All things considered, the weekend went very well. I turned a 1:17.2 in the first session which was the fastest that I had ever been around SP. I turned a 1:16.8 in the only qualifying session on Friday so that made me happy. However, that time only grided me in 12th position (out of 18) for Saturday's race. 5 cars were underneath the 1:15.5 track record and 3 of them were in the 13s!! The competition in this series is unbelievable!! In Saturday's race I got pushed wide at T1 on the first lap by another driver and he got by me as well as another car. However, the car that pushed me wide went off in T5 a few laps later and the other car that got by me spun in front of me at the same time so I got both of them back. Unfortunately we were totally broken off the rest of the field by that point and I ran by myself the rest of the race. The car didn't seem to have the grip that it had on Friday and the only dissappointing part of the weekend was that I wasn't able to get down to the 16s again. The fast times from Saturday's race gridded us for Sunday's race and I was grided 14th for Sunday's race.
Sunday's race was much more interesting. It was raining on and off all day. Our race was at 11 am and at 10:30 am it was bone dry. We had slicks on the car and they wanted up to the grid early so Terry (my wife and crew) strapped me in -- and then it started pouring. I sat in the car for about 30 seconds and then decided that we needed to change to wets so I got out and started changing. I almost had the left rear off when it stopped raining! So we looked at the weather map on Terry's phone and it was showing that there was no rain over us. So I left the slicks on, got back in the car, Terry strapped me in -- and you probably guessed it, it started raining again!! But now it was about 10 till 11 and since it was just Terry and I we didn't have time to change to wets so off to the grid I went. I got up there and all but 3 cars (including myself) were on wets. A friend and long time racer, Tim, came over and asked Terry if we had rain tires. She said yes but didn't have time to change. I motioned to Tim to lean down and talk to me and I asked him if I was making a big mistake. He said yes and that we should go change to wets. So back to the trailer I went. I got out of the car to help and Tim told me to get back in the car so Terry strapped me in for the 3rd time while he was changing the tires. One of the guys from Hoosier came over as well as a couple of motorcycle competitors so it was really pretty amazing how quickly the tires got changed. I got back to the grid when the cars were going on track so I started dead last (17th). But at least I was on track with the right tires on the car!! I was back up to 14th or so before the start finish line and I just decided to keep the car on course and finish. I didn't turn any real fast times but I did make a couple of good passes on other cars. However, a lot of people went off track and brought the car home in 9th. I'm happy with a top 10 finish in that group -- I don't car what the conditions are!! Here is a pic of the start of Sunday's race as we were approaching turn 1. I'm deep in the spray and couldn't see hardly anything!
The one thing that I still need to work on is my shifting. I was trying to go from 4th to 1st in the braking zones and I think I will be better off to go through the gears. Once I'm shifting without thinking about it I think it will all become much easier and I will get faster as a result. The weekend was obviously a lot better than the regional and the F1600 series is fantastic. So all the hard work paid off and it is nice to not have to be working on the car in the evenings and long hours on the weekends. :)
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