Well here is my rundown. I stayed in Topeka all wee even though I didn't run until Thur/Fri. It really helped me to get motivated watching everyone else. I got to walk the courses a lot and watched a lot of other drivers. I felt really good going into Thursday's runs and had no nervous issues sitting in grid or on the line. I was concerned about the grip level after watching the first two days, but there was a good groove by the time I was up. I was on the tighter west course first. My first run out I fuel starved the car in 3 places for a 53.376. Stupid new r'comps and suprisingly grippy pavement. I put 3 gallons of 100 octane in the car and sent Patrick out. On my second run everything felt better and I didn't fuel starve at all so I figured I was good...52.835. I was ready to get aggressive on my third run so I really pushed. Got to the first off camber sweeper and right when I got back hard on the gas for the only real straightaway the car fuel starved again. I coasted for at least a full second up (yes uphill) the straight. The rest of the run was pretty fast and it was still an improvement at 52.565. I could have probably been in the high 51's without the fuel starvation which would have put me in the top 10 on day 1. Woulda shoulda coulda. 17th on the day left me a little disappointed, but I knew my driving was good...just need to work on my preperation a little better.
I was really looking forward to the course on Friday. Much faster in sections with some great wide open offset sections. It was a little cloudier from Thursday so the tires felt ice cold going out for the first run. I took it pretty easy for a 56.339. I found out that was fourth fastest, but that just meant that everyone else spun out. Patrick took the car out for his run and the tires started to come up to temp a little. I decided to push hard on my second run since the conditions were good and I had nailed a lot of the tricky entry points on my first run. I got a little loose in the first offset (where everyone else spun on the first run) but it wasn't bad enough to get me flustered or screw up the flow for the first section of the course...54.864. That was a good improvement over the first run so I was ready to push even harder on the 3rd run. I dropped the rear pressures 1 pound in hopes of not sliding any around the first corner. It didn't work at all. There was just something about that corner that got almost everyone. The entry felt fine and I kept a steady speed and angle, but somewhere in the last half of the corner the backend of the car would just come unglued for apparently no reason. This time I was going a little faster and it made me very late for the whole first offset section. I gathered it up as best I could and put my foot in it for the rest of the run. i figured the best I could do was knock a few more tenths off. I got down to the last few cones in the very tight "slalom" at the end of the course and I just couldn't get it slowed down smoothly enough. The car slid sideways going in but it caught and went the other way before I hit anything. It never got really out of shape, but it cost me a lot of time trying to gather it up and it killed my speed for the finish...55.313. I was the first FSP car to finish all my runs so I had to wait to see where I ended up. Everyone else fixed their problems with their 2nd or 3rd run and I started moving back in the standings. I finished up in 16th moving up 1 spot over Thursday. I was 9/1000ths out of 15th and 1.1 seconds out of midpack which was my goal for this year.
Overall I was happy with it though. I learned a lot and got the first big one out of my system. I need a few adjustments in the car to make it even better. I need more rear camber, wider wheels, and I still have a lot of tuning to do on the motor. I'll be back next year with an even better setup.