I now know why Charlie Buzzetti keeps track of sessions on his tires. I was five hundredths of a second behind Steve in quali. Of course, I was greedy and wanted more so I pulled my tires off and put on another mix of tires that "looked" better between quali and the race.
On the out lap, the back end was all over the place. I worked hard to try to get some temperature into them and "hoped" for the best as I sailed down into turn one on the outside of Steve. I had gotten a good start, had a fender on him and turned the car into the turn determined to maintain position and try to get the lead for turn 2. The car turned about 30 degrees and the tires gave up all grip and into the weeds I went.
I got back on track and was going to try to catch the group but, in just about every turn that I went into, the back end was trying to swap ends with the front. The tires never did get any grip and I came in at the end of lap one without completing the lap. What an uncomfortable feeling and all because the tires "looked" better than those that were on the car to start with and I was too lazy to pull Katies car out of the trailer to take her tires, that were better.
I checked over the suspension, to be sure there was not some reason other than the tires, and resolved to pull her car out and "borrow" her tires for Sunday. Sunday, the car was great with good tires on. I was able to race with Steve for part of the first lap but he was quicker and started pulling a gap and kept extending it. Ron caught me and stayed right behind me until he pressured me into a mistake. I dropped two off the outside of the track, into the mud from all the rain, and lost the car in a loop. Ron did a GREAT job with his new set up on the car and is starting to regain his Thunderhill performance of old.
All in all, it was a fun weekend for my second visit to Thunderhill. Katie will be coming with me for May's event and driving her Red 12 car in HPDE on her way to a comp license.
Big Dog
