- 1,695
- Norway
- ErikAndre71
My latest race.
Grand Am at Infineon Raceway - Long
My qualify time was 1:25.789 and it put me as number 2 on the grid. Race started with pedal to the floor, but it was all clean. I held my position until the first time on the twisted area on the "back straight" where I missed my turn in and hit the brake way to late. So I was out shoveling some sand and lost positions a long the way.
When I was back on track and back at race pace I was down to 5th position and had to calm down. No one was hit during my little safari over the sand, but my car felt strange after it. So into the hairpin corner I had to be a bit more careful. The steering wheel felt very lose compare to what it usually do so it was clear to me something had happened to my car.
My pit crew didn't bug me about it and no black flag was shown so I though, ok lets drive with it and see how I do.
The car actually didn't feel that bad, but hunting down the leaders wasn't on my mind at this stage, the car was not good enough to brake late so I lost quite a lot in corners where I had to brake hard. So the last hairpin and the double apex hairpin on the other side of the track I lost track position to the others. But I manage to outrace the guys behind me on the rest of the track. I had to brake quite hard into the mountain climb corners, but it seemed the guys behind me wasn't very confident in section 1.
So I build up a lead of almost 3 seconds and then I did a mistake in the hill climb section. Corner 2 is a tricky hidden corner and I went on the trottle a bit to early so I moved some more sand. I managed to return to the track in front of the guys behind me, but the 3 second lead was down to 0.8Sec
The car felt even worse now, but I adapted to the car and tried push it as hard as possible, at this time I actually got back to 4th position as someone upfront had been fighting to hard and had to spend time in the pit. But Eric Miller was harder to outrace now. Car felt very lose under braking and the steering wheel felt almost like the front wheels was off the ground. Very lose!
But I manage to keep Miller behind me and after 10-12 laps I manage to make a gap down to him. And in the middle of this somewhere 3rd place guy pitted said thanks for the bump and I could pass.. Bump was not from me so maybe it was the 2nd place guy that was out. I'm not sure as I was very occupied driving my own car. But now I was on third.
I could not really gain on the two guys up front so I though to my self, let's focus on driving consistent and maybe I get this third place. The gap to Miller actually increased because he was now driving defensive against Jason Dunfee.
Dunfee actually gained on me after he passed Miller, but I was luckier than him when lapping cars so I managed to keep him off my back. I would be a easy target if I let him close enough to do a overtake attempt in the corners you could out-brake some one as I had to brake early due to my rather broken car.
This stayed this way until it remained 4 laps and between corner 2 and 3 I found the race leader in the sand and I passed him. I actually thought it was a car that was a lap down so I wasn't really ecstatic about it. But then my spotter said, next car is the leader. And I was W00t, and when passing the start finish line my spotter said. Your back in second position.. I had go away from F3 and check F1 to see how long do I have to keep him off and it was less than 5 minutes. (Not really sure what the clock said.. I just saw a small number of minutes) And from there I actually manage to pull it off.
Second place to me and I'm really happy about it.
Race result
Grand Am at Infineon Raceway - Long


My qualify time was 1:25.789 and it put me as number 2 on the grid. Race started with pedal to the floor, but it was all clean. I held my position until the first time on the twisted area on the "back straight" where I missed my turn in and hit the brake way to late. So I was out shoveling some sand and lost positions a long the way.
When I was back on track and back at race pace I was down to 5th position and had to calm down. No one was hit during my little safari over the sand, but my car felt strange after it. So into the hairpin corner I had to be a bit more careful. The steering wheel felt very lose compare to what it usually do so it was clear to me something had happened to my car.
My pit crew didn't bug me about it and no black flag was shown so I though, ok lets drive with it and see how I do.
The car actually didn't feel that bad, but hunting down the leaders wasn't on my mind at this stage, the car was not good enough to brake late so I lost quite a lot in corners where I had to brake hard. So the last hairpin and the double apex hairpin on the other side of the track I lost track position to the others. But I manage to outrace the guys behind me on the rest of the track. I had to brake quite hard into the mountain climb corners, but it seemed the guys behind me wasn't very confident in section 1.
So I build up a lead of almost 3 seconds and then I did a mistake in the hill climb section. Corner 2 is a tricky hidden corner and I went on the trottle a bit to early so I moved some more sand. I managed to return to the track in front of the guys behind me, but the 3 second lead was down to 0.8Sec
The car felt even worse now, but I adapted to the car and tried push it as hard as possible, at this time I actually got back to 4th position as someone upfront had been fighting to hard and had to spend time in the pit. But Eric Miller was harder to outrace now. Car felt very lose under braking and the steering wheel felt almost like the front wheels was off the ground. Very lose!
But I manage to keep Miller behind me and after 10-12 laps I manage to make a gap down to him. And in the middle of this somewhere 3rd place guy pitted said thanks for the bump and I could pass.. Bump was not from me so maybe it was the 2nd place guy that was out. I'm not sure as I was very occupied driving my own car. But now I was on third.
I could not really gain on the two guys up front so I though to my self, let's focus on driving consistent and maybe I get this third place. The gap to Miller actually increased because he was now driving defensive against Jason Dunfee.
Dunfee actually gained on me after he passed Miller, but I was luckier than him when lapping cars so I managed to keep him off my back. I would be a easy target if I let him close enough to do a overtake attempt in the corners you could out-brake some one as I had to brake early due to my rather broken car.
This stayed this way until it remained 4 laps and between corner 2 and 3 I found the race leader in the sand and I passed him. I actually thought it was a car that was a lap down so I wasn't really ecstatic about it. But then my spotter said, next car is the leader. And I was W00t, and when passing the start finish line my spotter said. Your back in second position.. I had go away from F3 and check F1 to see how long do I have to keep him off and it was less than 5 minutes. (Not really sure what the clock said.. I just saw a small number of minutes) And from there I actually manage to pull it off.
Second place to me and I'm really happy about it.
Race result
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