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Did some practicing at Auto Club this week with Rachel. We had some fun the first practice as we were both trying to learn the track. She had the track line assist on and I did not so we were pretty close in the first practice.

Down to 1:49.688 - unfortunately no regulars joined so I don't know where I stand yet.
The green stripes on the rear bumper are a result of my newly minted B road racing license. Going to be some work to get to A as the only cars are a lot faster.

Got my first taste of that tonight.

Unofficial practice netted a P1 finish.

Apparently you found a group of friends / family that needed a race.

-BP

Yes. All ChampCar iRacing regulars. Camilo is from West, the others are from Florida. I'm guessing they are all on the same team in real life. I am currently 28th in points, Ernesto is 29th, and the others are behind us. Camilo and the Corredors finished ahead of me at Indy, with Ernesto right behind. These are some of the people I race against each event - not like the guys at the front who are usually so fast I'm just not competitive with.

I password protect the sessions but share the info on ChampCar forum and ChampCar Discord. Usually we get the ringers showing up and there is no chance to race.

Rachel ended up last as she went off and nosed into something, and did not know you could back up the car so she took a tow. This usually takes a few minutes. She was battling for 5th at that point. She enjoyed having some cars to race with up to that point.

Since I didn’t go to TRP because of the possibility of rain, I took the private jet to Fontana California
to the Auto Club Speedway for the iRace Version 12. The track was very large and difficult to get near the action.
I even used a drone for some shots. I eventual took 31 images but these 9 tell the story. All in all, it was again a very fun evening. Then I hopped on the private Jet and headed home.

I know Dale Jr noticed we have Dirty Mo on the car as a sponsor - it was nice of him to send along a private jet!

I put a lot of work into getting prepped but I could tell by the qualifying times, the names, and the amount of runoff that I was going to have a hard time improving my position. I had a good race with David Palermo. He qualified a bit better than me, and was a fair bit ahead but the gap steadied around 5 seconds. Then he spun out and I passed him. I had about 4-5 laps of him about 2 seconds back - fortunately I had a better approach to the last turn before the speedway section so he was never able to use the draft to gain. Eventually though his little bit more speed caught up and he got by just before I ducked into the pits. Sure enough this made the broadcast as we were one of the few having close racing. My plan was to undercut him by getting in a better pit stop, and that worked great until I spun out after turn 1 on cold tires. When he came out of the pits he was 8 seconds ahead and I was not able to maintain consistency to close or even hold the gap. There were no other stop on track incidents but too many slow down penalties costing me time.

In general I lack the pace of the best drivers. My best guess there is the learning curve on the street stock is quite steep - I was fairing better with the MX-5 cup against the field. Plus the strength of field is likely higher.

I was a bit surprised the low car count - we had more in the practice race the week before, and at least 5 from the practice did not show up.

Anyway up to P24 in points. With anticipated car counts and my skill I see top 15 probable with top 10 possible.

Rachel up to P54 of 158 cars.

In this league it seems the earlier races have a lot more participants, making it harder to get points. Later races have less so we can pass many who have simply given up on the season.

Up next on 10/21 is Sebring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVxvBAKyL3U

Been practicing for this since shortly after the last race.

ChampCar official practice race was last Wednesday where the leaders ran 2:19.0 and I ran 2:22.7 - albeit not consistently.

Last night I set to work to trim that time and found another 1.2 seconds in my test session and got down to 2:21.5. Going to work on it some this weekend to try to improve consistency. If I can keep it off the walls and be consistent in that range I'll probably make top 10 - big ifs - but that is what the game is!

For the practice race I qualified 12 of 18. Despite all the practice I got the LR off on lap 1 and tore the front off the car. Did not hit that hard but apparently this wall had no give to it. I nursed it into the pits, took fuel to finish, and used my fast repair. Got the car back out and managed 11th place. One of the guys ran out of gas on the backstretch on the last lap to move me up one. Had some good racing after midrace when a couple guys came from their pit stop just in front of me. I did not have quite enough pace to pass them but we ran within a second or so of each other for several laps.
Rachel participated too she came across a car with similar pace to her and she was able to do some real racing for quite a while there.

It was Wednesday the 21st of October and I had nothing important to do.
It doesn’t take a long time to get to Tampa Florida from Cleveland when you’re in a private jet.
I rented a Cadillac CT5-V for the 100 plus mile drive from Tampa to the Sebring International Raceway
where I was able to take-in the Sebring iRace version 13. The weather was fine, 70 degrees and no rain.
The track itself is 3 and ¾ miles so it was necessary to move quickly to obtain some shots of the action.
I took 37 images, but these 11 tell the story. 26 cars, but I was there to watch Pink #18 and the Teal #50. All in all, it was again a very fun day. Then I hopped into the Caddy for the drive back to Tampa and took the private Jet home.

Great pics. I'll need to catch the same private jet on the way back. Riding with the roadies in the towing rig takes a long time.

Can catch the replay here: https://youtu.be/MVxvBAKyL3U?t=408

Sebring was a fun race. I spent extra time practicing and it paid off.

I got whammied a bit as the practice race on 10/14 had the air temps at 80 degrees. After that did several tests and after getting my time down under 2:21 I upped the air temp and took a night off. It messed up everything. I couldn't even get back to my best time from the practice race.

Fortunately come race day on 10/21 the air temps were 70 degrees - right down where I was practicing before testing at higher temps. I was able to get my groove back and qualified 2:21.2 - just .3 off my best from practicing. This still netted me P16 start our of 24 cars. I was a bit underwhelmed by overall starting position.

I got into a race with Corey mid race and we were close for several laps til I pitted. I'm improving my pit execution. the game allows you to preset the fuel fill to the nearest gallon. I knew 7 gallons would be more than adequate so that was my preset. However the fill rate is quite slow so I unchecked the fill box at 6.4 gallons to save time. It took several laps as Corey ran his car basically out of fuel so we were far apart for a bit. I come in mid-race if I can to even out the tire wear. Anyway he must have done better in outlap or something so after his pit he was still ahead of me. However he kept making mistakes and this allowed me to get by. We were battling quite a while for P10 - and it made the broadcast. I just kept making small mistakes with him right behind and giving him an avenue to get by, followed by him going into the grass giving me the position.

Overall the results were decent. Ended up P11 and scored 28 points putting me to a tie for 20th place overall in the standings. More importantly I finished on the lead lap and was 103 seconds behind the leader. The amount of time I lost due to mistakes was minimized and that kept me well ahead of the guys I'm normally racing with. I'm still thinking top 15 in points is attainable.

Rachel qualified last but was able to capitalize on a couple people making mistakes and finished P22. She is 46th in points overall. She is proving she can handle the car and manage faster traffic. Her qualifying time is about 3 seconds slower than mine which is pretty good for this long circuit. Pretty soon we can start working on fundamentals to help her bring lap times down.

Up next is VIR north course which is next Wednesday.

Since we ran VIR earlier I started out much more comfortable. Only about 20% new track. The car is the Solstice which is slower and I am more comfortable with it.

Last Wednesday had the practice race managed P3 of 9 cars. Most importantly I captured event replay and have watched The points leader make some laps. This netted me at least .2 per lap. My best is 1:46.099 which is within .8 of the best time I have seen so far. Going to try to find another tenth of two to put down a 1:45.anything, then focus on consistency. I am slowly closing the performance gap.

I have learned a ton about technique but also mental approach to racing.

It was Wednesday the 11th of November, I wanted to take in the iRace version 14 at the Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
So, I rented a C8 Corvette and hopped on to I 77 which took me within 75 miles of VIR. It’s 530 miles to the track,
took me 6 hours to get there. The weather was pretty good, 79 degrees and partly cloudy. The track itself is 2 and ¼ miles.

Last time I was at VIR I was with WXO and we watched the race from Oak Tree, that was a good time!
I did go up there for a few shots, but mostly I moved around. I have 28 images selecting 10
that will give you some idea of the action. I was there to watch Pink #14 who qualified
but didn’t take the green flag and the Teal #50 with its’ new paint scheme. It proved to be a fun evening, then I hopped back into the Vette and headed home.

Up next: Barber Motorsports Park on 12/2 - coverage starts just before 10 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8FZTIz ... e=youtu.be

Barber is a great track. I've been testing and practicing there with the Solstice. Can run 1:46 with some consistency under the right weather conditions. We'll see what they hand us but I'm using the December date in the sim which gives air temp in low 70's and track temp in low 80's.

Somehow I expect the best to be in the 1:44 range but I can't fathom how to shave 1-2 seconds off my times. I'm working my way up.

ugh not the best result at Barber.

Best was 1:46.4 in testing, but best I could qualify was 1:47.0 not sure why, but that put me P15 of 25 cars.

Was slowly working my way up but at about 50 minutes into the race my P11 went up in smoke when I ran just a bit wide on exit of last turn and got the right rear in the grass which turned the car into the inside wall. Had to get a tow. Ended up 1 lap down in 18th. The guy who was just ahead finished 7th could have made the top 10 again.

Up to 17th in points - can make 15th with a good result at Laguna Seca in two weeks.

It was Wednesday the 02nd of December and I wanted to attend the iRace version 15 at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama.
Well that’s 750 plus miles from home, an eleven-hour drive. So I decided to charter that private jet for a 3-hour flight to Birmingham,
were I had a rental car reserved for the 15 to 20-mile trip to the Barber Motorsports Park.
I came to watch #50 MostMint Racing and #14 The Pink Panther.

It was late in the day when I arrived. The weather was 75 degrees with party cloudy skies.
This track is 2.27 miles long with 16 turns. I did manage to take 21 photos, here are the best 10.
With #50 sustaining damage with 8 minutes to the end of the race was a little disappointing,
but things looked really good for 52 minutes. I didn’t go back to the pit to view the damage.
There will be one more race this year and I’ll be there. So, I jumped into the rental car and
headed for the Airport and my flight home.

Dam the results, no one was injured and racing is always fun!