1999 Peru BFG CENDIV

(As originally posted to the Talon Digest)

It's funny how at the Divisional series it's always the same cars that compete Regionally, so we wind up driving our tow rig for 5 hours just to race the same guys.

About half an hour before the race, the skies get really dark, and I gamble and put on the rain tires (235 "old" R1s that still have tread) and sure enough, we get a torrential downpour as we pull into grid.

My first run, the course is covered with standing water and I'm 1.5 seconds faster than the rest of ESP. Erik Stremler is there with his 1G Talon, and he should be giving me a run, but he's having engine problems.

And then the rain stops dead, and the course starts drying out. My second run I'm pushing really hard, and I overdrive the car in a slick spot and the end snaps around - and I'm noticing that in some of the bigger sweepers, I'm up on the limits of the tires way early.

By the third run, although the concrete is still wet there's no longer any standing water, and I'm on the limits all the way around; limits much lower than my dry tires would have had. Everyone else is on dry tires, and the course comes to them. Dammit.

I wind up 5th on 10, a mere .043 out of the trophies, and only 0.5 off the win. Had I stayed on the dries...

Oh well, at least I beat Marcus, and badly too.