New England 2009 Recap

Monday, July 13, 2009

According to MyLaps.com we finished 16th but had the 2nd fastest lap time. We were 10 laps down from 15th, but I had a last minute penalty that prevented us from making up those 10 laps (sorry guys). We were 251 laps down from the leader. 70 of those laps where from BS, and atleast 120 where from penalties. If not for BS and penalties that would have put us in 2nd.

I'm sure we could have driven w/o penalties if we really tried, but we knew we weren't in contention so we didn't really care as much. We just went out there to drive fast and have fun. All of our penalties pretty much came within the first 10-15 minutes of our driving stint, after that we were clean (except for my last minute penalty at the end of the race).
Brian was cool headed and clean the whole time.
Ed did a few laps then came in with contact. Went out again and came in real quick when he put 2 wheels off avoiding another car.
I went out and quickly came back in when I put 2 wheels off avoiding another car.
Gary went out and spun 1st lap.
Towards the very end of the race I saw a hole between 2 cars coming off the bowl with only a car width and a few inches inbetween. I took it, but the car on the outside either did not see me or moved to block and hit me. It was slight rubbing and didn't seem that big of a deal to me, but he must have been surprised by the contact and jerked the wheel or something, as I got black flagged and was told he came close to the wall. I was dumb for making a hole where one really didn't exist with racers of very little experience. I'm sure that pass would have been ok w/ no contact had it been with experienced club racers.

The first place team, Kilbasa Kids, was pretty much text book. They drove fast, but very clean and cautious. Definately had their act together. They were a very well oiled machine.

I think properly working radios would have made a big difference for us. Brian's Push To Talk wire got streached and severed in several places while either loading or unloading the car. He soldered it back together, but it never really worked well after that, and then it failed half way through the 1st stint.

We'll try again at either the CMP race or the Nelson Ledges race.


(Scott, Brian, Ed, Gary, Mike)

Big thanks to our Crew Chief Mike for all of his help at the track and working on the car.

Tons more pics and video here.