SCCA Nationals, Pocono, 5-7 Aug 2005

Headed to Pocono for my 4th and 5th Nationals races, so far undefeated in GT2. This was a DUAL NATIONAL, meaning that there was a race each day and each one counts. Had John Weisburg along for support, and we were pitted next to Oliver and Stephen again.

Here are Stephen and Oliver with their Formula SCCA cars, small cars for such big guys!

We were running a long course, basically the tri-oval run clockwise, heading into the infield after the normal start/finish line, then coming out at a VERY tight hairpin turn to the right, back onto the oval. We had a chicane on the back straight then flat out around the last turn (NASCAR T1) and across start/finish again.

On Friday we had practice and qualifying sessions. The qualifying session was for both Saturday's and Sunday's races. I got down to a 1:40.2 which was about two seconds faster than the previous GT2 lap record and a few seconds faster than the other GT2 cars, which were mostly Panoz GTS cars. The GT1 cars were amazingly fast, about ten seconds faster! Below is Jameson Riley in his Panoz, close behind me in one of the races.

On Saturday we had another qualifying session, just for Saturday's race, if you wanted to improve on your Friday's time. I was able to chop another second off and get down to a 1:39.1, 12th overall behind a pack of GT1 cars. But the Panoz's of Jimmy Locke and Jameson Riley got very close, with 1:40s and Jim Boggs not far behind with a 1:41. In the race, many GT1 cars had problems so I ended up 6th overall and barely managed to keep Jameson behind me. He was very fast in the infield and passed me once in the hairpin coming onto the oval, but I managed to repass him a few laps later on the straights. Jim Boggs and Sam Schultz's Panoz's were not far behind. I managed to chop some more time off, and got a new track record of 1:38.6.

Here we are taking the victory lap!!!

Sunday morning was another qualifying session, but I chose to sit on my Friday's qualifying time to conserve my equipment. Jameson beat it with a 1:39 so I would start out between him and Jim Boggs. In the race, two or three Panoz's got ahead of me early, but I patiently passed them when possible, beating my track record yet again with a 1:38.1, ending up with four Panoz cars just behind me.

Here I am in the race with two GT1 cars and a GT3 BMW behind.

Another victory lap, 5 for 5!!!!!

Next would be the runoffs where competition would be MUCH tougher!!!

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