10/03/21 Autobahn ST5 Race 2

In typical fashion Sunday's race was another instance of don't bet on the situation you want and are prepared for to happen. With the forecast calling for thunderstorms all day I fully expected to be another wet race so I stuck with my wet setup until 30 minutes before the race when it was apparent the rain was going to miss the race by an hour.

Going into race 2 I was starting P1 and after getting a good jump on the start a slightly botched 2-3 shift left an opening that I couldn't stick with going into T3 so the chase for getting P1 was now back on. Unfortunately on lap 2 coming out of T3 I managed to get my right tires in some water and mud on the edge of the track and was not fully aware of it which lead to a spin going into T3 that I was not able to recover.

I ensured I got the car clear of the track and traffic and once settled rejoined the race about 6-7 seconds behind the ST5 pack. Knowing It was now just a race to see how much ground I could make up I set off to clear traffic and chase down the back of the ST5 pack which I did about halfway through the race I came up on Bill Griffin's E46 which is an incredibly powerful car out of the straights and Bill is an amazing veteran driver I knew it was going to be tough to get around him.

It took me 2.5 laps to get around Bill and back up to P4 but with the white flag being waved and P3 managing to get in front of some 944 traffic I knew that was as good as it was going to get.

After getting off track I inspected the car curious what had happen and watching the video I know see what caused the spin that I just didn't see when before it happened looking through T3 exiting T2 I just got a little to close to the edge of track. During the inspection though I noticed my 1 tire PSI had also ballooned to 39PSI ( I target 35 and set the tire at 28 before the race) after examining the wheel I found a wheel bearing had failed during the race which led to not continuing on into race 3 for the weekend as I have been procrastinating on building my spare part bin.

I knew a dry race was going to be tough as I just didn't have the confidence I had the pace needed to be at the top, but I am disappointed a mistake changed the dynamic more than I wanted. Regardless it was great learning experience and I am more than satisfied gaining a class position.