OLOA ‘12 - Day 2, Event 4 and 5
After a long day yesterday (seriously, is REALLY only day 2? yesterday felt like 2 itself!), a very good meal and dodging the aftermath of a deer + semi highway date, we rolled into Council Bluffs Iowa about 1 am. Around 5 or so is when the storms came through. Heavy wind, sideways rain and what sounded like hail that would punch holes in the roof. This left us with a very wet track this morning.
We arrived at Mid America Motoplex to a light sprinkle, wind and what appeared to be a drying track. After a track walk to find the puddles and grippy spots, I lined up the car per the finishing order from Autobahn yesterday. Track was drying out, but not quite quick enough. Still rather damp for the first few run groups, drying out for the later groups. This sort mixed up the finishing results, especially within the Luxury Sedan class. Nate Summers, piloting the #47 M3, a few run groups behind the leaders, ran a blistering 5:18 time placing him 3rd overall. Next up was the Treffert Panamara and then the Dubler CTS-V. My slippery track time of 5:35 put me 4th in class and 19th overall. I eeked out Renner in the M5 by a mere second. With the mix up of faster cars placing further down the order than normal, this performance was still good for a bump up in overall standings to 25th.
The sun continued to shine on us over the break, dry track for everyone in the second event of the day. I am getting used to the power of the car again, and the increase in rear tire width has helped the driveability out of the corners immensely. We can now power through the apex and out of the corner, with the M3 drifting nicely. Being able to change the attitude of the car with the gas pedal is intoxicatingly fun!
Getting more comfortable with the car, and getting more out of her, showed up on the time sheet as well. I topped the Luxury Sedan class with a 5:20.5 , and placed the car in 11th overall. Renner wheeled the gorgeous M5 around the track in 5:23.7 for 13th overall. David Chow was at a 5:29.4 in his M3 for 20th. Dubler ran another solid run, netting him 25th. The Baron came in at 35th, followed by Dawn Treffert in 42nd, LeFever in the CTS-V in 44th and the S4 of Scheimer in 60th.
As we sit now, on our way to Tulsa OK for tomorrows events at Hallet, we are 2nd in class and up to 22nd overall.
