outlaw4rc's Racing Report
Started 6th, Finished 1st
Even before the first race of the season, controversy surrounded the addition of Twin Cities Raceway Park, a new facility built around the green hills of Farmington, Minnesota as multiple Miata teams raised concerns about the circuit. The operator made some alterations to the track before the start of the race weekend to mixed reviews, including Team Red Bull-Outlaw Racing.
I can see why the changes were made and it did give us a little more racing room to work with. Unfortunately, we had to rework our track setup from testing and we pretty much lost the handle on T5 so we lost a little speed to the competition.
Adding to the controversy for the weekend was a error in timing and scoring which was not communicated to the drivers which put the team behind at the start.
I was sure we were P2 but race control put us in P6. Since we don't have mics inside our helmets, I wasn't able to tell my crew to alert race control.
Fortunately, the incident did not hurt the team as outlaw4rc had an excellent start and moved up to P4 before entering Turn 1. The driver stayed behind the lead pack and made a move for P3 on the front stretch by the end of Lap 4. By Lap 10, the driver caught up to the leaders and made a bold move at Turn 9.
Brosif and Turbo were side-by-side through T8 and T9 and they had slowed down enough that I swerved around Turbo to take P2 and I was gunning for P1 at T10 but I had to lift to avoid hitting Brosif. I then had Turbo on my side heading into the T11-12 complex but he went in line behind me. Good thing too because that could have been ugly.
Brosif pitted soon after, leaving outlaw4rc and R1600 Turbo to battle for the lead. outlaw fended off Turbo until Lap 14 and both pitted at the end of the lap. Unlike last week, the trip through and out of pit road was uneventful but near-disaster struck at T7 where an accident occurred in front of the leaders.
Brosif had taken the lead with the fresher tires and Turbo and I were just behind him. Then I saw ketiux go wide out of T7 and hit the wall hard. I think Brosif expected ketiux's car to ricochet out of his way so he stayed outside and then he hit him on the driver's side door. After that, all I saw was smoke and I went inside and crossed my fingers.
Fortunately, the driver avoided the accident and continued pacing behind R1600 Turbo, hoping to conserve tires for the finish. However, his competitor continued to set a fast pace, forcing outlaw to push to maintain the gap. They soon encountered lap traffic and the driver almost lost contact but rallied back and on Lap 31, made his move.
I wanted to wait until the final lap but I got such a good run on the front stretch, I pulled the trigger early. I knew that I could fend him off for the whole lap and earlier in the race, I actually held position with him through the T1-T3 complex and I was hoping to do the same on the last lap.
However, with worn tires and brakes, outlaw went wide at T1 and despite his best efforts, Turbo slipped ahead by T4 but the driver pushed on and made another bold move at T7.
I had a great run exiting T5 and I decided to pull out and try the inside through T6 and T7. Turbo moved in and I ended up eating grass but I kept on it. My crew chief joked that I did a "Pass on the Grass" except I was 2nd instead of 1st.
The competitors continued on and were nose-to-tail approaching T14 when outlaw decided to use a little strategy to set up the overtake of the race.
I decided to stay right behind him and force him to charge in. When he did, I braked early and aimed for a late apex. I somehow nailed the corner and he got a poor exit, leaving a window the inside. I took it and shoved that car in for all its worth and I got her to stick! I couldn't believe it! I did all I could to stay to the inside on the last corner and I guess Turbo thought my car would go wide because he also aimed inside and that's when I knew I had a chance.
R1600Turbo used the draft to pull alongside outlaw4rc but ran out of track and RBO Racing took its maiden win in the series.
If you'd told me I was going to win here, I would have called you insane. We were just not where we wanted to be unlike at Nurb and GVR and we didn't get a lot of breaks here either but we just kept pushing and on that last lap, I kept telling myself I had nothing to lose, you know, since I had 2nd pretty much wrapped up. We had lost opportunities the first two races and I wasn't going to let it happen a third time so I'm really happy to get the team a win. The only disappointment is that Forced wasn't part of the battle and he should have been so we could have put on an even greater show for the fans.
When asked whether the victory changes the driver's opinion on the track, outlaw provided a subtle response.
Road America is near here, isn't it?
Because of limited funding, the team is not scheduled to race at Spa but will return to racing action at Madrid in two weeks.
