Ouch. I guess that's what happens when one does not properly prepare and fails to fully read the briefing.
After having what I thought was one of the more fun races (from my driver's seat) of the series, I come to make some post race comments this evening and see that I've been disqualified from the results because I exceeded the fuel allotment.
.032 gallons. That's a tough one. But, I guess if I'm going to be over a bit then it's better than far exceeding the limits. Definitely not intentional.
I had no real prep till race morning (life getting in the way) but I had some hours before the race and I got to work on the car. It was in severe need. Horribly unbalanced and a death trap when I got in it. An hour later I had it stabilized, but after some longer runs realized I was going to have to work more because the understeer once the RF overheated was more than I could bare. Another hour and I've got that sorted. Quali soon after and qualified P12, which was sort of unexpected.
I was comfortable, but I was also an idiot, and even though I noted very early on that I'd be WAY under what I thought was the fuel limit, it never dawned on me to come check the danged fuel allotment because this wasn't to be a 500 miler.
Yeah, I went into the race thinking I was going to burn 2 tanks when I had 3 to burn. Time to crank this baby up and blast off, or so I thought!
Mostly uneventful at the start...nice and clean and decent. Mostly just settling for a while, trying to see where the car would run, realizing my car was great through entrance and mid corner, but was suffering on exits. So I decided to find cars I could run with but not run over top of, and just cruise for a while.
I planned for a stop midways. Initially saving enough fuel to do so. But then the caution happened, and having been in the front row seats for that incident I was not yet thinking completely clearly. (I narrowly escaped the incident...I still haven't seen the broadcast or the replay but I'm pretty sure I either drove under, or just to the right of Jason's car as it somersaulted what looked like 10'-15' in the air
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Not sure why I pitted. I guess I was looking at the tires at the time and thought maybe a splash/dash at the end but would enable me to....ah, heck, IDK...just dumb!
I came out of the pits and got half way down the backstretch as the green came back out. I spent most of the rest of my time trying to catch back up to the cars I'd been running with or ahead of. I enjoyed trying to catch Bruno, who managed a 5-8 second gap on me for a very long time, but as we see it was all inconsequential in the end.
A humbling lesson for a seasoned driver...never take for granted you know the details of events. Read thoroughly the briefing!
Still, enjoyed the time spent and I'm still looking forward to checking out the broadcast very soon.
Thanks ISO!
And congrats to Mikey and the rest of the podium!
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