Here's the sequence of events in my prescriptive. During the morning 5-6 min warm-ups, I ran with Hoosier wets and they rocked! Of course the course was still wet and rain was coming down. in the short time I was there, I passed every closed wheel car I came across (even a GT1) - what an ego booster.
By the time group 2 started, rain had stopped but the track was till wet - we're all hoping that the rain would start again since we decided to stay on the hoosier wets.
I had the inside line on row 4 at the start. Tucked behind the car in front of me and I could not see the flag station, but for some reason I could Jeff Lawton's tail lights (2nd row). I waited for his brake lights to go off. no brake lights - go! Jake's RX7 in front of me was slower off the start, I rolled right to pass, protected the inside line, made a b-line for big bend not giving an inch, not lifting and hoping others would before I do. By big bend I was able to pull in front of Jake and protect the inside against Jeremy Von oy in 6th - "ok, I am 5th place now. Keep things moving."
The first four cars (Shane, Andy, Max and Jeff) in front of me were making a quick getaway while I waited for tires to warm-up. Jeff Lawton spins out in lap 3 at the left hander giving me 4th place (I felt so bad, I laughed a little cause of Andy's comments before the race and kept moving) By lap 4, I had Max Lingenfeld (3rd) about 8 seconds in front and in clear view on the front and noname straights and I was catching up. Tires warming up - I start pushing more. I'm focused... I think "this might be a podium..."
yeah... NOT
Well, it wasn't another lap before tires were shot.running 10/10ths was just out of the question. big bend and the esses turned into a 5/10th game and wasn't another a lap or two before the track was dry in some places and Jack, Jeremy and Jeff passed me. The front end pushed, the rear end would come around w/o warning and somewhere on lap 10 I thought to himself *wtf, why did you soften the rear shocks*.
It seemed that Greg Miendl and I traded places 3-4 times for 20 laps until the last lap when his hoosier wets went on him and I pulled away for a comfortable 6th place. Greg, if you're reading this, great fun man!
Andy and I met up at the 'food' stand and we both agreed that 30+ laps at LRP in those conditions seems like an enduro. We were just exhausted - but what fun!
Thanks for making my rookie year awesome guys and gals! Big congrats to Andy, Shane, Jeff, Max, Jake and everyone else! Now, where's Greg Amy?
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