Race 2 at Homestead-Miami was chaotic, full of contact, and had loads of lousy driving by me. Let’s get to the lap-by-lap breakdown.
Lap 1 – I started 18th for this race. It wasn’t the best place to be. The chaos started early. Going into turn two, the field backed up badly, coming to a complete stop. I hit the car in front of me hard, but eventually continued on in 18th position. Heading into turn 6, I was hit from behind, which got me out of shape, and I fell to P19. I got hit again coming out of turn 7 and fell to P20. This was not shaping up to be a stellar lap. I re-gained one position in turn 10. And then set out to catch the pack.
Lap 2 – I caught the pack and picked up one position in turn 8. Going through turn 10, I passed two cars, and had contact with the white Mustang. The contact wasn’t too bad, but bad enough. I gained another position in turn 11, and moved up to P15. I also set fast lap of the race on lap 2.
Lap 3 – I moved up to P14 after making a pass in turn 10. That’s when I came up behind Samantha Downing in the BMW. Considering how the next few laps would go, I can only imagine Samantha would like to strangle me.
Lap 4-6 – On lap 4 alone, I made contact with Samantha once, and went completely off track twice. Not a good lap. But I wasn’t done. On lap 5, I hit her coming out of turn 2, went off track in turn 3, hit her again in turn 4, and finally passed her (without contact) in turn 10 to move into 13th position. On lap 6, I moved into 12th position when another car went off course between turns 2 and 3. I had a good run coming out of 7, but when I tried to pass the Corvette on the outside, I went off course again. I maintained 12th position, but fell back again. I got by the Corvette in turn 10 and moved into 11th.
Lap 7 – I caught the Alfa going through turn 2 and we stayed nose to tail going into turn 6. We went side-by-side through turn 7 and 8, where we made contact. The Alfa maintained position down the back straight, but I was able to get by him in turn 10 to take over 10th position.
Lap 8 – I caught and passed Brent Post in the Dodge Viper coming out of turn 7. I can only imagine that Viper is running a big restrictor plate in order to be qualified to run in this race. Without one, I would have never been able to pass him on the straight. Now I was in 9th position. I moved up to 8th position by making an inside move on the Camaro in turn 10.
Lap 9 – I moved into 7th position momentarily when I passed Pierre Blasno coming out of turn 7, but I promptly went off course in turn 8, not only giving back P7, but also P8 and P9. I was lucky I didn’t fall back even farther. I recovered and caught the pack, re-passing the Viper just before start/finish to move back into 9th position.
Lap 10 – I caught Doc Massey in the Camaro in turn 7, and we went through turn 8 side-by-side. He maintained position down the back straight, but I passed him in turn 10, before going off track again between turns 10 and 11. Thankfully, I was able to control the car and maintain position. I was right on the back bumper of 7th place Pierre Blasno heading into turn 11, and I got a better launch coming out of turn 12, We went down the front straight side-by-side, and I just edged him out at the line to finish P7.
The top five in points after two races look like this
- Lou Mindar (33 pts)
- Callie Carr (25 pts)
- (tie) Quint Blackmore (18 pts)
- (tie) Thomas Suzuki (18 Pts)
- (tie)Claudio Naruda (15 pts)
- (tie) Julio Sanchez-Romero (15 pts)
This race was more exciting than the previous one, but I also made a lot more mistakes. I was lucky to do as well as I did.
Next Race: Road Atlanta – Race 1