The NeOhio Buckeye Sprints are held at the Mid Ohio Sports Car Course and promise a lot of action as attendance is high because of the looming SCCA Valvoline Championship Runoffs. Racers from near and far come to get seat time, do testing and gather points for divisional championships...a good finish here is a good forecast for the Runoffs. I decided to attend at the pestering of Motion Dynamics, get more seat time and both ALMS and Trans Am were going to be there.

Mid Ohio is another track I love for its elevation changes and combination of fast sweepers and technical corners. After Pocono, I looked forward to returning to a track I had run several races on.

Since the "big boys" were running that weekend, our practice and qualifying were on Friday,with the race on Sunday. That gave us a chance to walk around and drool from the balconies looking directly into the ALMS garages and also watch the phenominal Audis, GTS and Gt cars fly around the course.

Practice and Qualifying: Not realizing what group the Spec Racer Fords were going to be in, I was working at Lime Rock for two days before having to fly to Ohio. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out of Connecticut and into Ohio early enough to make my practice session. Missing practice definitely was a penalty and it showed in my qualifying time. The biggest lesson I learned, was that a mid-engined, rear drive car runs different lines through the corners than a front engine, front drive car. Mid Ohio rewards being very smooth and in a SRF, not hitting the curbs at all. I admit, I found My "muscle memory" from my Showroom Stock days hurt my times significantly.

As the checker fell on qualifying, I was in denial because I had figured out some things and my times were improving each lap. However, at only a 1:44.851, my best time was three seconds from the pole and good only for 17th in class, and 20th overall of a 26 car field. Did I mention that this was a very competitive close field? My strategy of running with my teammates got botched so I ran most of the session alone despite coming through the pits to get in some better traffic. My crew consoled me, saying that I did fine for having not raced there in two years..."rubbish," I thought. I knew I had a lot of work to do in the race, and headed up to the tower to sign up for hardship practice.

Raceday: Starting 20th overall and on the outside, I knew I needed some more seat time and to get my head in the track. Even though the session was right before my race, I was instantly glad I went out. I got a good look at the track and practiced a couple of the lines I had worked out at the end of my qualifying session. The start was to begin on the front straight, differing from the usual back straightaway, so I was especially concerned with how I was going to move up at the beginning of the race. Turn one at Mid Ohio goes under a bridge and running off line on the outside there is not an option.

From the tenth row, I could just see the green fall as I heard it called over my radio. As we all took off, attempting to move inside was impossible, so I settled for staying in line until the bridge. I didn" want to get cought off line, so I started moving to the inside as I saw a couple of cars pass me. As I did this, all hell broke loose mid-pack, with two SRFs and a GT5 car getting sideways and finally going off track. I had to slam on my brakes to avoid being collected myself and focused on the hole up ahead. Surprisingly, I was able to stay close to a group of cars ahead of me through the keyhole, while the lead pack opened up a huge gap.In the back of my mind, I was hoping for a double yellow to bunch up the field again, but no luck.

Time to focus forward and make up as much ground as possible. I could see that I wasn't the only one traveling alone, a couple SRFs and a GT5 Mini were in sight. Lap after lap, I was gaining ground.With 6 laps completed, I was able to get around those cars and happy to see that I was reeling in the cars ahead of me. Drive smooth and make no mistakes was my mantra. Soon, I saw another group of SRFs in a tight battle ahead and had my crew give me split times as I closed on them. As I drew nearer, I saw Niki Ruman in car 20 make her move in Madness, which slowed the group. As a result, I was able to get by two of the cars Niki had passed as well in the next couple laps.

My splits to Niki were getting closer still and focusing on her line, I figured out where I was faster. With only two laps to go, I was pressuring her. On the final lap, I made a couple of attempts, but with a good run into Thunder Valley I nosed beside her into the left hander before the Carousel.

A good competitor, Niki was having none of it, and nosed into my mid section almost sending me around in the process. Going full throttle and steering, I was able to gather the car up enough to head into the braking zone for the Carousel and completed the pass. Taking the checker after that pass was a terrific high and my crew reported my position as 11th in class and 12th overall. The race was hard work and paid off with me almost breaking into a 1:43.