After a disappointing run at Barber, where a pulley failure
during the race sidelined us and put us many laps down, we headed to Iowa for
Koni Challenge’s second visit to Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.
The weekend started out well, the setup was spot on, and we were fast from the first session, but things didn’t stay positive for long. We began to experience an intermittent stumble when driving over bumps and curbs. Our Porsche was stumbling and cutting out, and eventually shutting off completely. This was obviously not a car that we could compete with and we needed to find the issue that was causing the stumble before I went out to qualify.
During the search for the electrical glitch, the team was also able to improve the pace of the car through the little bit of feedback that Craig and I were able to provide. Our engineer, Bernardo, always knows exactly what the chassis needs and even when we’re not sure of the exact direction to go with the car, Bernardo’s first try is usually spot on.
I went out for qualifying with the electrical stumble fixed and a slightly tweaked setup on the car. Unfortunately I didn’t get a great lap in qualifying, so we ended up 9th on the grid, but with a very fast, predictable racecar. At the start of the race, I proved just that, making my way up to fourth position, fighting hard with Andrew Davis for 3rd. We worked traffic very well together, and much to my surprise, the ST guys played very nicely and let us by at the earliest possibility. I set the second fastest race lap during my stint and then pitted to hand over to Craig, who drive an awesome race, taking the lead for a few laps and set the fastest lap of the race overall.
We ended up finishing second, my first podium in Koni Challenge, and the team’s third for the year. We finished ahead of the 09, the 37 and the 55 cars, all which are leading us in the points championship right now, so we made good ground on them. If we can string together a few more finishes like this, a late season charge for the championship is not out of the question. Our heads are down and we are going to be gunning for the top step of the podium at every race until the checker falls at VIR in October. This first podium is an awesome feeling, but there are plenty more to come.
