My first visit to the iconic MidOhio Sports Car Course was a cold, wet experience. The weather was pretty miserable and changed constantly. We started with a practice day Friday that was completely wet, no dry laps to be had. Not the best way to learn a new track. Fortunately for me, Team Pelfrey has a lot of experience at the track and I was able to manage the 5th fastest time in the first session, although I was a good bit off the pace of the front-runners. Practice 2 was not as successful as there was a lot of traffic and an early end to the session prevented me from improving on my time.
Qualifying on Saturday morning remained wet but I was able to get a decent lap in at qualified P8 for race 1. Again, I was off the pace of the leaders, but there was about a tenth of a second separating sixth through eighth place.
In a complete turn around, Race 1 on Saturday afternoon was dry. The first dry laps I have turned at MidOhio were in race conditions. These changing conditions really favored the experience drivers. While the race leader opened up a significant lead over the rest of the field, there was a group of 5 that formed the initial pack chasing the next two steps on the podium. I was able to move up from 8th to 7th on the lead lap then held on to that position for the remained of the race even as I was being challenged by the next 8th through 10th place. Being at the lead of a group with no draft partner hampered my ability to get a good lap time for Race 2 qualifying. As a result, I finished with the 10th fastest lap.
Race 2 was back to wet conditions. Based on the lap times of Race 1, I started Race 2 in P10. I was able to move up to P6 in the first couple of laps before a yellow flag bunched up the field again in lap 2. We went green again on lap 4 and I climbed up to fifth on lap 5 before dropping back to eighth on lap 6. I was able to gain 1 position on lap 7 thanks to my fastest lap of the race and another spot on lap 8 before the yellow flag came out again on lap 9. The race finished at 11 laps, under a yellow flag so I was not able to gain any further spots.
In the rollercoaster that was the weather for the weekend, Race 3 was back to dry conditions. Thanks to my fast lap from Race 2, I started P8. I dropped 3 places in the first 5 laps before regaining a couple of spots by lap 12 when the yellow flag came out. At the restart for the final lap I was able to overtake to return to P8 for the finish.
Overall, it was a challenging weekend. Weather and qualifying positions were not in my favor, especially at a track I haven’t been to before. Next up is Lime Rock, another new track. At least this time it’s new to many of the competitors, with the last FRP race at Lime Rock a decade ago!
