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VW Jetta TDi

I was unable to race Road America in week 2 due to holidays so it was off to VIR needing to get some points in the bag.

My plan was to run 2 races with the first being a warm-up so I didn’t bother run a qualifying session before the first race.

I was 11th on the grid from 13 drivers and ranked 11th so there wasn’t much to lose.

The start of the race was pretty clean, I started well and kept position into T1 staying with the pack ahead. With the cars ahead fighting for position, I was a little quicker and started putting a bit of pressure on the cars ahead.

This paid off coming into T1 on lap 2 as the driver went wide leaving me the gap to make an easy pass. Someone else lost it through South Bend (T10) so I was up to 9th

Another mistake by the driver ahead into T1 allowed me to close right up and he struggled to get away but there wasn’t a chance of a pass. On lap 5 he repeated the mistake, going right onto the grass and gifting me the 8th spot.

At this point I was right behind my buddy Don Wright so there was some extra incentive to pile the pressure on. The 5th place driver went off through the evil Hog Pen turn (T17) leaving me in 7th and right behind the two cars in front.

I was gradually reeling Don in but it was only a tenth or two here and there and with only 6 laps to go it wasn’t really enough. Don was driving really well when, unfortunately, he also lost it through Hog Pen, over-correcting after a mistake by the 5th place driver leaving me in 6th with 5 laps to go.

I had a big gap to the cars behind and I wasn’t able to make any impression on 5th place for the next couple of laps when, to my amazement, he also lost it through Hog Pen!

The last 4 laps were pretty straightforward and I was very happy to take the chequered flag in 5th.

Although I wasn’t hugely fast I was very consistent with nearly all my laps in the 2:16’s and, crucially, none of the mistakes that the others drivers made. I ended with zero incidents for the second time in the Jetta this season.

I got +43 irating (1640), +0.14 SR (4.51) and season best 82 points.

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Tags: Don Wright, VIR, Virginia International Raceway, Volkswagen Jetta, VW Jetta TDi

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 08:43 and is filed under Cars, Racing news, Tracks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.