2011 S3 #3 Iowa Race

Practice: I had run some laps in test over the weekend, and had an idea of what I could run, but no real idea if it was on pace. In practice I found I was fast enough to run mid pack, so that was good. However, the closeness of racing was definitely a new experience for me. Wow, that's exciting!

Qual: Mid pack, about what I expected to run.

Race: Things were going well, staying clean until the lap 54 (?) mayhem after the restart. I got pretty beat up in the accident. I quickly realized it would be most prudent to go straight into the pits, even if they were closed. After getting close to my pit, I Shift-R'd to reset, but it decided to take 2 plus minutes to tow me the 100 feet, so I restarted 3 laps down. Picked up the lap when the leaders let us lappers back around. Then picked up a spot on Andy to get 7th place, which is a fine showing on an oval for me. All in all, a good learning experience. I found the racing interesting, but probably a little too draft dependent. If I lost touch with the car in front, maybe even only as little as 1 second, I found it really difficult to make up any time. But if you are in the draft, you can really be all over the place, and still get towed right back onto the back wing of the car in front.

Would having a looser car out of the draft be more beneficial, as I found being in the draft, my car was really suffering from Aero-push, or is this something that isn't really able to be dialed out of the car?

Roger Walker wrote:Would having a looser car out of the draft be more beneficial, as I found being in the draft, my car was really suffering from Aero-push, or is this something that isn't really able to be dialed out of the car?

Well the problem is to have a free enough car to run in the draft it would be too loose by yourself or in the lead, I think Chad Peterson was having that problem. In IndyCar you have a Weight Jacker to balance the car out during the run or when your drafting.

My car was good by it's self, or even just one car in front of me... Once there was 4 cars in front of me I had a serious push on the exit of turn 4.

I really like Iowa. Turns one and two are really different then three or four. A lot of fun to setup.

What I thought was great about this race, other than the track being great fun to race at, was the ending with the time limit coming into play and the way it was discussed between Gary and Terry. Great sportsmanship gentlemen! That's the way it should be done. Further evidence that this community is a great one to be a part of, and one I hope to stay in for a long time. Just need to get faster. See you next week.

AndyBanfield wrote:What I thought was great about this race, other than the track being great fun to race at, was the ending with the time limit coming into play and the way it was discussed between Gary and Terry. Great sportsmanship gentlemen! That's the way it should be done. Further evidence that this community is a great one to be a part of, and one I hope to stay in for a long time. Just need to get faster. See you next week.

We have a great group of racers. Hopefully the word will get out as we continue to grow.