NASRS Season 14 Race 4 (Zandvoort)

Race 4 of NASRS season 14 was at Zandvoort and it was this season’s night race. Honestly, I was kind of dreading this one in the days leading up to the race. I was off pace a bit in practice so that, combined with the fact that this track is a particularly tricky one (especially at night), was making me a little apprehensive. Also, many of the fastest drivers in the Tuesday split are driving the Porsche GT3, which is really quick at Zandvoort. I was pretty sure I was going to qualify lower down the field and would struggle to make up any places because it’s so hard to pass at Zandvoort.

I’ve been doing this thing where I try to write down some goals for the race beforehand and I think it’s been helping me focus on a few things as I’m racing. Here’s what I wrote down before last night’s race:

1. Get in the 1:35s during qualifying
2. Have a clean first lap (mainly T1 and T2)
3. Run consistent laps with no errors – mistakes will determine who’s successful here

I did a 1:35.705 in qualifying, which based on where I was in practice, was about the best I could expect. That had me starting in 10th, which is about where I belong in the field pace-wise. So all good there (goal number one met).

As you’ll see in the clips below, there was some mayhem in T1 on the first lap, but I was cautious (and lucky) so was able to avoid that and make up one spot. I then picked up a place on lap two when the driver in front of me mis-judged a pass in T1 and ran wide. It was a fun drag race down to T1 and for a moment I thought about holding my spot and forcing him to lift. But it just seemed too dicey and since it was early in the race, I lifted and played it safe, which ended up working out. So goal number two met.

I got lucky again a few laps later and picked up two places when the car in front of me hit a car in front of him and decided to wait. (You get a smaller penalty if you wait when that kind of thing happens.) So after that I was way behind the lead group and just had to pump out solid, mistake-free laps in order to have a good finish. This is harder than it sounds because, as I mentioned above, Zandvoort is hard! There are so many tricky, technical corners that require the perfect brake pressure and timing as well as the proper racing line. If you any of those wrong, your lap time suffers dramatically (or you end up on the grass, which leads to ending up in the wall.) There’s really no place to take a mental breather and it is really hard maintaining that focus for 65 minutes so mistakes are common.

But, I got in a groove and was able to nail good lap after good lap without any real drama. I mean, I wasn’t lighting the world on fire with my lap times, but I was clean and consistent so that pretty much met my third goal.

I did run into a little drama right at the end of the race when I had a hard time getting by a lapped car. I tried to get by him on the main straight, but even though he was in last and I was in P5, he wouldn’t yield. I sat behind him an entire lap and then tried to pass again on the main straight, but he wasn’t having it. So, I sent it into T1 and muscled my way through. Other than that, it was a really clean race for me where I was mostly alone, just putting in the laps.

So, same result as last week (P5), but I’m much, much happier with how I drove in this race. We’re at Paul Ricard next week for the wet race of the season so it’s gonna be another tough one!

Week 4 final results (Zandvoort)

• Qualifying: P10/34
• Race: P5/34

Here are a few highlights from the race.