While most H-T eyes were focused on CMP last weekend, there were some great races going on at Mid-Ohio as well.

ITA was running in group-2, which included 30 ITA cars (11 Honda’s), SSB, SSC, Spec Miata and Spec RX-7… for a total of 54 cars in our group! Due to being buried with work and having problems with the car, I hadn’t raced in two months so the first qualifying session was spent just finding my rhythm again. I didn’t feel like I drove well so I was happy to find that I qualified fourth behind another CRX and two Mazda’s.

I got a good start in Saturday’s race and easily beat one of the Mazda’s to T1. After that I focused on staying with the leaders who where having a very close battle. I felt that the chance of a “racing incident” happening between the two was pretty high so I was content to sit back, save tires and watch what happened. By lap 4 we started hitting lapped traffic and the gap between us would grow and shrink depending on where we caught traffic. In the final laps I was right on the bumper of the second place Mazda… I was slightly faster but he was making his car pretty wide. I didn’t want to dive-bomb him in a low percentage move to so just stayed inches off his bumper trying to force a mistake. It was working but I ran out of laps so I had to settle for third.

Qualifying on Sunday was better though I didn’t have a single clear lap. I qualified third but my lap was 2 seconds faster than Saturday so I was happy.

The race was interesting… it was 95 degrees plus humidity, which must have been 60-70%. It was really, really hot sitting in 4 layers of Nomex! On the start, the pole sitter missed a shift and I had to lift to keep from hitting him. That allowed the fourth place CRX to get a run on me going into T1. We went through T1 side-by-side but I was able to pull ahead by T2. I was running on “sticker” front tires since flat-spotting one in qualifying and found that the balance of the car had gone to hell… I had a bad understeer in the slower corners and it was killing my exit from Keyhole and down the long straight. Because of that, the CRX behind me was able get along side in the braking zone. I was able to fend off his attacks for a couple of laps before he made a mistake and dropped back.

Once I cleared him I had to focus on catching second place again… like Saturday, it was all about traffic with that many cars on the track. He’d catch a bad break and I’d catch him, I’d get screwed and he’d pull away. In the end, I was right on the Mazda’s bumper and pressuring him but ran out of laps again. Third place again.

I felt hot during the race but it never really hits you until after the checker falls…

Video clips to follow….

 

Still good finishes Scott. Congratulations!

John -- who's looking forward to Scott's video clips

 

Great racing on both Saturday and Sunday ... all despite the high heat and humidity . Scott, I really thought that you were going to be able to take second place on Sunday. I really thought that you were going to be able to overtake the green RX7 towards the end of the race. Two third place finishes isn't bad, especially for not racing for two months.

BTW, it was since talking to you on Sunday. Will you be racing at Mid Ohio anymore this year?

 

Hey Bret... good talking to you too.

I thought I had the Mazda at the end too but I just ran out of laps. I didn't have the car for it... I had to put sticker tires on for the race and it developed an understeer. I couldn't get a run exit out of Keyhole to save my life. Because of that I just couldn't get near him on the straights and we were so close in the corners that anything I would have tried would have resulted in contact. I was trying to pressure him into a mistake and it was working... he was missing apexes, dropping wheels and lots of other things. He told me after the race that he didn't think he could keep me at bay for another lap.

It was fun though... I just posted about 50MB worth of video clips!