Got home Saturday night and Cathy asked how was it? After thinking
about it a second I said that was the most fun I've ever had in a kart
my entire karting career. Granted, that is only a couple of years but
I'm telling you, that was some SERIOUS racing at SERIOUS speeds. Our
AVERAGE speed was over 70. Not a bad for a little industrial engine,
eh?

First off the track is AWESOME. When we dropped off the hauler on
Friday night the first thing we noticed was "The Eagles Nest", an
imposing ribbon of asphalt coming down this big ass hill. Coming out
of the left hander that is turn 4 you start going up a hill (30-50
elevation change) to "the nest". At the top of the hill you have to
make a left turn (which you can't see). As soon as you apex that turn
you had better start turning right (not that you can see the track goes
that way of course) or you WILL be off the track. The Eagles Nest
claimed a bunch of victims throughout the day including yours truly who
was leading on the white flag lap.

What is really cool about road racing is all the drafting. I wish I
would have remembered Billy telling me earlier in the week that we
needed to hookup and work together. After the morning practice I was
WAY off his pace, something like 19 seconds a LAP. So when the race
started I figured that would be the last I'd see of Billy. I didn't
anticipate that Billy would lose a couple of seconds and I'd be able to
lop off 16 seconds from my practice times. The result being that after
a lap or so I realized, holy crap, I can run with these guys.
WooooHOOO! From then on the lead pack consisted of Billy and I along
with a few of the WF guys.

Now, had I been smart I would have, like I said earlier, remembered
that I needed to work with Billy. However, on the second lap or so I
saw an opportunity to pass Billy. WHAT? Pass Billy??! WOOOOOHOOOO!
Wondered if I'd ever even keep up with him let alone pass him but there
it was. Plus, you have to understand that earlier in the day Billy was
giving me crap about something or another and I popped off "yeah well,
I'm going to give you the Banty wave (think of making a shark fin with
your hand on top of your helmet and then wiggling your fingers
quickly) as I pass yer ass today. He gives me that yeah right,
surrrrrrre you'll be passing me, keep dreaming kindda look.

But there it was, coming out of turn 2 going into 3….wooooohooooo, I
can make it!. If you look closely you can see me take my right hand
off the wheel give him a quick Banty wave as we go into 3 while I
desperately try and make the turn with my left hand(pretty stupid
considering we had been flat out since coming onto the front straight
and were probably doing 75+). Billy ends up passing me back a couple
turns later (having screwed up the Eagles Nest yet again). The passing
was fantastic. There were probably 15-20 lead changes during the
race. At one point I went from 1st to 5th and back to 1st again all in
one lap.

I've uploaded the video of the first half of the race. Unfortunately,
the best part of the race is the second half which I didn't capture. :
( I hope the weather cooperates in November for the Infineon race.
For those of you that couldn't make this race you have GOT to check out
a road race. Personally, if I have as much fun at Infineon as I did at
TH I may have to become a road racer.

Congrats to Derick on his second place finish in the F200 Cup group.
So who won? Billy, of course. Being the old cagey vet he is he knew
the race was going to be won in a the last couple corners. I, on the
other hand, was having such a blast running up front (having never done
that before) that I took the lead at every opportunity. Steve and I
were talking about the race on the way home and I was kind of kicking
myself for not working with Billy better. But Steve knew what the deal
was, probably better than I did. The Banty has led a lot of laps and
won a bunch of races. I haven't even lead a lap (let alone win a race)
with Billy in it. At least for that day, if I could lead laps I was
going to. Now that I've got that out of my system, the next time I'll
try and run smarter and not take myself out on the last lap running in
the lead, where you DON'T want to be on a drafting track.