(This will be a post where I list things that I learned I need to work on in order to take advantage of my qualifying and many practice sessions)
Well what can I say. Fuel calculations you mean witch (to be PC!) I can not believe that this will be the 4th race in a row where fuel comes into play with my race. I am either having to splash and go with just a hand full of laps to go or I run out of fuel on the back straight and the car shuts off crossing the line like at Indy. And this time my mind is tell me one thing and the DashMeter Pro is telling me another.....and I listen to the stupid technology! Any way let get to what happened.
So another good qualifying session by me if I do say so myself. I qualified 3rd which I believe ties my best qualifying position so far this season. However it would be great if I could hold on to those spots. Being a very road race concentrated driver with about a season or 2 of Indy oval fixed under my belt, it makes one feel good when they out qualify people who have many more oval races under their belt. However what gives them the edge is the number of races under their belts. You can be the best qualifier in the history of any series but if you don't know how to handle traffic, draft, passing, clean driving and FUEL (HINT TO SELF!!) it doesn't mean anything. Got to first the race to have a chance at winning the race. So there I am sitting in 3rd thinking to myself. Alright given the fuel runs you have done, not in draft, you will run out of gas at 68 laps. So that is a one stop race. However the tires will last between 20 and 40 laps depending on how hard you drive and what line you take. From the practice rooms and listening to the other drivers, hugging the bottom burns up the tires quick. If you run a mid line around the track then they will last to about the 40th lap before you have to start lifting. Okay pace lap over, pace car in, leader goes and I floor it in 2nd!!! (I have to start practicing which gear is best for starting out based on which track we are at.) I hold my position with some luck but the front 2 get a jump on me probably starting in first. So again I will not give a lap by lap account of everything but the major points and what I took away from this race. Good clean racing till lap 26, the first caution of the race. Starting at about lap 20 maybe 21, Rick Music had caught up to me and we had a close battle for 4th I held him off up to lap 26 then the caution came out. However it must have come out the moment he passed me cause I got my position back. Okay Jeremy lets to math, 120 laps total minus the 26 we just ran leaves 94 laps left. I will run 67 laps then get gas. So that leaves me with 27 laps that I need fuel for after this stop. So a splash for about 7 gallons to be safe.
Alright so here is another part of work that I need to do, PIT STOPS!! I come in sitting in 4th, fuel 4 tires I leave in 7th. And iRacing is good about simulations but all the "Pit Crews" are the same. So where am I losing time? Well after watching the replay that Tony Lurcock does for us every week on YouTube Lionheart Racing Series YouTube Channel (and sitting in 4th didn't hurt LOL) I can see that I come into the pit some what timid. I have the fear of overshooting the pit or sliding into the pit wall. Why do I have this fear.....cause I have done both multiple times. And why have I done both, cause I don't practice my pit stops as much as I should or even at all during practice sessions. And leaving the pits even with the pit limiter on I am nervous of spinning out and into said pit wall LOL. So losing .2 of a second could be 3 places easily. Also I am still getting use to the macro fuel settings you can do in the middle of a race. And after the race that I didn't take tires but didn't know that the tires were unchecked when I thought they were checked. So It is the lack of practice that causes me to lose these little seconds which add up. So out 7th....lets see what happens or I should say where my mind loses all of its smarts.
Up to full throttle again and we are going. Now all my fuel calculations this time are not taking the caution laps into consideration cause I look at those as laps in the bank. WRONG!!! Clean running, then caution 2 comes out. Okay lets run through the math again. Lap 49 plus 67 laps for a full tank run equals 116. Plus the caution laps should be enough to make it without stopping after this. I will just have to conserve my tires as best as possible to have some left near the end. I got this it is taking a chance but the math is sound (in my head). Again due to the same pit fears I come out in 11th. I lost 2 positions before the second caution. Okay starting 11th with a strategy that I feel like will give me a chance to win. Green flag waves and off we go again.. 22 laps later the 3rd and what will be the final caution comes out. Now this whole time I have been running the math for fuel in my head. This time for some unknown reason I look down at my DashMeter Pro, and it tells me that I have enough fuel to make it to the end. Lap 71 to lap 120 is 49 laps. I got this with the fuel I have left according to DashMeter Pro. So I stay out, back to 4th I know I can hold on to 4th so this is going to work. Green flag flies, heart is beating, could this be the first win for me in the series, could my fuel math finally work? HELL NO!! I look down at my DashMeter Pro after getting up to speed and burning fuel. I look at fuel consumption and fuel remaining versus laps left = short 3 laps. But I look at fuel add (which is the fuel that DashMeter calculates I need to finish the laps remaining and it says 0). This is where the brain goes "Jeremy you have messed up 3 times with your fuel math so the DashMeter is right because it is taking caution laps into consideration.....AGAIN WRONG COME TO FIND OUT STUPID BRAIN!) And here I am for the next 45 laps watching the remaining fuel be 3 laps less than the remaining laps. Now I wonder if anyone caught the other mistake I made with the number of laps. In a race that has rolling starts according to DashMeter Pro, you complete 1 lap at the start of the race even though it is the pace laps before the green flag. So a 120 lap race is actually a 121 laps race according to DashMeter Pro. So I am thinking I am going to be 3 laps short actually I am going to be 4 laps short. So with 4 laps left I have to pit. I come into my pit stall with just .09 gallons left. Take 2 gallons and go back out. And where am I after coming back out.....2 laps down and in 14th place!!! I am so upset with myself. I watched the math on DashMeter Pro for over 40 laps and my brain explained what I was seeing was wrong and the add fuel to finish was right. I will have to try again in 2 weeks cause the next official points race will be on the iconic road course of Long Beach. FINALLY A ROAD COURSE.
Well even if I finished in 14th it did take me from 17th in the standings to 12th. I learn some lessons (I hope) and the biggest thing was I had fun (except at the end cause of my mistake). Please check out the video of the race at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqkk57yUMnk. And look out for next weeks race recap of Long Beach, wire frames and all LOL
CONGRATUALTIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE TOP SPLIT RACE:
1: Richard Behr
2: Jeff York
3: Danno Brookins
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP 3 IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT RACE:
1: Chris Lanini
2: Korey Connor
3: Vincent Bluthenthal
Showing posts with label Lionheart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lionheart. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Lionheart IndyCar Series: Chicagoland "Deep Dish" 150 Race Recap
I added the Deep Dish part LOL!
Waking up in the motor-home to the sounds of 700 HP beasts chasing each other around a 1.5 mile track, saying to myself "I love the smell of Ethanol in the morning!! That smell, you know that E85 smell. Smelled like 1st place." Well that is what happened in my head at least when I sat down and got ready to warm-up for the race LOL. Tuesday night, I got into the practice server to get a good fuel run in order to come up with a good strategy and more than likely different that what every other person would have. I did a full tank run which let me know that the right side tires really took a beating and when they finally dropped off, they dropped off quick. So I came up with almost the same strategy that I had for Miami, which I did not post a blog about (and for that League Members I AM SORRY!!). That strategy was for this race 34 laps pit add fuel to give me just 13 gallons and 4 tires, 13 gallons would give me about 34 laps. So I was looking for a 2 stop race each time going into the pits with about .4 gallons left. Now the strategy was a gamble and that would be what I would have to do cause I didn't have the speed like I had at Michigan and Homestead. During practice myself, Anthony Lurcock and C.C.M (Chris Miller) were doing practice qualifying runs. Now definitely not to brag, but if my memory is correct I qualified ahead of C.C.M for the first 2 races. I knew from Official Series races that he was a great qualifier, so I thought I would be at least close to his Q time. Not even close. The best I could do in practice runs was .8 away. So I knew I had to come up with a strategy that would hopefully let me pit early enough so that "when" a caution comes out I could be lucky enough to be on 1 or 2 lap tires with the fuel I need. However the downside to not practicing on Monday or with a lot of people in the servers, no pack running. So with the help of Anthony Lurcock just telling me it has aero push behind another car and it can push you to the wall, I knew I would have to either lift at turn in or pop out some of the car to catch air, like in NASCAR when they are pushing the car in front of them and have to get air on the radiator.
Sitting in the car, at pit exit, I had my pitting strategy that me and my engineers came up with (okay okay the voices in my head told me it would work with cautions LOL). Qualifying was about to begin. Starting with this race, in order to over come the issues with so many people filling up one room and having to build quickly another room, the admin came up with what I think is a great idea. We would have a Top Split room and a Bottom Split room. The basis of which came down to the top 20 in points would be Top Split and the rest would be Bottom Split with the exception of a Last Chance Qualifier race that took place on Tuesday night where the top 5 would move up to the Top Split. So I had run a 24.690 in Tuesday's practice session, I said to myself "you can good enough, smart enough and you can do better slacker!" LOL. Anyway practice Q and real Q has always been different, 24.729 put me starting 12th. I was where I had never been before starting outside the top 6. So then the aero push popped up in my head. How bad was it? When did it start and when did it end? Is it faster to lift get down then wide open? Or is it better to pop out and get air on the front to bring it down? Yep my friends this is what practice is for!!
Starting 12th mid pack, I already set tires to be replaced and put in my 13 gallons already to be put in. Settling your button to these settings makes it so much easier. Push one button and BAM 4 tires and 13 gallons. Now if you get caught up in the racing and don't stay up to date with what is going on you will pit and start putting in 13 gallons ON TOP OF WHAT IS ALREADY IN THERE! I learned that last race so as we started I would remove 1 gallon at a time to do the math. Now if you remember what I said earlier, the strategy , to me, would work IF there were cautions. Yep you guessed....NOT A SINGLE ONE!!! Which made for some great quick racing but messed my plan all up. After just a couple of laps I saw someone go mow the front straight grass and I thought to myself, nice caution. NOPE!! So then I heard Joe Hassert say "I tapped the wall" again I thought, nice caution. NOPE!! So first stop was going to be at lap 34 under green. By the set rules, I would pull off on the back straight go on the apron of turn 3 to get to the pit. Now pitting has always been something I need work on, cause every time I have needed to pit there has been cautions. Again never ASS-U-ME there will be cautions LOL. And don't DON'T NEVER pull off half way down the back straight and slow to almost pit speed by the middle of 3, stupid move Jeremy. I had to speed up to get in the pits. However when I pitted I had 13 gallons still in the tank, so I unchecked the gas button and just took tires. In and out in no time, back up to speed and out on the track. Now like last recap I will not go lap by lap, but I will say my strategy gave me false hope. About 10 to 14 laps later all the other racers that didn't pit with me or Joe (again for the wall touch), started to pit. When I came out I was 23 2 laps down. Once the other racers pitted I was 12 on the lead lap. So I had only 16 or so laps on my tires and had burned by then over 6 gallons of the 13 I had left. Tires were fresh and I was lite, which mean I was running down people. I just kept saying to myself come on I need a caution, but that last just a couple of laps cause as I got close to having to pit again if one came out then everyone would be the same. So in the pits I go again, 12 gallons to equal a little over 13 total 4 tires and 2 laps down. I had only about 22 laps to go, now time to power it down and watch the other racers start pitting. While I was waiting for the pits to start me and Dennis had some great racing. He was a lap ahead of me but I knew I was faster just cause of newer tires. It took me about 4 laps or so to finally get around him. I mean I tried high runs, low runs, over/unders, under/overs. And finally an over/under out of 2 and staying low got me around him in 3. That is what is so good about this League and the Top Split. I was not worried about racing Dennis so hard. So on to waiting to see the leaders start pitting. Each lap as it got closer I said come on start saying "pitting in". Come on let get started, Come on pit. START PITTING DANG YOU GUYS. Nope it never happened. They went to fuel conservation mode and made it on 1 stop. If the race was about 2 laps longer it would have been an amazing strategy. Finished 17th 2 laps down. 2 laps down is exactly how many laps I went down by pitting. What a great race and NO CAUTIONS WHAT SO EVER!!!
What to take away from this race. THE ADMIN DID IT!! All bugs were worked out, the rooms worked great and it was great fun exciting racing. AND I KEPT MY SPOT IN THE TOP SPLIT FOR AT LEAST ONE MORE WEEK. Next up for me is the Indy 500 Friday night with my Teammate Jon Carrigan then get ready for Monday and Tuesday practice for Indy 250 with the Lionheart IndyCar Series on Wednesday night!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE TOP SPLIT:
1. RICHARD BEHR
2. ANTHONY LURCOCK
3. JEFF YORK
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT:
1.ZACHARY TRULL
2. BRIAN SULLIVAN
3. JORGE ANZALDO
GREAT RACE AND JOB GUYS!!!
Waking up in the motor-home to the sounds of 700 HP beasts chasing each other around a 1.5 mile track, saying to myself "I love the smell of Ethanol in the morning!! That smell, you know that E85 smell. Smelled like 1st place." Well that is what happened in my head at least when I sat down and got ready to warm-up for the race LOL. Tuesday night, I got into the practice server to get a good fuel run in order to come up with a good strategy and more than likely different that what every other person would have. I did a full tank run which let me know that the right side tires really took a beating and when they finally dropped off, they dropped off quick. So I came up with almost the same strategy that I had for Miami, which I did not post a blog about (and for that League Members I AM SORRY!!). That strategy was for this race 34 laps pit add fuel to give me just 13 gallons and 4 tires, 13 gallons would give me about 34 laps. So I was looking for a 2 stop race each time going into the pits with about .4 gallons left. Now the strategy was a gamble and that would be what I would have to do cause I didn't have the speed like I had at Michigan and Homestead. During practice myself, Anthony Lurcock and C.C.M (Chris Miller) were doing practice qualifying runs. Now definitely not to brag, but if my memory is correct I qualified ahead of C.C.M for the first 2 races. I knew from Official Series races that he was a great qualifier, so I thought I would be at least close to his Q time. Not even close. The best I could do in practice runs was .8 away. So I knew I had to come up with a strategy that would hopefully let me pit early enough so that "when" a caution comes out I could be lucky enough to be on 1 or 2 lap tires with the fuel I need. However the downside to not practicing on Monday or with a lot of people in the servers, no pack running. So with the help of Anthony Lurcock just telling me it has aero push behind another car and it can push you to the wall, I knew I would have to either lift at turn in or pop out some of the car to catch air, like in NASCAR when they are pushing the car in front of them and have to get air on the radiator.
Sitting in the car, at pit exit, I had my pitting strategy that me and my engineers came up with (okay okay the voices in my head told me it would work with cautions LOL). Qualifying was about to begin. Starting with this race, in order to over come the issues with so many people filling up one room and having to build quickly another room, the admin came up with what I think is a great idea. We would have a Top Split room and a Bottom Split room. The basis of which came down to the top 20 in points would be Top Split and the rest would be Bottom Split with the exception of a Last Chance Qualifier race that took place on Tuesday night where the top 5 would move up to the Top Split. So I had run a 24.690 in Tuesday's practice session, I said to myself "you can good enough, smart enough and you can do better slacker!" LOL. Anyway practice Q and real Q has always been different, 24.729 put me starting 12th. I was where I had never been before starting outside the top 6. So then the aero push popped up in my head. How bad was it? When did it start and when did it end? Is it faster to lift get down then wide open? Or is it better to pop out and get air on the front to bring it down? Yep my friends this is what practice is for!!
Starting 12th mid pack, I already set tires to be replaced and put in my 13 gallons already to be put in. Settling your button to these settings makes it so much easier. Push one button and BAM 4 tires and 13 gallons. Now if you get caught up in the racing and don't stay up to date with what is going on you will pit and start putting in 13 gallons ON TOP OF WHAT IS ALREADY IN THERE! I learned that last race so as we started I would remove 1 gallon at a time to do the math. Now if you remember what I said earlier, the strategy , to me, would work IF there were cautions. Yep you guessed....NOT A SINGLE ONE!!! Which made for some great quick racing but messed my plan all up. After just a couple of laps I saw someone go mow the front straight grass and I thought to myself, nice caution. NOPE!! So then I heard Joe Hassert say "I tapped the wall" again I thought, nice caution. NOPE!! So first stop was going to be at lap 34 under green. By the set rules, I would pull off on the back straight go on the apron of turn 3 to get to the pit. Now pitting has always been something I need work on, cause every time I have needed to pit there has been cautions. Again never ASS-U-ME there will be cautions LOL. And don't DON'T NEVER pull off half way down the back straight and slow to almost pit speed by the middle of 3, stupid move Jeremy. I had to speed up to get in the pits. However when I pitted I had 13 gallons still in the tank, so I unchecked the gas button and just took tires. In and out in no time, back up to speed and out on the track. Now like last recap I will not go lap by lap, but I will say my strategy gave me false hope. About 10 to 14 laps later all the other racers that didn't pit with me or Joe (again for the wall touch), started to pit. When I came out I was 23 2 laps down. Once the other racers pitted I was 12 on the lead lap. So I had only 16 or so laps on my tires and had burned by then over 6 gallons of the 13 I had left. Tires were fresh and I was lite, which mean I was running down people. I just kept saying to myself come on I need a caution, but that last just a couple of laps cause as I got close to having to pit again if one came out then everyone would be the same. So in the pits I go again, 12 gallons to equal a little over 13 total 4 tires and 2 laps down. I had only about 22 laps to go, now time to power it down and watch the other racers start pitting. While I was waiting for the pits to start me and Dennis had some great racing. He was a lap ahead of me but I knew I was faster just cause of newer tires. It took me about 4 laps or so to finally get around him. I mean I tried high runs, low runs, over/unders, under/overs. And finally an over/under out of 2 and staying low got me around him in 3. That is what is so good about this League and the Top Split. I was not worried about racing Dennis so hard. So on to waiting to see the leaders start pitting. Each lap as it got closer I said come on start saying "pitting in". Come on let get started, Come on pit. START PITTING DANG YOU GUYS. Nope it never happened. They went to fuel conservation mode and made it on 1 stop. If the race was about 2 laps longer it would have been an amazing strategy. Finished 17th 2 laps down. 2 laps down is exactly how many laps I went down by pitting. What a great race and NO CAUTIONS WHAT SO EVER!!!
What to take away from this race. THE ADMIN DID IT!! All bugs were worked out, the rooms worked great and it was great fun exciting racing. AND I KEPT MY SPOT IN THE TOP SPLIT FOR AT LEAST ONE MORE WEEK. Next up for me is the Indy 500 Friday night with my Teammate Jon Carrigan then get ready for Monday and Tuesday practice for Indy 250 with the Lionheart IndyCar Series on Wednesday night!!!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE TOP SPLIT:
1. RICHARD BEHR
2. ANTHONY LURCOCK
3. JEFF YORK
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TOP THREE IN THE BOTTOM SPLIT:
1.ZACHARY TRULL
2. BRIAN SULLIVAN
3. JORGE ANZALDO
GREAT RACE AND JOB GUYS!!!
Monday, July 14, 2014
My slackness last week blogging was EPIC but to me understandable.
So last week was what I would call a huge stressful week to where I had to prioritize certain things in order to accomplish what was first, second and third in my life. I was planning on taking a week break from training every 3 months so to give my body a chance to fully recuperate and rebuild. Last week I got to the gym on Monday had a 5 minute warmup as usual on the bike then did 60 minutes on the light green to green zone cause I did really push it last week. I thought to myself that I would take it easy and just concentrate on time in the seat not pushing the cadence at all. So 60 minutes at 80 rpm was to me a good idea. The only thing that I noticed was as soon as I got to the gym my heart rate was elevate and already pushing mid to upper blue zone or Zone 1. Now the week of stress had started for me the night before. I had started to practice for the iRacing Indy 500 that they rescheduled for this weekend. So me and my teammate Jon had put up a practice server to go ahead and get a fill for the up coming track. Get some telemetry data so that Jon can work up a good but quick setup for us during the race. We had a 2 hour practice session that I feel let us gather some great data and I am excited to see what the setup guru Jon has come up with.
I realized with practice, race on Wednesday plus getting ready for the ATC Tounament that was in Tennesse this past weekend that I was going to have to just go ahead and use the rest of the week to take a break and give my "body" a rest from trainning. And that was the hardest thing for me to do was not to train for the rest of the week. I was surprised how hard that was for me to handle. Which is an amazing thing to feel! It made me realize what a huge infrluence training has taken over in my life. How missing one day has such an impact over my mood and just my well being. So I would be missing 2 workouts. Now cause of the workout on Monday and how my pulse was already so elevated before even getting started I know it was the best decision to make for this week. And I was right.
Tuesday night I got in a practice race, practice then another practice race for the iRacing Lionheart Series Miami Homestead 150. The practice went as well as I could hope for it to. When I jumped on to what I thought was going to be a practice session, however the practice session and qualify was already over. When I joined in it was grid time for the practice session ROTFL. So I will recap what happened with that and the race on the next blog. Which I know is very late but again I had to prioritize this past week. And Wednesday was the race, so far this whole week up to Wednesday I was getting in bed at 2. So again I was happy in a way that I did take the whole rest of the week off from training.
Thursday night was what I call, Painting night with League of Legends chromecast to the big TV. 16 men to paint and get ready for a 2 day tournament to Tennesse. The second largest one in the US. So 4 hours of LOL playing on the tv and 16 men completely done later and 2:30 am getting to bed. Friday night headed out to Tennesse. 48 painful, brutal and unhappy hours later and I got back home last night so very happy to be back in my bed.
Well that is it for right now. Please be on the look out for a recap of the Miami Homestead 150, thoughts on LOL, and training this week. Thank you again for taking the time out of your bust day and reading this blog. Can never say enough how grateful I am that you do.
Tuesday night I got in a practice race, practice then another practice race for the iRacing Lionheart Series Miami Homestead 150. The practice went as well as I could hope for it to. When I jumped on to what I thought was going to be a practice session, however the practice session and qualify was already over. When I joined in it was grid time for the practice session ROTFL. So I will recap what happened with that and the race on the next blog. Which I know is very late but again I had to prioritize this past week. And Wednesday was the race, so far this whole week up to Wednesday I was getting in bed at 2. So again I was happy in a way that I did take the whole rest of the week off from training.
Thursday night was what I call, Painting night with League of Legends chromecast to the big TV. 16 men to paint and get ready for a 2 day tournament to Tennesse. The second largest one in the US. So 4 hours of LOL playing on the tv and 16 men completely done later and 2:30 am getting to bed. Friday night headed out to Tennesse. 48 painful, brutal and unhappy hours later and I got back home last night so very happy to be back in my bed.
Well that is it for right now. Please be on the look out for a recap of the Miami Homestead 150, thoughts on LOL, and training this week. Thank you again for taking the time out of your bust day and reading this blog. Can never say enough how grateful I am that you do.
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
iRacing Lionheart Series: Finally a win/ Honoring Dan Wheldon
If you have been keeping up with my previous post, you know that the DW12 has come out for iRacing. They released it just before the real Indy 500 for their iRacing Indy 500 that was cancelled and rescheduled for July 17th and 18th. So when Jon Carrigan and I saw the DW12, we knew that was what we were going to race next season. They would have official setups for both oval and road. So I thought to myself, it would be great to get extra seat time in it in a league. That is where I came across the iRacing Lionheart Series. So not only were they running the DW12 for 16 weeks with 12 oval and 4 road, but they were also honoring the man who helped develop this car for the safety of his fellow drivers who tragically lost his life doing what he loved in October 2011. That right there was all it took for me to join up.
From what his best friends in the racing community have said and of course from his sister Holly and wife Susie Wheldon, Dan was a great father, husband, friend and of course driver. His lost is still felt in the Indy community to this day. And if you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan's work on the DW12 (which stands for Dan Wheldon), Dario Franchitti's accident last year at Houston could have been a lot worst. Over the past 2 years, every accident that someone has been in and walked away from in the DW12 is cause of Dan's work on the car and what I like to think him watching over the ones he loved, his racer friends. So Dan, thank you for your work and dedication to keeping your buds safe! Keep watching over Sebastian as he is racing and following in your footsteps. I know that Susie, Holly and the whole Wheldon family are very proud of both Sebastian and Oliver. Look for a link on our Facebook website very soon to The Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund. https://www.facebook.com/lionheartseries Also wanted to include Dennis Nicoll's car that he will be running in tribute to Dan Wheldon.
Okay now back to my first WIN! I jumped into the practice session with about 9 minutes to go. I didn't go in with any expectations what so ever. I was just hoping to be able to finish this race with no accident at all LOL. Practice was over and Qualifying go started. I did something that I heard from John Downing, which he said he ran 3 laps on the high side then the last lap down low. I did it different though, I ran 2 laps up high and 2 down low. After my 3rd lap, I was sitting on the pole. I had my eye glued to the Standings black box and I held pole until turn 1 on lap 4 LOL. Jorge Anzaldo was ahead of me by .03 of a second. By the time it registered I was already on the back straightway +.3 off my already pole time, so I knew I would not have the pole but hoped I could hold second. Which I did!! Every race so far I have been qualifying in the top 5 or 6 to the best of my memory. Sitting outside lane on the grid, I started thinking how to handle this. I am a very forgiving and cautious driver, I just thought I need to get behind Jorge as soon as I could so that I would not give up 2nd. Waiting for the pace laps, Jorge just disappeared. I late hear him say he lost power and got disconnected. So the 3rd place driver pulled up and took over 1st place. Sticking to the same strategy with what I was going to do with Jorge, I go behind him and just held there till I could make a move on him. After a couple of laps the spot opened up and I was in first. I held first for about 14 laps, hugging the bottom line like an AirTitan LOL They were starting to shuffle around behind me and another racers replaced second right behind me. As soon as he got behind me I thought to myself, he is very close.....didn't even get the thought out of my head when I see my nose angle to the left and toward the back straightway inside wall I was heading. Car Contact 4/17. I remembered what I had read a while ago. You will steer where your eyes look. So I started looking at the grass at turn 3 at 200 mph. I barely touched the inside wall at around 190 and the next thing I knew my steering wheel was at 45 degrees to go straight. Time to think now and test out the car. Can I keep the car straight on the track and take turns, YES but cautiously. Okay am I still on the lead lap? Yes but for how long. So driving with the wheel at 45 degrees I wanted to stay on the lead lap hoping for a caution. I stayed out like this for I don't know how many laps. I heard someone say "it is nerve wrecking at 230" I looked down and saw I was doing no more than 220. Then in the relative box I saw the red names of the leaders creeping down on me. 30 secs down to 12 seconds, I thought to myself I am going to have to pit under green and go a lap down. Maybe if I do it on this lap, I can get the lap back when the leaders pit. "Caution is out"!!! I have never been so excited to see a yellow flag in my life LOL. Into the pits, I knew according to Dashmeter Pro I needed 7 gallons to finish. In the pits, 7 gallons, no tires and the reset and away I was in 10th. Now in previous races I have gotten into accident, been a couple of laps down and went from 12th to fighting with the leaders to get my lap back, so I knew it could be done. Head down, green flag and it was go time. 10th to 7th in 2 laps. Got behind a driver who didn't like being on the bottom at all, so as soon as he had a chance he jumped up to the top line and that put me in 5th. I knew that you could pick up the draft of the car in front a good distance away (not saying how far out cause it is an ancient Chinese secret LOL. So my eyes where glued on the 2 inside red lights on the rpm. As soon as they flashed red, I was into 6th. Slowly I was running down 4th when another caution came out. This was great going to have 10 laps to go at the green. Plenty of fuel. Left front tire had some good wear on it but I knew that it could last only 10 laps. Green flag waves in the air 10 lap shootout begins. Oh leader at the time had to go cause of stuff he had to do, so I went from 5th to 4th before the green flag. So 4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd. Just hugging that bottom line waiting for any kind of bobble. Tried to make a couple of passes coming out of 4 and 2. But it is so hard to pass on the outside, then the planets aligned and as I was making another try coming out of turn 2, the leader made a slight mistake. So I am in the middle of a three wide and make it stick to take the lead. 3 laps to go and sweetest words I have heard all day. 'CAUTION IS OUT!! Not the way anyone wants to finish but I will take it! I knew with my qualifying times that I have had I have a car that can finish in the top 3 at least but this just gives me more confidence for Wednesday's series opener.
Can't say enough about how much fun this has been just getting ready for Wednesday's opener. The quality of racers that were in the league member only first race was outstanding which I had hoped it would be. After about 15 laps people were already talking if the race could go green the whole way. Such a night and day between open practice servers and league only server. I can't wait to get started with the season and racing with such a great group of guys. Again thank you to the Admin who are working their butts off getting this ready.
Come and check us out live on Zach Trull's Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23 tomorrow to see live streaming and commentary of the race.
From what his best friends in the racing community have said and of course from his sister Holly and wife Susie Wheldon, Dan was a great father, husband, friend and of course driver. His lost is still felt in the Indy community to this day. And if you look at it, if it wasn't for Dan's work on the DW12 (which stands for Dan Wheldon), Dario Franchitti's accident last year at Houston could have been a lot worst. Over the past 2 years, every accident that someone has been in and walked away from in the DW12 is cause of Dan's work on the car and what I like to think him watching over the ones he loved, his racer friends. So Dan, thank you for your work and dedication to keeping your buds safe! Keep watching over Sebastian as he is racing and following in your footsteps. I know that Susie, Holly and the whole Wheldon family are very proud of both Sebastian and Oliver. Look for a link on our Facebook website very soon to The Dan Wheldon Family Trust Fund. https://www.facebook.com/lionheartseries Also wanted to include Dennis Nicoll's car that he will be running in tribute to Dan Wheldon.
Okay now back to my first WIN! I jumped into the practice session with about 9 minutes to go. I didn't go in with any expectations what so ever. I was just hoping to be able to finish this race with no accident at all LOL. Practice was over and Qualifying go started. I did something that I heard from John Downing, which he said he ran 3 laps on the high side then the last lap down low. I did it different though, I ran 2 laps up high and 2 down low. After my 3rd lap, I was sitting on the pole. I had my eye glued to the Standings black box and I held pole until turn 1 on lap 4 LOL. Jorge Anzaldo was ahead of me by .03 of a second. By the time it registered I was already on the back straightway +.3 off my already pole time, so I knew I would not have the pole but hoped I could hold second. Which I did!! Every race so far I have been qualifying in the top 5 or 6 to the best of my memory. Sitting outside lane on the grid, I started thinking how to handle this. I am a very forgiving and cautious driver, I just thought I need to get behind Jorge as soon as I could so that I would not give up 2nd. Waiting for the pace laps, Jorge just disappeared. I late hear him say he lost power and got disconnected. So the 3rd place driver pulled up and took over 1st place. Sticking to the same strategy with what I was going to do with Jorge, I go behind him and just held there till I could make a move on him. After a couple of laps the spot opened up and I was in first. I held first for about 14 laps, hugging the bottom line like an AirTitan LOL They were starting to shuffle around behind me and another racers replaced second right behind me. As soon as he got behind me I thought to myself, he is very close.....didn't even get the thought out of my head when I see my nose angle to the left and toward the back straightway inside wall I was heading. Car Contact 4/17. I remembered what I had read a while ago. You will steer where your eyes look. So I started looking at the grass at turn 3 at 200 mph. I barely touched the inside wall at around 190 and the next thing I knew my steering wheel was at 45 degrees to go straight. Time to think now and test out the car. Can I keep the car straight on the track and take turns, YES but cautiously. Okay am I still on the lead lap? Yes but for how long. So driving with the wheel at 45 degrees I wanted to stay on the lead lap hoping for a caution. I stayed out like this for I don't know how many laps. I heard someone say "it is nerve wrecking at 230" I looked down and saw I was doing no more than 220. Then in the relative box I saw the red names of the leaders creeping down on me. 30 secs down to 12 seconds, I thought to myself I am going to have to pit under green and go a lap down. Maybe if I do it on this lap, I can get the lap back when the leaders pit. "Caution is out"!!! I have never been so excited to see a yellow flag in my life LOL. Into the pits, I knew according to Dashmeter Pro I needed 7 gallons to finish. In the pits, 7 gallons, no tires and the reset and away I was in 10th. Now in previous races I have gotten into accident, been a couple of laps down and went from 12th to fighting with the leaders to get my lap back, so I knew it could be done. Head down, green flag and it was go time. 10th to 7th in 2 laps. Got behind a driver who didn't like being on the bottom at all, so as soon as he had a chance he jumped up to the top line and that put me in 5th. I knew that you could pick up the draft of the car in front a good distance away (not saying how far out cause it is an ancient Chinese secret LOL. So my eyes where glued on the 2 inside red lights on the rpm. As soon as they flashed red, I was into 6th. Slowly I was running down 4th when another caution came out. This was great going to have 10 laps to go at the green. Plenty of fuel. Left front tire had some good wear on it but I knew that it could last only 10 laps. Green flag waves in the air 10 lap shootout begins. Oh leader at the time had to go cause of stuff he had to do, so I went from 5th to 4th before the green flag. So 4th to 3rd, 3rd to 2nd. Just hugging that bottom line waiting for any kind of bobble. Tried to make a couple of passes coming out of 4 and 2. But it is so hard to pass on the outside, then the planets aligned and as I was making another try coming out of turn 2, the leader made a slight mistake. So I am in the middle of a three wide and make it stick to take the lead. 3 laps to go and sweetest words I have heard all day. 'CAUTION IS OUT!! Not the way anyone wants to finish but I will take it! I knew with my qualifying times that I have had I have a car that can finish in the top 3 at least but this just gives me more confidence for Wednesday's series opener.
Can't say enough about how much fun this has been just getting ready for Wednesday's opener. The quality of racers that were in the league member only first race was outstanding which I had hoped it would be. After about 15 laps people were already talking if the race could go green the whole way. Such a night and day between open practice servers and league only server. I can't wait to get started with the season and racing with such a great group of guys. Again thank you to the Admin who are working their butts off getting this ready.
Come and check us out live on Zach Trull's Twitch channel www.twitch.tv/zachttrull23 tomorrow to see live streaming and commentary of the race.
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