I get to the start line and it was Samuel Hubinette sitting there with his new Viper. I got out, went over and shook his hand and wished him good luck, just as I did with each competitor I ran against. At this point, nothing mattered. We were on the podium in our first event of the year. Win or lose, we were going home happy.
Samuel had qualified First so he was the only competitor that I had to follow on the first pass. This generally gives a huge advantage. We tore down the straight away, I was going as fast as my car will let me but that Viper makes almost twice as much power as our car. We flipped into the first corner and switched back left for the main sweeper. He had about three car lengths at this point; I was not too happy about it, but I wasn't about to give up. I stayed on the gas through the transfer into the hairpin and closed the gap without hitting him. We won the advantage in the first pass. As I was going back to the start line I was so amped up and ready to lay down a good lead pass, which is what I did, and Samuel followed and followed well resulting in a one more time!
I was nervous about the one more time, but had a better idea of what I had to do in the chase run. I got my car up to speed as fast as I could within the restrictions of the pace cone. We hit the first corner and I was a little closer than in the first pass, but still not close enough. I had to try and stick the hairpin at full speed again. We transferred in and my Z shot into a hole that felt like it was about two feet narrower than the car. I came out unscathed, but without the advantage.
Going back to the start line I was trying to come up with an idea on how to beat him in the lead lap with the disadvantage. The only thing I could do was try to beat him with angle and line. I turned into the first corner and stood on the gas making a whole mess of smoke and flipped to the left hugging up on the wall and stood on it all the way to the next wall and into the hairpin. As I flicked in for the hairpin, I felt the car wanting to spin out. I was full throttle in Fourth gear approaching a Second gear corner. I hit the brakes hard trying to slow the car down without blasting past the apex and missing the clipping point. I successfully regained control of the car without spinning out and quickly got back on the throttle and powered out of the corner.
What I didn't think about was what Sam was doing while all this was happening. I later found out he flipped in with me and probably thought that he had it. When my car finally regained control and was back on throttle, Samuel had nowhere to go and he scraped the whole right side of his car from front to back trying keep his drift.
As we went to the podium I was all smiles knowing that I had a spot up there. All my friends and family were there to support me and I could not have asked for anything better until they announced my name for First Place! I was blown away and could not believe what just happened. All I can say is that I could not have done it without the help of my crew, Kevin Wells and Sergio Ramirez, my friends and family, and the entire Drift Alliance crew!
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