Sunday came and I'll admit that the fire wasn't really in the belly. Besides being pretty tired, the success of the previous day took away a little of the urgency and desire. There was a schedule change and the first set of run sessions was deleted, moving everything in the day up and hour which worked for me. So it would be practice, qualifying, then race. The morning practice was pretty slow for me, and most of my class competitors were quicker than I was. Then we went out for qualifying.
Just like F1, qualifying is actually pretty important unless you're an amazing driver like Mike Monsalve (more on that in a minute). Passing is difficult with comparable cars, so the further up you start, the less you have to pass and if you qualify ahead of your class competitors (like I did on Saturday), all you have to do is keep them behind you...which is a bit of an art as well but I digress.
At any rate I had a pretty slow qualifying session, and ended up 18th on the grid (as opposed to 11th on Saturday). Two of my class competitors were ahead of me as well as some guys where usually are slower than me. I knew it was going to be an uphill climb, but no biggie...like I said the fire wasn't really in the belly.
That is until I watched the orange group race. As seems to be a tradition, Mike Monsalve started dfl due to some technical issue. He then proceeded to pick off cars one by one until he was in 2nd place (I think there were 30 or so cars in the race). He never could quite catch Steve Alarcon (who won on Saturday as well), but yet another impressive show of driving on Mike's part, hearkening back to Las Vegas of '06 when we watched him do the same thing.
At that point I was a little more inspired, and after an unexpected schedule change (note to self: don't climb the hill to watch the red group coming down the corkscrew even if there is supposed to be another run group before your race because they might change their mind), I ran back to my car, strapped myself in and took my 18th spot on the grid. Ahead of me were the people I needed to catch, and as we started on the formation lap I knew that the first corner was going to be critical. There were some slower cars in front of me, so I had to make a good start and work hard. Then it would just be a matter of how fast I was driving, who made the least mistakes, and if there were any traffic issues.
We came down the corkscrew on the formation lap and Mike Mills had some problem and pulled into the paddock. Well, there was one slot I had made up. I closed in position on the rolling start and we made the turn at turn 11 and started up the straight waiting for the green flag. I had a bit of a gap in front of me, and punched it a bit to start to close it right when the flag went down. Good luck! I got a slingshot, shifted at redline, and caught one or two cars going into turn 2 (2 wide of course). I held them off and saw my main competition, Leonard, about 3 cars ahead of me. I got a bit of space and started working, taking it one turn at a time, and just aiming for the car in front of me. After a few laps I passed Matt (he pointed me by, but I was driving pretty quick and he's not in my race class so he pointed me by so I could chase Leonard) and got another one so I was now behind Leonard, although by a couple of seconds. Dave B. came up behind me and got around me (he's not in my class so I didn't hold him off), then he managed to get past Leonard. So again it was me chasing. Each lap I reeled him in until on about latp 10 I was right on his tail.
Some turns he would pull away, but on others I was all over him. I almost had him in turn 11 a couple of times, and also in turn 2 but I couldn't make it stick. On about lap 13 (of 17) I pulled to about his door with my nose on the front straight, but couldn't get past him. He was driving...um....defensive. Which he is allowed to do. He's been doing this for a lot of years and knows how to hold his position. I felt like I was faster than him, and he was holding me up in a lot of corners but I couldn't quite get the angle/run to get around him. I tried to slingshot in 4 a couple times but couldn't get him going up the hill. I almost touched him in turn 11, as I braked late and he braked harder and drifted over to the outside where I was. I pushed harder on the brakes and there was nothing there so I had to waggle the car outside a bit more.
Finally the white flag came out and I knew I was out of time. One last shot in 4, but it didn't go, then I tried to get him coming out of the corkscrew but couldn't quite hold the line, then pushed really hard in turn 11. On the front straight I got up to his rear bumper but he took the checkered flag, beating my by 0.2 seconds. Afterwards in impound I got out and we shook hands and laughed. It was real racing. I was seriously challenging him for at least 10 laps and he knew it. And it turns out I was right about being faster...his best lap was a 1:47.5 and my best lap was a 1:46.5. That stomped all over my previous best lap of 1:48.0 during the weekend. And in fact the class record for IP at the track is 1:47.11. So I was cooking, and obviously drive "better" when I'm chasing or being chased.
Then it was time to pack up the car and head back down to LA. Some traffic outside Ventura (some fire on the beach?), but otherwise safe and sane. Then rest. Sleep good. Hope to get a lot this week as I'm supposed to be on vacation. Time to make it so...
