NASRS Season 15 Race 2 (Spa)

The second race of the NASRS season was at Spa. It was raining the entire qualifying session and race, but the rain level was pretty light so the track condition was actually “damp” for most of the race. I was really happy with my qualifying lap and ended up in P6.  P6 is not that great, but there are so many fast guys in the Tuesday split that being in the top 10 is a decent achievement for me.

I had a clean race start, which is always a roll of the dice at Spa. The Aston has decent straight-line speed here so I was able to make a couple nice overtakes in the first two laps. I decided not to take tires during the mandatory pit stop. The car didn’t feel great during the second stint and I felt like maybe I should have taken tires. I don’t think others suffered as much so I probably over-drove the car during the first stint and cooked the tires. Fortunately the driver behind me in P4 also didn’t take tires so his pace wasn’t any quicker during the second stint or I probably would have lost the position.

One of the drivers ahead had a solo spin so I moved up one more place to get into P3. I picked up my third and final track cut warning with about 15 minutes left in the race so I had to dial things back a bit to make sure I didn’t get a drive-through penalty. I was able to hang on to my position which landed me in P3 and on the podium for the first time this season.

Really happy with the result here – moving up from P6 to a podium spot in the rain at a tricky track is about the best I could ask for. Looking forward to the next race at Silverstone, which is the last race before the big ACC 1.9 update hits, which might through a big wrench into the car physics (and setups) for the last three races of the season.

Week 2 final results (Spa)

• Qualifying: P6/31
• Race: P3/31

Here are a few highlights from the race