Have to admit, it's got a nice sound to it. After all our planning, hard work, and effort that started 3 years ago, we finally won the Gold Medal, The Tire Rack Pole award, and the Super Sweep at this year's Runoffs. The whole season has just been magical as we've pretty much dominated every event we finished by winning the pole and every race. The Runoffs were no different but they still had some high drama and a strong challenge from last year's champ.
As soon as we rolled off the trailer and put the new Norma on-track at MidO, we were the fastest P1 from the get-go. We had always heard that track conditions could vary greatly at MidO and we finally witnessed it first hand. On the first day of testing, we tried a new set of sticker tires in the second session out and we turned a 1:17.3 which was 3.5 seconds faster than our theoretical "Fastest Lap...Interrupted" from 6 weeks earlier. This turned heads right-a-way.
Then over most of the next week we could never get anywhere near that time again, until the 4th and final qualifying event. That day brought an ideal 9:20 am start time and the track was fast. After we'd been leading every session all week long, last year's national champ, Gianpaolo Ciancimino, bumped us from pole with 5 minutes left by laying down a 1:18 lap time. Jason came on the radio and said it's now or never, so I put my head down and banged off three clean laps in a row, all in the 17s, and re-took pole. That was a great moment. Watch the pole winning lap below.
So now we knew he had a real race ahead, as Gianpaolo, or JP for short, was quickly getting his new Swift 014 Toyota sorted after a slow start the week before. Strangely, I went to bed the night before the race and had the best night's sleep since I'd come back to Ohio.
Race day had perfect weather again and our race started on schedule at 9:55 am. When the green flag fell, this would be our first time in a side-by-side drag race down the back straight. Lucky for me, I caught JP napping when the flag flew and I had no pressure at the first turn. But after two laps, we got our first double yellow, and then on the restart, JP made a bold move and got by me. Now the race was on as we quickly distanced ourselves from the rest of the field. Watch the opening laps in the video below.
Unfortunately, JP developed a shifting issue just as the battle was heating up and fell back. The rest of the race for me was all about staying focused and running clean fast laps and not taking unnecessary risks. As more attrition happened and three cars were stalled around the track, another double yellow period ensued with only a few laps left and that is how the race ended. Although I would have preferred to finish under green flag conditions, I was still relieved when I saw the checkered flag as our large lead was now gone and a late restart on cold tires can always be problematic.
Finally, I have to thank the Bulldog Motorsport's crew of Jason Hohmann, Chris Garcia, and Javier Garcia for working hard all season long and setting the standard for professionalism, preparation, and thoroughness. I get to do the easy and fun part which is driving the car. These guys do the heavy lifting. This has truly been a dream season and one to remember.