Hello Everyone,
We just finished up the GLC in Toledo and had a pretty sucessfull weekend with the V10, V8 as well as Shepherd's tires. At the GLC, we had a lot of the top US racers show up including the current WC Ralph Burch.
In the 1/10 class, I was able to TQ followed by Ralph and Tosso. Ralph was really quick but I squeeked out TQ which definatly felt good to be so much more on pace than I previously was in Houston. In the final, I was leading over Ralph a few minutes in when I suffered 2 flame outs that put me nearly 2 laps down. I was able to come back through the field fairly quickly and was back in second by the 20 minute mark followed by Tosso, Power and Flack. From there, I tried to keep pushing the car and close the gap to Ralph but with about 3 minutes to go I was 3-4 second from getting back on the lead lap when the rear belt went. I cruised around the last bit and held onto 2nd place. Considering that Ralph is fresh off the biggest win of his career and that we were so much faster than everyone else I think it was a great event for myself and the V10. Ralph had me on hot lap by only .002 of a second and without the flame outs it could have been a great race.
In 1/8, I struggled in qualifying but Shepherd tires were TQ with Ralph using them on his Mugen. In the main, I got my car working much better and had a perfect start jumping to 3rd on the opening lap. After that Ralph rolled his car at the end of the straight and Swauger flamed out put me out in front with a 3/4 lap lead. Most of the other racers were on either a 1-2 tire change stratagy and I planned no change as my car was able to keep pace but not destroy the tires. With about 8 minutes to go, I was right behind Paul Ciccerello (eventual winner) after he came out for his tire change but unfortunetly he crashed and I was collected taking out my steering linkage. With that, I was finished but with 8 minutes to go and plenty of tire left to battle with anyone.
Overall it was disapointing but the weekend had it's high points. Shepherd tires TQ'd both 1/10 and 1/8 open classes. The V10 was TQ in 1/10. Plus, the V10 and V8 led laps in both finals and definatly had a chance in 1/10 and had the race covered in 1/8 when trouble struck.
I think Mark Sweeny will be posting my 1/8 set-up from the race (almost same as last year) and I will work on my V10 set-up.