Roebling Road Raceway Double National - 7/5-6/08
Spent the holiday weekend at Roebling Road competing in a SCCA National double race weekend. Ryan (VIP Garage sponsored Crew Chief) and I made the long haul to Roebling Road Raceway (R3) the Wednesday before the July 4th holiday weekend in preparation for a test day Thursday. The car rolled off the trailer ready to go and practice went well seeing as how I had never run there before. I had been told this wasn't and Evo track and I should have listened. Nothing but sweeping turns that my dump truck like Evo didn't like. Ryan and I worked the suspension and pressures and got it ready for Friday qualifications. 
There were two quals on Friday and then one each morning on Sat and Sunday. A friend (Tim Hund) in his brand new Solstice GXP out qualified me on each attempt, which was to be expected as that car handles like crazy on 275 tires (the Evo has 245s and weighs 400lbs more). 
The first race on Saturday had me playing catchup right at the start since the field never slowed to bunch up like normal and I was 5 car lengths behind Tim when the flag flew :( I should have been right next to him. So we raced with me just behind for about half the race. I pushed to keep pressure on him and planned to get a good run on the front straight to power by, but in one of the turns Tim found a slick spot and spun the car in to the dust. I continued and he rejoined approximately 11 secs back. He started charging hard and I ran consistent lap times to save my tires for a last minute surge for the checkered flag. With 3 laps left Tim was just a couple secs behind me and closed that to near 1 sec even though I ran some of my fastest times to date. Tim pulled to my bumper and we dogged it out threw the last turn as I powered my way to the flag with a .5 margin of victory!
The second race had Tim and I starting in the same exact spots as before, but I got a good start and pulled in front down the straightaway. With roles reversed for the previous race, he stuck to my bumper as I tried to save my equipment for the battle that I knew was to happen near the finish. Once again, halfway through the race, Tim hooked the GXP in to the dirt (new RWD car and a slick track) and I took off. This time he was unable to muster a come back and I cruised to another victory! 
It was nice to win but more importantly Ryan and I spent the better part of the weekend helping Tim to get his car sorted and running properly so that we could battle it out on the track. Tim had an intercooler hose that just wouldn't stay on
and we tried all kinds of things before settling on a frankenstein setup that worked. It was one thing to race and win, but in doing so we also ensured that we did so against the best possible competition at the track, even if it meant spending more time working on Tim's car than mine. 
To all my sponsors, we are 2 points out of 1st in the SE Division and pushing hard towards a Division Championship!
