Welp, I decided at the last minute to make the trek up to Watkins Glen for a BMWCCA Club Race.  I had just did some wrenching on the car to fix an oil leak and wanted to make sure I had fixed it.  Since it only leaked while on track, I did not want to wait until Hyperfest to see if the fix had worked.

The C-Modified class was light on the heavy hitters this weekend and I actually had a shot at winning it.  The thought of winning overall was enough to convince me to go :)

Unfortunately, the fastest CM driver there, Jean Luc Bergeron was actually way faster than he was in the past.  I did fire off a 2:03.8 in qualifying which was a personal best.  I knew I would have to stay close to Bergeron to be a factor since he could motor away.  In the race, he took the green and raced over to the left and got on the brakes early leaving a HUGE opening for me to take.  I did not hesitate and got in front of him in T1.  I held him behind me all the way up the esses, but he had way more power and I had to take a defensive line.  We played the game of who would brake later.  That was enough to force a mistake with Bergeron doing some lawn mowing.  I stayed fairly close afterwards but he slowly was pulling away.  Then all of a sudden, he started slowing down.  Something must have been wrong I thought.  Turns out, his grille was filled with grass and he was overheating.  He would have to pit in and therefore I got the win!

Video of start to Bergeron's pit in:  http://vimeo.com/41672520

Once again, I was on stock calipers with stock ducting.  No issues with fade at all with my Performance Friction 01 pads (available through www.brakeswap.com ;) )  I cannot say the same about my Hoosiers though.  After ONE 45 minute race, I ended up cording the left front.  I guess there was a LITTLE bit of understeer, but me forcing the car to turn killed the tire I guess :O  The picture to the left is the aforementioned front left tire and the left rear for comparison.

In the remaining races and enduro, I would be no match for Bergeron.  He took the wins in those races and I came in second. I thought I had a chance in the enduro because of a double yellow, but Bergeron also got the "golden pit" as they call it.  On the restart, I was a few cars behind and traffic kept us close.  Was some really fun times passing 3-wide up the esses.

Was super fun hanging out with all my familiar BMWCCA faces and look forward to it again.  Though next time it may be in GTS4 (or GTS3)