Just got back from the MidOhio KONI race weekend. Those of you who know the race track know its tagline is, “most competitive in the US.” To some it may be a just tagline, but last weekend I learned there is a bit of truth to it…
For the KONI Challenge, I was paired with John Bosch, who commonly races Next Generation’s #127. We’d been talking about driving together for a while now, and I’m glad Next Gen’s crew chief Jeffrey [Bock] made it happen.
Our first practice session on Friday was rained out. When I finally took to the 2.5-mile, 13-turn MidOhio track for the first time, the track felt great, but I underestimated the power of corner 11. The car got loose on me and I made contact with the tire wall. This caused cosmetic damage to the car. Most competitive indeed! During the next practice session, John also made contact with the wall due to wet track conditions. We were both bitten by MidOhio--but we came back ready to race!
John qualified the car P26 on Saturday. On Sunday, John made up 14 positions, entering the pits in P12. I rejoined the race P 22, advancing to P19. The race went well. I had a few heated battles during my stint. Next Gen set the car up perfectly, though corner 11 kept challenging me.
One big challenge last weekend was the temperature. The day was sunny, warm and humid, and the car was extremely hot inside. Wearing NOMEX full coverage plus a race suit and gloves meant that I was uncomfortable, and this caused me to loose focus (and probably a few lbs!). Gratefully, my team and I are looking at solutions for future races.
Although I felt I could have done better, I was very happy to finish a clean race and earn our 20th place.
I’ll next join Next Generation Motorsports for the Grand-Am KONI Sports Car Challenge at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday July 18th, 2009. Come out and see it! For more information, please visit danielorrracing.com.
