I turned 63 on May 23rd and so did Road America (RA) with the 63rd running of the June Sprints this past weekend. The Sprints are second only to the Runoffs in being the most prestigious event of the year. RA is a 4 mile super fast track with 3 long straights where you reach terminal velocity of +/- 150 mph on each section. Thus power and frontal area of the car are extremely relevant in just how fast you go. These are areas where my car is at a big disadvantage and really suffers now from all the penalty rule changes. I was routinely 5-10 mph down on all my main competitors in top speed. Many times I had a big run on them entering the straights and easily in their tow yet they could easily defend at the end. I learned this early on in the test day so my only strategy was to drive smart and wait patiently all week end long and qualify as high up as I could. Then hope for a mistake or opportunity to come my way through being consistent.

The level of competition was the best of the year to date, a total of 10 cars, and 5 of them qualified within 1.5 seconds of the best pole time of 2:04.2. I was starting from the 3rd position and 7 tenths back at 2:04.9. My fastest lap came in Q2 although only a few hundredths faster than my best time in Q1.. That consistency bode well for the races.

The quality of driving was pretty good by everyone so that we had no double yellow periods in any of our sessions. That's remarkable in itself. Because of that, I captured lots of good front facing video and have decided to post it all as a way for someone to actually be a passenger for the weekend...so to speak. Check out the various videos yourself. Qualifying always produces the fastest laps so if your looking for the best a man can do--check those videos out. Also, explore the intensity of the slow dance on the pace lap scrubbing tires. Then there's always the entertaining green flag start and opening laps of the race. Add the daring passes that become pivotal to the outcome and you have a lot of excitement. See them all (below) or watch a highlight reel here.