Enduro
The rain arrived as promised, although by the time we arrived at the track by 1030, it had settled to a light mist.
Warm-up scheduled for 12 noon. Debating on whether to use rain tires (grooved) or slicks. In the end, we go with the rains.
Good choice. Passed 5 people at the first turn! Drizzle coming down and it seems most cars are on slicks, so I'm much faster on the rains.
Come in after about 7 laps to check the tires (temps and pressure). Both look good.
Not much time between the warm-up and the race, so only have a chance to have a quick drink of water, get some last minute tips from Spencer, and figure out which tires to start the race with. We spend a few mins looking at the weather radar and decide to go with the rains.
This seems to be the right choice as at the start I blow past the 600+hp 187 car into the lead and build up a gap of about half a lap after 5 laps! Unfortunately, it starts to dry up and the rain tires get slower while those on slicks start to get faster. Time to change tires, but I have to wait for 20 mins into the race to make my mandatory 5 min pitstop. By this time, 2 cars get by me and I'm in third overall. We change the tires, gas the car, but have some trouble with the belts and my 5 min pitstop ends up being 6 mins.
One other thing to note is that my cool shirt wasn't working, the radio wasn't working, I didn't have any water in the car, and the windows were in and making the car incredibly hot!
So, we go back out on scrubbed slicks and imediately pick up speed and start to regain some of the lost time. A car crashes on the front straight and double yellow flags slow everyone down while emergency vehicles get on track to help. Eventually, I catch up to the field and pick up most of the lost time from the pitstop. Car gets taken away (hopefully driver is ok) and we go green with 20 mins to go till the end. I know its 20 mins to go cuz Spencer puts the board over the wall as I drive by the front straight (no radio)! So, this for me looks like a 20 min sprint race and I drive as hard as I can to catch the leaders. A 10 second deficit turns into only a few seconds 15 mins in as I drive the car the fastest I have all race to try to catch up. I can see the leader now, only a few seconds in front of me.
Unfortunately, the checkered flag is dropped on the next lap, and I finish 2.3 seconds behind the leader, for 2nd overall, and 2nd in class. What a race!
I end up doing a 1.29 flat for the fastest lap of the race of anyone.
Great result for Team Autowerks!
All in all, a great weekend for our first time at Road Atlanta. A great result for all the canadians too, including Randy, Bob Seitz, and Shaun McKaigue, all whom took home podiums in all their races!
Courtney and Brian did an awesome job with the car all weekend. Thank-you!
Next stop, Watkins Glen in May!