NASA GL PittRace 7/25/21

After a hard fought race to gain P1 in Race 2 it subsequently also resulted in me posting a personal best sub 2 minute lap time which secured P1 again for Race 3. Only this time I knew I had very fast RX8 with a very skilled driver that I have watched for years sweep this event I knew I had a hell of a race in store.

And it did not disappoint, I was hopeful to maintain P1 around T1 but ultimately just do not have the power to pull with some of these cars on the straights, so back to offense it was going to be for another 20 minutes.

I was a lot more patient with this race in the moves I wanted to make, but ultimately very little if any window ever presented itself. In turn I kept the pressure on waiting for an opening, where none really ever came. In turn this race was my biggest lesson in racecraft seeing how he managed me behind him, and why he made the moves he did to put what cars between us and when to time his passes to the groups ahead of us.

I was ultimately able to keep to pressure on until the second to last lap where I found myself getting into a mechanical high risk area when I was watching my coolant temps rise to 240F I knew I had to back off, but pushing as hard as I did I was able to secure a very large gap from P3 and was able to run a 5 second off pace final lap to let me car cool down and still secure a P2 finish.

I have a lot of work to do to the car now to resolve me heating issue and get ready for Mid-Ohio at the end of August