On Sunday a lot of drivers were able to improve their times, including my co-driver, Marshall Cone. He picked up about 0.6 seconds, which is a lot of time. I drove faster too, as long as you don't count the time I sat at the line...
Photo by Alejandro Aviles
I wasn't able to gain any time, because my reaction times all weekend seemed to just get worse and worse. I guess two red-lights the first day kind of spooked me. Here's a picture of Carson Garfield totally getting the jump on me off the line:
Photo by Alejandro Aviles
Still, my times from Saturday held, and I managed to win H-Street class and qualify for Sunday afternoon's Super Challenge, which is a bracket competition of the top 32 finishers in the event. Unfortunately, Marshall was the 34th top finisher and didn't make the cutoff - just a tenth of a second out of the group.
This was my first head-to-head competition, and I am really happy with my driving, but again, I wasn't as happy with my starts. I must have done well in the first round, because I did hang on to make it into the second round: the round of 16. Here's a picture of the lineup of my first round victory:
Photo by Alejandro Aviles
My next competitor in the brackets was Sam Strano in his SSR Corvette. All I can say is that I drove clean, no cones. But my >1 second reaction times on both sides kind of killed me. I lost by just .25 seconds. Sam went on to the semifinals.
I had a fantastic weekend, full of surprises and challenges. And I can't wait to do it again with this experience under my belt. And with about 20 more practice starts, hopefully!
Photo by Alejandro Aviles
Thanks to AJ Aviles for taking photos all weekend. They were fantastic!