Well, all good things have to come to an end. I think I finally drove too much! I'd been here since Wednesday doing extra sessions, and then a double race weekend. That plus not getting much sleep last night.
Anyway, morning found the track wet with puddles from a shower in the wee hours. The wet surface helped me, Chris, Luca Orlandi, and Rick Balsley check out from the rest of the group in short order. We had a great battle that I am told was quite entertaining for those watching as we tried to carry as much brake in and throttle out as the conditions would stand. Everybody got sideways everywhere, while within feet and sometimes inches of each other, but everyone
tried to give room and there were lots of great saves all over the place. The exit of 17 was particularly exciting as the grip under the bridge evaporated instantly leaving the back end suddenly sliding way out under throttle and threatening to come 'round. The entry to 13 was also devilish and left me flailing like a gasping fish more than once trying to keep it on. Rick finally dropped off the pace and the other 3 were left to fight it out with lots of passes and repasses. Chris was just too good today, as he challenged the brake zones more than me and found earlier than I did that there was a surprising amount of braking grip once a few laps were done (surprising because here I thought I was doing fairly well braking mid-road into 7, and then Chris comes sailing by me down the inside lane at least 20 mph faster! I had my chances but he was always just enough better. Luca made an ill-advised attempt at an outside pass into 7 on the last lap and went into the grass, leaving the door open for me to move up to P2. A really fun, challenging race that taught me a lot about changing track conditions.
But then, I found myself mentally drained. Just didn't have the mental resources left to do a good job in Race 4 despite a nearly completely dry track. what a waste of a pole position! had a sluggish start as 3 people (Nick S. being the only one I recognized)dived under me into 1. However I managed to salvage it by taking a later entry and wider arc so I got to power better than the others who were still turning at the exit, and slid by 2 interlopers in the brake zone of 3 to regain P2 behind Nick. But then I experienced huge brain fade, went somewhere else mentally (the Bahamas? Hawaii?)and found myself hanging most of the car off the exits of 10 and 13 at angles incompatible with straight line speed. Stuff I haven't been doing for months. Anyway, I managed to bring it in P4 after all kinds of nonsense, but then was penalized 20 sec for not coming in to the pits for some car contact that I didn't feel (what with all the kerbs I was hopping over) and was never black-flagged for, so dropped me 2 more spots. Juan Pablo G.C., Jeff Glassman and Nick S. ended up having a good run and dice, but you'll have to ask them about it since I was nowhere near it. And then I had to leave before Pat's race was over to catch my flight out.
wow. A great, great week. Learned a lot, made new friends, had a great time hanging out with great folks. What this sport is all about.
P.S. Someone tell NickNick that if he is going to continue to
attempt to add an international flair to his already prodigious on-air personality, his Indian(!) accent needs a ton of work. I'll be happy to provide private coaching at Skippy lead-follow rates.
You know, give something back.