Road America is one of those tracks where you can get a brilliant, enthralling race, a snoozefest, or an exercise in utter futility depending on the circumstances.
Happily in the past week I've now had 3 of the former (and a fourth in the middle of the night that was an interesting experience rather than a pleasure).
Started the week with a class win and second overall in the Radical, then after the 200 I had a brilliant ding dong in the DP and ended up on the bottom step of the podium after going backwards at the start. So to get a win tonight when it looked like I was a lot further off the pace than I was at Watkins Glen was the icing on the cake!
Qualifying was a wash out, with me never really getting a lap hooked up and simply running out of time to put in a good one. Race started okay but being on the outside of the grid I struggled to hold my position through the first few corners. Paul appeared to have started on a heavy fuel load and I managed to box him in behind Mike and fight my way past through 5, 6, and 7.
That left me stuck behind Oily who was using the bendy straight between 3 and 5 to good effect (plausible deniability
). With Paul closing up from behind I wasn't sure whether Oily was just struggling for race pace, or was also running heavy.
Either way my strategy of running half and half with a possible change of rubber wasn't going to work with me mired behind another car so I switched to plan B and dived into the pits very early for another 9.9 gallons and no tyres. That put me back on an almost clear track, and Picnic and Spanner made it easy to pass them, and with Robert going off just as I reached him and Shark with some damage and therefore in no position to fight I was able to stick in a really solid set of laps, and just hope for the best in terms of other cars pitting.
I saw Paul retire and then James and assumed they must have eventually had a coming together. I figured that would give me 4th place.
Eventually, one by one the leaders sarted to pit, and I passed each one in turn, with only Mike leaving the pits ahead. When we passed Gary in the pits I knew something had happened to him too, but was still shocked to be 2nd, and not only that, but closing in on Mike a little each lap. The car still felt pretty good, although I was having to nurse it a little more in the Carousel and Kink, but after a couple of laps glued to Mike's gearbox he got his braking a teeny bit wrong for turn 5, and that was all I needed to slip by and reverse the Team Shark 1-2.
After that I pushed hard to open a gap, until with about 4 to go I decided it was getting to risk and backed off a little. That had to be one of my best races to date, albeit helped a lot by the misfortune of Gary, Paul and James. An excellent result for the team, and for my chances in the drivers championship.
