It’s been well over a year since I’ve written a post so a lot of ground to cover. Last year’s National Championship race at VIR ended in disappointment when we qualified second and finished fourth after an opening lap lazy spin at Oak Tree on a wet track. The whole field started on sticker slicks and just as we rolled off grid a brief rain shower started at the far end of the track. Given the wet grass and incline, I could not get the car back up the hill and had to wait for a tow truck putting us a lap down. Once we got pulled up the hill and going again, we came into the pits and put rains on. We tore through the field and got back on the lead lap and needed a double yellow to catch back up. Unfortunately, that never came and so we ended fourth after a great make-up drive and distancing ourselves from everyone else. Even the announcers thought we were leading and took a while to realize we were a lap down from the off-track excursion.

So at the start of 2023, I had decided to pass on going back to VIR for the Runoffs. We’d already been back there several times including the Runoffs in 2019 and 2022. It had rained most of the times we’d ever visited and so it just seemed to me like it wasn’t worth the effort and expense this year.

Then slowly the year started to morph into something special when we went to the COTA Super Tour event and had a great weekend racing Chip Romer. We ran strong and recorded a first and second in the two races. Next up Buttonwillow, where we swept both weekend races against Chip...then again at Thunderhill…followed by Portland. This winning streak gave us the national points lead, the Western Conference title, and a shot again at the elusive Super Sweep, the most coveted title of them all for the season. With a Super Sweep potential win on the line, I relented and told Jason let’s do the Runoffs and see if we can finish this off.

Then disaster struck at the June Sprints at Road America when a teammates FE2 went off track at the Kink and ended up blocking the track. For whatever reason, the stewards did not throw a double yellow quickly and when Chip Romer and I came around with the whole field in close pursuit, I ended up with nowhere to go and plowed straight into the parked car driven by Tom Burt. We were both very lucky that neither of us was seriously hurt but both cars suffered major damage. Check out the highlight video below that includes the crash impact.

Now we had another serious decision to make—do we try and fix the car or just park the wounded Elana for the season. As Jason examined the remains and started reaching out to vendors, it looked like there was a chance everything could come together in time to make the Runoffs which were less than three months away. I pondered it for about a week and decided to give it a go and turned Jason loose to do his magic. It took two months for all the parts to show up and then Chris Garcia, Jason’s right hand man, put the car together along with Damian Clinton over a long grueling few days so we could put the car on track at Sonoma on September 5th as a brief test before loading for the Runoffs. Everything seemed to work well and we celebrated Elana’s return to action.

We arrived at VIR full of confidence that all was going to be good with car. In fact, the car ran flawlessly from a mechanical standpoint the whole time we were there. But pace wise, we struggled even though we led the very first test session. After eight on track sessions including three qualifying runs, we had slipped back to a 5th place starting position for the race. The problem was we were fighting a porpoising issue in the car which caused my head to bob up and down and made the car hard to drive. We tried everything in our bag of tricks to fix this and make the car faster. It was a mystery that a set-up we’d run successfully for the better part of two years just wouldn’t work now.

Entering turn 4 already up to 2nd place in first lap action.

So for us to win the Runoffs, we’d need a little magic to happen. A great start would surely help the cause and I concentrated on getting the brakes and tires as hot as possible on the pace lap so if the opportunity was there for the taking, I’d be ready to pounce on it. Low and behold, the inside lane opened up and I was able to brake late and move from 5th to 2nd by the very first corner. At the end of the back straight, I was firmly in the draft of the leader and poised to try and pass him or at least move alongside him on the outside into turn 14.

Unfortunately, he moved over to squeeze me off the track and I couldn’t back out fast enough and we touched and he spun. I continued on in the lead and had multiple great battles with Lee Alexander and then Chip Romer. Lee broke and parked his car and two laps from the end, Romer hit a curb hard and broke his suspension and retired too. Todd Vanacore, the leader who I’d previously had contact with on lap 1, rallied back after a double yellow condition let him catch the back of the field, and finished 2nd behind me about 9 seconds behind at the checkered flag.

Exiting the famous Oak Tree corner with the lead firmly in hand.

I was elated with our win and especially for being able to celebrate with the whole Bulldog team on pit lane and at the podium ceremony. With all that we’d been through this year, the win was extra sweet and completed our coveted goal of winning the Super Sweep…we thought.

The Chief Stewards then starting reviewing videos of the contact from the live race footage and in-car cameras and decided it was my fault and penalized me one position dropping me to 2nd and promoting Todd Vanacore to 1st, the fellow involved in the incident. I filed a detailed appeal with a lot of help from Tom Burt pleading my case and we thought we had a pretty good shot at getting the decision overturned but at the end of the day, it stood, and we remained in 2nd place. Our solace is that we still won the national points title and, at least for a few hours, accomplished the Super Sweep for the second time and our third Runoffs win. You can watch a replay of the complete live video coverage below.