My first trip to Mid-Ohio back in April for the FRP races was a pretty miserable one. It was cold and wet most of the weekend. Practice and qualifying were in the pouring rain, while the sun came out for race 1. On Sunday for race 2 it was wet again and then race 3 was dry. It was almost impossible to get a good read on this track with the conditions we had.
While the July/August schedule was pretty packed, there was an opportunity to make a SCCA regional race at Mid-Ohio just before the final FRP weekend at Summit Point. This particular race weekend was all about getting practice on the track. Good thing too as I was the only Formula Ford class vehicle to race in the group affectionately known as “Wings and Things.” Basically, if it was open wheel, it was in this class.
There was no practice scheduled for this event…just qualifying and 2 races. In fact, due to weather conditions on Saturday after our race, Sunday qualifying was cancelled to make room for the remaining classes that couldn’t race on Saturday.
For Qualifying I was fourth fastest in the group behind one Formula Continental and 2 CFCs. During race 1, I was able to drop about 3 seconds off my qualifying time. Again, I finished 4th overall and first (only) in class, behind a FC, a P2 and a CFC. Sunday, I dropped another 2.5 seconds off my fastest lap from race 1 and finished fourth overall again this time behind 2 P2s and a FC.
It was a strange group as most of the cars had no competition in the group. Only 3 of the 8 classes had a second car in the group and none had a third. So while I came away with 2 wins…the most important thing I accomplished was getting solid experience on a dry track that is one that pretty much every series I want to run in the next few years races at annually.