Scramble in Wine Country- Pacific FF2000 Pro Series Final round (10/27/2004)

(Tempe, AZ)

After a long summer battle with the engine, the car was flawless and Carl spent the weekend battling the track and weather as Infienon Raceway in Sonoma California hosted the Final round of the Pacific FF2000 Pro 23 and 24 October 2004.  His efforts resulted in 7th and 9th place finishes in the mains which propelled him to an overall season 7th in the new Pacific Pro series.  Competing as the youngest driver and usually in the oldest car, the low budget Scottracing team held its own against many professional efforts with new cars and the more powerful Zetec engines.

Friday practice was cool and dry, allowing us to shake down the newly built engine and verify that the cooling problems had been solved.  Carl quickly adapted to the track which he had last seen two years ago, with lap times steadily improving.  The configuration was sligtly different with a sharp kink at the top of the hill before the esses slowing times about 2 seconds.  Late in the second session, Carl decided to challenge the racing gods with a flat out assault on turn ten.  "half a mile per hour too much" was his report after being towed back to the garage with the front wings and wing box ready for the recycle bin.  Working in the warm, dry and enclosed Nascar garage made the repair work go much better and Carl was able to set the balance and handling to his liking in the last practice session.

Unfortunately the good dry setup from Friday was useless Saturday as the heavens opened up and steady rain was falling.  Skipping the warm-up, a wet setup was installed and qualifying run on a wet track.  Our old rain tires offered little grip and Carl held down last spot of those that attempted to qualify.  The afternoon wet race was an adventure in just keeping the car on the track and Carl reported that the race was the "scariest" of his career with the rain, low visibility and complete lack of tire grip providing 30 minutes of intense concentration.  His ability to keep straight and clean resulted in an 9th overall.

Sunday morning gave us heavy fog as Carl attempted to break in a set of new Avon Slicks.  Two laps behind the safety car provided just enough time to remove the stickers, but did nothing for the tire temperatures.  Qualifying was a toss up between wet and dry with many opting to run their rain tires while we ran our slicks.   Stuck behind traffic again, Carl could only manage a 10th place qualifying time even though he felt there were several seconds to be gained.

Race time brought out the sun and a dry track which made for fun racing as Carl moved up four positions on track only to lose one at the last corner of the last lap resulting in his 7th place.  The car did not have much front down force and Carl had to use his considerable experience and skill to make to grip, but the engine was strong allowing him to pass several Zetecs.

Overall, the last race was a nice finish to the series.  This is the first series we have contested  all rounds in since IKF regional kart racing and taking the green for every race demonstrated a level of team performance that we are proud of.  We went head to head with a number of well funded and professionally staffed teams and held our own.

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