Grand Bayou Race Series Round #4

Well we are now to round #4 of 6 in the Grand Bayou Race Series. As of last round, I am sitting 2nd overall in points in my class. So here we go into Round #4.

Practice - The day before we had a test and tune practice day which I focused primarily on 2 sections of the track. My Avon Tech R tires are starting to show a lot of wear so I did not want to push them that hard at practice, I wanted to save the for the event. As we all went out onto the track I was thinking to myself, I just want to get 4 maybe 5 good laps in and then shut it down until qualifying. The session went almost exactly how I wanted it to go. I didn’t push the car to its limits, just got out there by myself on the course and made sure I was hitting my marks and basically not going to try anything different or stupid during the event. Getting the car prepped before the event, I tried some Water Wetter from Red Line to see if I could help bring the water temps down. Seemed to help out a little bit as the water temps never got above 210 all day. Now that practice was over, it was time for qualifying.

Qualifying - Qualifying in the Grand Bayou Race Series may seem different to some, but it is how most touring car race series are set up. No matter what bracket you are in, all of you race on the track at the same time. It is actually very beneficial to try and run with the top guys to get faster and faster. As we all head out on to the course, everyone is heading down the 1800 foot front straightaway scrubbing in the tires and building up some heat in their brakes. Come around turns 8 and 9 and the green flag is out. Everyone takes it pretty light through the first few turns as this is qualifying and you want to be able to get away from the other cars and run your own race out there. We are racing the clock at this point not each other. Previously on the grid, I let most of the cars go ahead of me thinking I would get some clean track to run on. And that is exactly what I got. I made sure to take what I worked on yesterday during the practice day and applied it to this qualifying run today. Throughout the session the car felt really good. Except towards the end the rear of the car wanted to step out and slide a little. Could be to do with the Avons on their last legs here. No matter, the session itself was pretty uneventful with hardly any cars around me and no one spinning off the track. All and all I good qualifying session for me with a time of 1:30.566. That was good enough to take the pole once again as the guy who actually finished ahead of me broke out and will have to start at the back of the pack when we go to the heat race.

Heat Race - Well after a lunch break and some good "Bubba Burgers" off of our new grill we brought to the track this weekend. (Trying to save some cash here), it was time for the heat race. On the grid prior to going out onto the track, I was focusing on the start. I pictured what I wanted to do and how I was going to do it. The past few events I have done actually very well on the starts passing at least 1-3 cars before the first turn. It all depends on how you qualify if you are on the outside or the inside. I prefer to be on the inside even though you may pass in the first turn, you are actually on the outside for the next turn. You just hope you can nose by someone and get in line and not get caught up on the outside line. out on the track we go, scrubbing all the way down the straight. Heading towards the back of the track we all begin to line back up. Moving towards the flag station 2 by 2, keeping my revs up to stay in the boost and GREEN FLAG !!! I get a good jump on the flag and rocket past 2 cars on the start into the 1st turn. but as I said, this can be tricky and I got pushed to the outside by a Corvette on my inside. So the cars I just passed as well as 2 more go racing past me. Oh well, nothing I can do at this point so I tuck in behind a BMW and an RX7. As we go through turn 14 heading onto the front straight, I tuck to the inside and pass the BMW, RX7 and a Miata. Get set back up for turn 1 at 110 MPH and focus on catching the cars in my bracket. 2 laps into the heat race we get a Red Flag, this is NEVER good flag to get as it means something is seriously wrong. I look towards the flag station to get some instructions and I see them running towards the edge of the track with a fire extinguisher in hand. Apparently; I learned later, an RX7 had an exhaust fire under the hood and needed to be put out. So we got the Black Flag from the safety stewards and we headed back around to re-grid. This actually worked to my advantage in the race as I was almost a good 20 or so car lengths behind the leader and now I am sitting right behind for the restart. Back to green flag racing. I jump right on the Mustangs tailpipe and look for a way around him. We battle back and forth for the rest of the heat race. As we go down a short shoot straight away in the middle of the track, I can see the faster bracket are taking the checkered flag so this was it. I had to get past him in the last few turns of the course. As we come through the final turn (14) I take it a little wider than usually to try and get a run on him heading onto the straight. We clear the wall and fly onto the straightaway, I get behind him for a brief moment to catch any draft i can and try to sling shot around him. The line is about half way down the front straight so it’s a drag race of about 900 feet. I had the TSI to the floor and full boost but just missed him by 3 tenths of a second. He finished with 5 laps at 19:08.761 and I finished with 5 laps at 19:09.008. The 5 laps seems very low but this is timed event and not a lap based event. So the black flag kept us from racing the full 15 minutes of the heat race. But I will be starting 2nd in the feature.

Feature Race - Now that the heat race (5 lapper) was over, it was time for the feature race (the money race.) I am extremely focused on the grid as I want to get as good as start as I can get to get out front early and pull away from the other cars in my bracket. Heading around the backside of the track, I notice a BMW that for some reason is hanging back a little much and forcing the guy in my bracket to my inside further back than I am sure he wants to be with me right next to him. Green Flag flies and I punch it and jump right over in front of the BMW and right into 1st place in my class. I know from past experience if I can get in front, I can stay in front. Lap after I lap I am pressing the car very, very hard. I glance in my mirrors heading onto the front straight away and no one is behind me until I take turn 1 and then I can see the Mustang and BMW appear in my mirrors as I am heading through turns 2 & 3. I have about a 4 turn lead on the cars behind me. But the with length of the straightaway as well, I must be 20 seconds ahead of them. Everything is going just like I wanted it to go. As I head down the front straight I see the 2 minutes to go from the steward. Cruise control from here on out. Not pressing the car, but not letting up wither. Can’t take a chance of getting into to traffic and letting the other cars catch up. I figure with 2 minutes left, that is 2 more laps. No big deal. Well as I come off a short shoot heading into a pretty high speed corner, I take as I usually do no big deal in 4th gear around 70 - 75 MPH. As I down shift to 3rd and start to turn in, the rear end of the car steps out and around I go. Looping to the left, the back to the right and backwards into the grass about 60 foot away from the turn where I started the spin. I have enough track to get back out there and still be in the lead....But the car was not wanting to fire. As I sit there pointing directly into the on-coming traffic in the turn, here is everyone in my bracket just looking over at me as they pass right on by. Frustrated, I just limped the car back into the paddock and called it a day. I thought for sure with only 2 minutes to go, this was the day I get my 1st feature win. I guess it just was not meant to be.

Heading Home - As we drive done the freeway heading back to Florida, I mulled over the feature race for a bit and tried to figure out what could have happened. I took that corner exactly the same as every other lap but the car just stepped out beyond my control. I was straight when I started braking, I thought I was anyway. Just one of things I guess. When we got back to the house, I went onto mylaps.com to see if they had the results up yet. Just wanted to see how my lap times were in the feature before the spin. It actually brightened my day up to see I broke out of my bracket with a lap time of 1:29.880. So even if I had not spun out, I would still not have won the race. When you break out of your bracket, they dock you a lap. So I would have not won anyway. That was a little consolation to my spinning incident I guess. Well I still managed either a 3rd or 4th place finished regardless of the DNF. So I will either received 7 or 6 points depending on how they score it. Which will drop me to 3rd in the overall standings with most around 30 or 31 points. With 2nd place overall having 32 and the leader with 37. Still some hope to try and grab the overall points championship, but I will have to win the final 2 races and hope the leader has some issues and finishes around 3rd or 4th in each of those rounds. Not likely as I have not seen him make too many mistakes this season. But I am still shooting for a podium finish in the overall points race and that goal is very obtainable. We will see at Round #5 on January 31 - February 2nd. Until then......