2016 Season opener in Sebring

The 2016 inaugural race was held in Sebring again. One of my favorite tracks. Very technical, unbelievable bumpy and a few big kahuna turns (first and last turn). Expect spectators over the 4 days was estimated in the 150,000 range.

After having raced the Lites series last year in Sebring I felt much more comfortable this time and managed to shave almost 2 sec off my best time from last year. However, both races ended very unexpectedly. The qualification for race one was very unfortunate. A crash caused an early red flag and I only managed to do one timed lap due to my track position while most competitors had two timed laps. Bummer. Bad grid position way in the back for the start. However, the race turned out to be much better. After a clean start and a few passing maneuvers I ended up on 2nd place in Masters. Naj Hussein a friend and fellow racer gave me no time to rest and kept the pressure up after I passed him. Very happy with the result.

Race 2 on Friday was held at 8am with the rising sun right in the face. This race ended also very unexpectedly. After a few laps I developed gear shift problems that help my competitors to pass in critical spots. Also, my right mirror broke off which you need most in clockwise circuits (more right turns). As a results I was dive-bombed by cars I didn’t see their position. To add to all the problems the car in front of me began spraying oil. Towards the end of the race I had no more tear offs left and could barely see through the visor. But (deserved) luck was on my side. Five minutes towards the end, 4 cars crashed in front of me on one of the oily patches and another car went off. This helped me to regain my 2nd position literally in the last lap. Never gave it up again.

Now leading the championship in the Master series by 4 points.