The final leg of the Silverberg spring race trilogy occurred the first weekend in May. This is typically the first race of the season for me - but not for 2008. The car had gone through a thorough review after the first two races. Gingerman is one of my best tracks so I was looking forward to the trip. Of course after the first two races of the year I was looking forward to any track within 200 miles.
Friday was school for new drivers. We had an excellent turn out of new and potential Formula Vee drivers all of which did very well. The VSCDA Vintage Formula Vee series continues to grow - even in a down economy - and we hope to exceed 30 cars at one of our events this year.
Saturday I qualified 7th out of 22. There was a light rain for the Saturday sprint races and I managed to improve my position to 6th and the end with the 4th fastest lap time which would grid me in the second row for the Sunday feature race. The sprint race I enjoyed a spirited battle with Eric Coppock with Eric prevailing by half a second at the end. At the front Ricky delRosario beat Garret VanCamp by 0.007 seconds. The closest finish in series history.
After the race Eric enjoyed looking at his reflection in my helmet visor. I enjoyed teasing him in my best Darth Vader voice saying "Eric, I am your father!"
Sunday weather was much more pleasant. The race started with a bang, literally with two cars coming together to my left in the first corner in what I will describe as "unfortunate circumstances". While this left me in third place it also brought out the safety car which I definitely did not want to see as I had a substantial lead on the forth place car. I apologized later to the start/finish flagger for not acknowledging the full course yellow. She stated that it was pretty obvious from my theatrics of pounding on the steering wheel that I had seen it!
The restart went well but on lap 6 I made a mistake which allowed Jeff Janus to get by for third place. I chased him relentlessly for the rest of the race but once again late traffic played a part and he was ahead by about 2 seconds at the end. 4th place was once again a very good result
Next Race - Autobahn Country Club, Joliet IL, July 26 and 27
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