels on the grass, which was a little touchy, but not really any problem. Both times I got squeezed off at track-out of T12. One of them included a little bump from the guy on the inside. He says I should have lifted and I say he should have given me room. Either way there's zero damage so no harm, no foul.

I was actually in 3rd for about 4 car lengths. Here's proof.

We had some technical difficulties and didn't manage to get any video from Sunday, but one of the other guys got some great footage. The first one is just the first few laps before a full course yellow due to a stalled Thunder Roadster. I'm pretty clear in the mirror for the first 5 turns until he runs it wide and I'm the first to go past. http://vimeo.com/21039733

The part after the yellow has a good bit of my race. Some from pretty close and some a bit farther back. http://vimeo.com/21009633 (Watch until we pass the spun car at about 2:40, then skip to 15:30 for the exciting conclusion of Jason's race.)

I saw him go by my mirror in 10a, but had no idea how close I was to being taken out until I saw the end of this one.

Overall, hugely successful weekend. Michael got a bunch of sessions in and is running competitive lap times as well. Plus, it's always good when you can drive the car onto the trailer at the end. The only loss is a finicky 4th gear in the transmission, which will be replaced before we do it all again in June. (or maybe April at CMP if I can get away with it.)