In the morning, in an effort to improve our front grip and maximize the contact patch, Kevin added camber to the front suspension and then a little bit of angle to the rear wing. In my recon lap, I got an idea for just how fast turn 1 was, how tight turn 2 was, and started picking my line through the others. “The bitch” seemed fun, actually. That is, until the next time around. On my first hot lap, I came up the blind, uphill left-hander with some false measure of confidence. When I crested the hill, I found myself traveling ~80, but the road went to the right and I was a few degrees off to the left. This took away my braking room and, while I made an effort to get turned, there wasn’t any room and I hit the grass at speed. The crowd in the bleachers went silent, aside from a few gasps. With both feet in, the car rotated around and I allowed it to go backwards, then straightened it up and braced for impact… The car came to a stop, positioned directly between 2 tire barriers, a matter of feet from them. The spectators cheered as I got rolling again. I watched the 997 turbo come over the bitch and then pulled back on track behind him to finish my run.
I met a very nervous Kevin back in the pits and explained what had happened. He looked over the car while I reflected on my mistake. I wasn’t taking it lightly. Primarily because of the near catastrophe, but also because I had compromised our finish by spending time in the grass, rather than on the track. Unfortunately, my video camera didn’t work, so I walked up to the bleachers near the bitch and just asked loudly if anyone had caught the spin on video. I found someone with the video and got it downloaded. While it looked graceful, it also showed me just how close I had gotten to the tire wall. I had a lot of people approaching me and “complimenting” me on a great save (I’m not sure how much I had to do with it) and commenting on the general entertainment of my excursion. We would also later receive a mention in Motor Trend online, although I wish it was for better reasons!
During our lunch break, I expected abysmal results, but it turned out that we had finished in 12th overall. I guess it must have been the fact that I carried so much speed through the grass that I didn’t lose as much as I expected!... Especially when it was factored into the 3-lap cumulative total. Moreover, if there was ever a time for me to have a poor run, it was that one, because the 1st-in-class GTI had had a fuel issue, leaving them limping around the track, and finishing last. This immediately launched us into 1st-in-class and up to 10th place in the overall standings!!
Feeling slightly better about things, I geared up for the afternoon run, determined to run cleanly (first priority) and quickly (always a priority!). The car had been a bit loose and unruly in the morning session, so I asked Kevin to stiffen the front sway bar another notch to see if we could improve the balance. I should remind you that we had significantly upped the rear spring rate between our last test and the One Lap, so, unfortunately, we had to tweak along the way. The afternoon session went great, with the chassis balance finally feeling really good. I was even getting to quite enjoy the track!
When the results came out, we found that we had run 6th overall! We were now securing our lead in class, even with the GTI fixed and back in the game, and ecstatic to be in the top 10 overall! The Hallett circuit was great to visit and the staff was incredibly friendly. We headed over to Tulsa Raceway for the drag racing event.
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