Sunday, May 11, 2014

Gingerman/Mother Nature--A mixed bag

Trying to stay dry under the canopy
Gingerman Raceway near South Haven Michigan was a fun 2.14 mile 11 turn track near the eastern shore on Lake Michigan.  It had rained overnight and was still raining when the first half of the field ran which really held the times down.  It also had water sloshing around on the floor pan of the open, go kart like, Ariel Atom.  By the second half of the group, the rain stopped the wind kicked up and the back half was running on a dry track.  This really skewed the results with many of the front runners deep in the field and some of those farther back in overall standings at the front of the finishing order.  The afternoon wasn't quite a dramatic with the track not quite as wet for the start but still drying more as time went

Lining up to go on track
on.  My first run was in the wet and a bad finish of 38th place.  My second run there was still moisture in the track but a lot dryer than my first run and I was able to run down the car in front of me, make a pass and ended up with a very satisfying 7th place finish.  One note, turn ten was an off camber skid pad sized turn and had no grip and really felt like a skid pad exercise, which is bad since it leads to the long back straight and you want to be back on the throttle quickly.  Well, everyone had to deal with the same turn;^)

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