The heat and humidity in Central Texas have been downright sultry for the past couple of weeks. The warm temps (92 deg track surface temp) had many of the cars unsettled, and maybe the drivers a bit too. Marty was unfazed by the temps and turned in a strong performance, securing the top spot on the podium for both the final race and the series. That said, Steve Br. produced a blistering pace compared to previous races, coming within 0.61 laps of Marty at the finish and securing the Third Place step on the podium, behind David C. by just four points.
The rest of the A-Group drivers, with the exception of Marc T., saw their performance decline in this race. It could be the weather affecting the car setups, the drivers, a little bit of both, or it could be that the cars are simply in need of some TLC after three months of racing.
The “weather effect” mixed up the rest of the field a bit and produced a larger spread of points that the author expected between second and third place.
The B-Group drivers tended to fare better compared to their last race, with most turning in lap counts on par or slightly better than their last race. Just one analysis doesn’t necessarily produce a firm correlation, but these results would suggest that the lower voltage run by B-Group drivers benefits from the warmer weather in that they are not pushing the cars to their limits of performance like the A-Group drivers. Food for thought. 🙂
First place in the B-Group was locked by Randy coming into this race, but the remaining podium positions were still in question. Josh C. turned in a great performance that saw him win round 6, and leap into the second position within the B-Group. Mark L. retained third with Kim just 5 points behind him.
Overall it was a great series, although if we run it again, we might hope to see a larger variation in manufacturer’s represented, as the Corvettes, both C7 and C8, were always in the majority. By a wide margin.
And now we are off to race a purely Porsche 997 Series in H2 of this year. We are racing angle winder configuration NSR 997’s, a configuration we have always struggled with on our track. To add to that we are mixing up the races by determining which we race on each Saturday with a coin flip. Rally or Road Track?! This one is going to be a challenge!
