Sebring - Feb 8-10, 2002

Starting off the 2002 season, Sebring is a highlight for those with the time to trek to central Florida.  What a fantastic weekend it was.  After learning yet a new track, I qualified 2nd, about .9sec/lap behind the same guy that I finished behind at Carolinas.  3rd place on the grid was just .03 (that's hundredths) sec/lap slower than me so I expected a dogfight.  Since 1 lap at Sebring is about 3.5 miles, the sprint race format was switched from 10 laps to 40 mins.  This gave us about 50% more racetime.  My strategy at the start was to get as many cars between me and 3rd as possible going into turn one..  Going into the first turn (at over 90mph, and 3 cars wide!), I managed an outside pass that actually put me in the class lead.  Passing a rookie in a faster car put some distance between me and 2nd (or so it seemed).  As we came into turn 17 (the last before the main straight), I was passed for 1st in a brilliant, inside move.  The same guy put the move on an E Class car in front of us on the next lap and that was it for me.  The guy that I worried about at the start thought it was going to rain and switched tires.  Too bad, as the rain didn't come and he wasn't a factor.  I finished 2nd in class and 9th overall to wrap up a fantastic weekend!

A good portion of the race is still run on the original airport runway.  In fact, the back straight and turn 17 leading onto the front straight and continuing all the way through turn 1 is all concrete airstrip.  It is quite bumpy!

Chased this E Class car all race but couldn't quite catch him.  Fortunately, my car runs in F so he wasn't taking away a class position from me.