A Difficult Weekend

A Decent Friday

Following a mechanical issue in Session 1, the final three practice sessions on Friday went reasonably well as I started learning Hallett. This track is technical and unlike anything else I’ve driven before. Every lap felt like there was something new to figure out.

A Tough Q1

I really struggled to get the new tires up to temperature quickly, and as a result, started losing track position early in the session. By the time the tires were ready, I found myself stuck in traffic while also fighting a car that just would not rotate the way I needed it to.

The understeer made it difficult to put together a clean lap, and my times were nowhere near where we needed to be. That left me with a lot of work to do heading into Race 1.

Another DNF

I got a solid start in Race 1 and moved up to P7 on Lap 1, but exiting the hairpin, I felt something was wrong with the gearbox. All of a sudden I lost drive and heard what sounded like a bag of rocks. That was my differential exploding. 3 DNFs in a row.

Ready For Sunday

Luckily, the team was able to source a replacement diff and get the car turned around for Sunday morning. Huge thanks to everyone who worked to make that happen.

An Improvement

In Q2 I put in my fastest lap time of the weekend and moved up to P7. While this felt encouraging, there was still lots of pace to find.

A Lonely Race 2

I moved up to P6 at the start and then stayed there the rest of the race.

The top five had more pace than I could match, and nobody behind me was close enough to battle with. The entire 35-minute race felt more like a time trial session than wheel-to-wheel racing, just turning laps by myself, trying to maximize what we had.

A Plan Moving Forward

Coming off two tough weekends in a row means we need to make big strides before we head to Mid-Ohio for the next SCCA Super Tour.

I’ll be heading to Motorsport Ranch for a few days of testing focused on finding pace in my driving and the car's setup. The goal is simple: get back to fighting at the front.