SCCA Homestead Majors - F2000 FC Race 2 - P2 Finish!
0This race was the more competitive race of this weekend, going up against Rob Allaer, an SCCA F2000 champion, whose car was significantly faster than mine in a straight line.
I started pole for both my FC races due to my qualifying effort on Friday when we took downforce out of the car and won pole for both races there. Unfortunately, due to technicalities in the legal code for the FC series, I was forced to put downforce back into the car in order to abide by the rules of running the "pro spec wing package" from the car's original series, meaning we couldn't modify or take off any of the front or rear wing elements to reduce drag. This rule doesn't take into account the fact that my car has equal horsepower to theirs, which they believe not to be the case. In the end, we put the wing elements back onto the car and proved that without those wing modifications to reduce drag, we were clearly at a disadvantage at a track where straight-line speed is pretty much everything.
Nonetheless, even with the handicap, I was able to make up for my lack of straight-line speed with better driving, braking, and traffic management, in only my 5th day in the car.
The race came down to the wire, with me taking advantage of traffic on the final lap to come out ahead of Rob out of turn 8 and onto the final straight. With his straight-line speed (and potentially illegal pass on the inside of the white line) he managed to get back by me fairly easily, giving me a final opportunity to draft him and drag race him to the checkered flag, finishing just .035 seconds behind him after a brush of our tires where I was trying to race him as close as possible.
Oh well! I think we proved a point about the competitiveness of our car and myself.
Enjoy the racing action!