Tucson, AZ  – September 4th, 2008

What a Labor Day weekend for the Mustang Challenge! Who would have guessed that our race would only total a whopping nine laps of green-flag racing!  Let’s just get this out of the way, the dirt was like talcum powder and it altered the racing quite a bit.  If you dropped two wheels and were just hanging it out there you could stir up a dust cloud that no one could see through behind you and create a serious accident.   Thus our race was given a new twist, drop two wheels and do it more then twice and you come in.  It makes you think twice about hanging it out there.  I understand and respect the decision that was made.  Now lets take a step back and follow the events of the weekend in my GoPro/Molecule Mustang FR500S shall we?  

I stayed in Atlantic City an hour drive away.  Needless to say I logged some miles and it wasn’t on the track.  In our first session my car sat in pit lane for 2/3s of it!  We could not figure out what was banging around like crazy under the car so now I was behind in evaluating my set up. A serious accident in the Rolex series caused all practices the rest of the day to be cancelled while they installed 200 feet of guardrail. The importance of safety had just gone to a whole new level and understandably so.  

It rained overnight so staying on track was key. In morning session I went out on used tires, ended up learning the track but was only 7th quick in the session.  In last session of the day I had new tires and it helped but car was still a bit loose and I was now only P3. Sparacio was in P2 and six tenths ahead of me.  

In qualifying the next day we left my car alone afraid that making a change would keep me from at least getting third and perhaps I just needed to drive better. Qualifying ends and I am P3 and have three guys behind me that are within 5/100s of me!  After further review of the video you can see me catching it in all the fast and slow turns. Car is unpredictable, a challenge to be consistent with and will be hard to race with.  We know for sure it will be difficult to hold third place and really tough to get second, let alone do what we came for and win the race. With Terry Borcheller starting from the back of the pack it was like “better get it done now.” I am confident that Caddell and Sparacio felt the same.  

Before the race we decide to make a big change and prayed the car did not push badly. I would get two recon laps with which to experience the car and would have to adjust on the fly during the race.  It hurt me not having a practice session to get that car on the edge and possibly dropping wheels to find the limit!  As it was I would have to do it in the race and with the new penalty of drop wheels twice and you visit the pits… it was tough to risk it. Race starts and I follow Andrew Caddell through the turn and immediately I am in second place.  We don’t get thru 5 turns before it is double yellow as Andrew Hendricks is upside down in the tires of turn three.  He is okay but it takes forever to fix the tires, etc. We come back out for an 9-lap shootout! Unless you have slower guys in front you’ll need to get pass done in Turn 1 or you probably won’t anywhere else. Terry Borcheller was able to pass six slower cars on first lap and it put him in 12th for restart. By the time he got to 6th place behind Tony Buffamonte it took him several laps to get around him. Terry got 5th.

On restart I was not able to get Andrew in turn 1 and that was a huge mistake as I could have done a better restart! He pulled out by two cars and for a few laps I hung close with my car pushing like crazy and then he pulled away. I knew I would not be able to get Andrew but felt confident I could hold off guys behind me.  I just turned the remaining few laps and took 2nd place. I am now 24 points ahead of Mike McGovern for Second place in the Championship.  If I am to have a shot at winning at Miller I have to get a car hooked up like I had at Mid-Ohio.  We have recently noticed some key setup differences in other leading cars that may help us get ours dialed in to compete better.  Make no mistake about it; I am not done yet!
   
Can you hear me coming?

The series makes its way to The Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT for Rounds 7 & 8 Sep 19-21, the finale to the 2008 season.  

Jamie
www.sloneracing.com