10/02/21 Autobahn ST5 Race 1 Wet

Originally I planned to skip this event to finish getting the care fully prepped for NCM in 3 weeks from now, but decided to run it as is to get some seat time at a track that I am very unfamiliar with and I am glad I made the trip.

Practice on Friday went slow as I was saving heat cycle's on my R7's for the weekend to get through qualifying and the race's so most of my practice was on a pretty worm set of RS4's but enough to reacclimate myself with this track. I forgot how bumpy this track is though and was left battling pad knock back and ABS lockup most of the weekend even after turning down my brake booster. Conversations with other drivers and its just a nuance of this track and was a great time to practice dealing with those types of situations.

Starting Saturday on a worn set of R7's that I just flipped I was able to set a pace I was happy with and ultimately qualified P3, but the racer in P1 got DQ'd due to being called to Dyno and making more power than expected so I started P2 for the race.

Most of Saturday afternoon was spent with rain and a lightning delay in the area so it became apparent it was going to be a wet track so I switched to my wet setup and went out with no idea of what this track was like in the rain but I found a very good pace early on and was able to keep it throughout the race.

I was very happy with my ability to adapt to a wet track that I have never been to and managed to come away with my second 1st place finish of the season. I was also happy with my performance on both the start and the restart managing to keep my position and put my in a good position to make a move early on in the first lap.

Biggest area to work on from Saturday was managing a track that made managing the cars ABS system very difficult which in turn completely changed the way I had to drive the car to get it to rotate on a couple of key turns. This in turn led to some mental frustrations and I found myself out of my normal rhythm a lot trying to man handle the car to turn. I look forward to this type of situation in the future to work on better balance management