The best race weekend of the year I think. My results weren't what I had hoped but that is racin'. I did blow up the splitter on the outside of T1 in the qual race (second splitter for me - Forrest blew up the other one Jeff!) while I was leading by about 6 seconds after just 5 laps. Jeff, Marc, Brian and Geoff fought each other real hard that race so I could get away...made the mistake of 'relaxing' in T1 and turned in too early and went off into the grass. Dope.

Since it was a qual race, I started from the back in the 20 lap feature race Sunday. 20th place with ITC, IT7, Spec 7 and ITA. Decent start and was up to 5th pretty quick. Getting around Geoff and Jeff proved difficult and Marc and Brian kept the gap strong. Tons of traffic at that point but they all did a great job from my seat but that was probably due to the leaders punching that 'awareness' hole for me. Needed a couple more laps to make a legit run at them. It was a really fun race - hectic but fun. So many other great things about the weekend:

  • Lots of track time. Test day was FULL but worked well. A Qual, Qual race, a 20 lap feature and a Pursuit race
  • Joint racing board between South and North Jersey. Plenty of workers who were friendly and genuinly happy to see the entrants and solicit input on the couple issues they wanted to proactively address
  • Great races. TONS of MARRS cars that are old friends, some new friends and some faces to 'business' friends. Happy to race against some fresh faces and fast cars
  • Pusuit race. A very fun idea. I think the concept will catch on...between 55 minutes and 60 minutes of more race time for $140 and a cash payout to the top 10 within 45 minutes of race finish!
  • Willingness of the stewards to call drivers in for crappy driving or contact. Sometimes there is a reason for it but mostly it makes us drivers aware that people are watching and contact is just not acceptable
  • We all know it's a dusty place. Sometimes dangerously so...but a couple times during the weekend I saw some water trucks dampening some of the critical run-off areas to minimize this issue. I am thankful that the track took an active role in making the racing/safety better DURING the race weekend
Couple opportunities for improvement in my mind - and they are VERY small in terms of importance...

  • Bump drafting. Some of us do it, the SM guys do it all the time - its part of how they make the speed and it's accepted with the drivers. Make note of it and if a driver wants to protest someone for it, the record will be there. If it's something that the stewards don't want to see, write it up in the supps.
  • Pursuit race. I know the rules were lifted from another series so as not to have to reinvent the wheel but there is a huge flaw...the 'break out'. Your start position and time were based off of your fast lap in the qual race on Saturday afternoon. Well a 8/10ths differential in fast lap translated to a 40 second head start in the PR. The rules stated that you could go faster by up to 10% without penalty. Well that would have been ~7.8-7.9 seconds for a fast ITA car. We all know that you won't find that kind of time, but the top 4 finishers all improved by between 9/10ths and 1.5 seconds. That just can't happen. I suggest you should only be able to 'improve' by less than half a second on your fast lap or you 'break out' just like in bracket drag racing. Prevents sand bagging...and this is a cash race...the bigger the field, the bigger the payout
  • Make it a double NARRC race and it would have generated even bigger numbers!!!
Overall it was outstanding. Thanks to everyone who had a hand in the design and the implamentation because the result was great. I am glad the quantity of entrants rewarded you for all your hard work. See ya'll at the Glen!