A very long day, but for all the right reasons. The alarm was a bit later (6:30am), and thankfully no incidents in the morning session. The track wasn't a slick as Saturday, it was warmer, and the car felt good except for the failing syncros in 2nd and 3rd gear. I was starting to feel better about the track and figuring out some places to pick up time. Mike and I were running very close although in yesterday's race even though I beat him in the race, he was over a second faster than me in lap times, breaking below 2:00. I've never run that fast at Infineon.
So for qualifying I was gridded behind him which was a good thing as I'm always faster when I chase. We went out, he gapped me a bit in traffic then I charged hard. We came back in and lo and behold I turned a 1:58.9 to qualify ahead of him. That beat my previous best by about 1.5 seconds. OK then...bring it. Of course then we had an almost 4 hour wait for the race. That blows.
Smaller field today as a few cars pulled out. We had a tighter grid at the start and I almost caught one of the spec boxsters in the front straight. I settled in and the car felt good, except for the nasty grinding shifts most of the time when going into 2nd. Mike was safely behind me, but I noticed he was catching me with ease on the straights. I can't push the loud pedal any further so not much I can do other than try to carry more speed out of the corners. Then around lap 6 with traffic he was on my tail. On about lap 8 he caught me coming out of 11 and passed me on the front straight with ease. I sighed and set about to figure out how I could pass him back. I knew the straights were his (damn his fresh engine), so I had to find other places. I knew he was having a tough time in 4 and into 9, so those would be my best opportunities. I kept him close and got a run on him here and there but couldn't quite pull it off. Came very close a few times though and challenged inside and outside trying to learn this whole racecraft thing. Great fun. We gave each other room but also gave no quarter.
Finally I saw the white flag so this was it...last lap, and only a couple of chances left. I tried to get him in 2 but couldn't carry enough speed, got about half his car into 5 but he pulled away into the carousel. Then out of the hairpin I was on his tail into the esses. At this point I knew that coming out of 8b was going to be my only opportunity as he had a tendency to not track out full left like I do and was slower through the section. Sure enough he drifted right but it turns out it was for fast traffic coming up behind. Jim Copp was chasing John Payne for the GT2 lead. I didn't see them in the mirrors as I was concentrating on trying to pass Mike. Mike did see them as he was checking his mirrors for me.
As soon as he drifted a bit right I pinned it and aimed for track left as I planned. Jim saw the small gap and shot into it as John was right squarely on my tail. I grabbed onto Jim's wheel and we both passed Mike into 9. John was stuck behind me until 10 when I waved him by. I managed to hold off Mike through 11 and then we headed onto the front straight. Just as with the whole rest of the race, he was faster in a straight line and was catching me heading towards the checker. I eased over track right to squeeze him a bit (I'm allowed a defensive move) but I left him about 1.5 car widths of room. Thankfully he didn't quite catch me and I won by 0.2 seconds.
As we pulled into impound I saw Jim's car. I held off John for his first GT2 win ever. I got out of my car and said, "so did that help?" We had joked earlier about me blocking for him. While I didn't block, Mike and I were traffic that helped him make the pass. All part of racing. He gave me a huge bear hug as he was totally stoked. Great race.
Then it was back to the paddock to collect the boy (who actually watched my whole race), pack up the car, and head back to LA. I was the only POC person who didn't trailer, and around 8pm in the middle of nowhere on the I5 I was feeling it. But I do what I have to, and it was worth it. And my car is amazing...what other vehicle can drive 400 miles, race full tilt for two days, then drive 400 miles back? I need to fix her tranny though...sigh...goodbye money, but hello fun.
