Racer X's Profile
It was hotter in Deer Trail, Co than it was in Dallas this past weekend (my wife made sure I knew this fact at every possible opportunity).
While we only had 12 SRF's (11 showing on the final sheet), that may well be the largest field at that track to date. We had five Texans (yeehaw!), four from Colorado, one from Nebraska and one from California.
It was hot. Yep, I repeat that because holy cow was it hot. The cars ran hot. The drivers ran hot. The women... well, there weren't enough of them for my taste, but you get the gist.
I didn't remember this track eating up rear tires the way it did this time around, but it did. I made the mistake of not ordering any tires since I thought for sure I'd make it through the weekend easily. I made it, but not easily.
No big long race recaps, but Keith Verges and I proved yet again that neither of us can escape the other's gravity well apparently. On Saturday he had the pole, I led the first half of the race, then he got by me and led to the checkered. He built up a bit of a lead but I caught him for the last 3 or 4 laps. I made a couple of pass attempts but couldn't make them stick and I didn't have the oomph (first weekend on new motor) to get him on the straight. I was having some minor shifting issues and that was also hurting me in the 2nd gear corners (there are two of them at HPR). Another solid win by Keith!
On Sunday we swapped starting positions with me on the pole. Both days we had a decent gap back to the 3rd place starter. KV and I went two wide through T1, T2, and then we both lifted for T3 (essentially a kink that's flat out unless you are 2-wide) so we could make it through cleanly. On Sat we both stayed in it side by side into T3 and he ended up in the dirt - this was discussed and we both decided to play it differently on Sunday. Hindsight being 20/20, instead of both lifting for T3, we should have been single file. Next time. Anyway, Mark Hutchens got by Keith and ran 2nd for a lap until Keith got back by him. I had maybe a 1 second lead at that point and was able to stretch it to somewhere between 2 and 2.5 seconds by the middle of the race. The races were a full 40 minutes which is long for a national. Did I mention it was hot?
About mid race I backed off a touch when I could feel my tires going off and that was all Keith needed. He slowly reeled me in and then, sensing blood in the water, he made up the last second or so in the last three laps, taking the one to go right on my tail. I managed to hold him off for the win, but again, we were essentially dead even.
Tim Blakeley finished a strong 4th both days - way to go Tim! I think he had a shot at the podium and came up a lap or two short on Sunday (Keith is saying the same thing
).In my opinion, one of the most interesting things about this season has been the ridiculous battle between Keith and I.
To date, we have run 7 nationals against each other across three tracks, splitting them 4 and 3 (and each finishing 2nd in the others). Over ALL 7 races, that's some 4 hours of racing, the total differential between us is .19 seconds.
That makes for some fun racing.
Denny
