Dj's 1999 M3 Project

[D_Eclipse9916]

After 2011 NASA Nationals, I was riding pretty high on the win and decided to get my comp license in October 2011. The comp license entails the Friday before a NASA event of 1 informal race to start out the day, a bunch of side-by-side drills, leapfrogging drills, and then a final race at the end of the day including regular racers.

I passed the comp school, and prepared for my first weekend of racing.



Saturday morning there was qualifying for both races. I had never done qualifying in a race group, only TT. Boy was I in for a surprise. Unlike TT where everyone is working together to get a good lap, in the racing qualifying you have to push and strategize to get a good lap. Had I know that, I might have done better than my 3rd place qualifying, live and learn.

Then came the race, the 1st place qualifying had to drop out, and so I was on the starting lineup for my first race ever. Nervous as all hell, I basically missed the start, and everybody came flying past. I dropped from 2nd to 4th by turn 1, but made my way back to 2nd after a 2 lap battle with Jim Khoury. Video of my first race from behind with Donnie Weymer as camera car (I am white #186 Rookie stickered car).
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Onto the 2nd race, basically the same story, except in a rookie mistake, I got behind some traffic and "fell in line" with traffic. This left a huge hole for Jim Khoury to end up diving in and getting by me on the top of rollercoaster on the last lap of the race. :oops:

I was happy though, my first two races went very well and came out unscathed.