Following Skeen Part 2

Sunday, August 8th- World Challenge Race #2 at Mid-Ohio

I got a late start to the day and got a little sleep.  Chris got to town Saturday evening so he could see the Sunday race.  Chris and I missed practice, but Mike and the CRP crew were enthusiastic about the changes they made in the morning practice.  The Friday qualifying positions set the grid for the Sunday race as well, so Mike was starting in P2 behind Sofronas (pole). 

Best Move Award

The Sunday race started at 11AM, so it was just starting to get hot.  Everyone was on sticker tires, so it was shaping up to be a good race. Once again, the Volvo's got a huge jump on Mike, and he also got passed by Lindsey in the Porsche (Video Below).  Skeen was able to get by Lindsey on lap four, and began to nip at the heels of the Volvo's in 2nd and 3rd.  On lap 11, Mike made a miraculous pass on the outside of the keyhole where he got by both Volvo's.  He was awarded the heaviest watch I have ever seen for making that pass, also known as the MTM Special Ops Best Move of the Race. (picture to left)

VIDEO OF SUNDAY RACE START:

Skeen began to close the gap on Sofronas, but lost ground when they started getting into lapped traffic.  I thought we had win #2 in the bag when the second full-course-yellow came out with about five laps to go.  This put Skeen right on Sofronas' rear bumper for the restart.  As they came under the bridge, cars started to pass Skeen like he was standing still... what a terrible feeling.  I later learned that it was an issue with the sequential gearbox.  Despite the issues with the gear slection, Skeen was still only a couple seconds off the pace in the last few laps, which is pretty impressive.

Gap to Sofronas

A depressing end, but all-in-all it was a very successful weekend.  Anytime you can dominate Randy Pobst in a very well-funded car you are probably doing pretty well.  It was sad to know that 2nd place was in the bag with first place being likely, but I guess it wasn't too bad for a "rookie".  I gotta throw in one more podium pic to show off the WC girl on Mike's left...enjoy.

WC girls

It was good to know that Mike had the fastest laps in both races (1:27.4 Sunday / 1:27.29 Saturday).

We started to pack up and thank the CRP/Cragar crew for showing us a good time.  I'm hopeful that we will be doing the same thing at VIR in about a month.  See you there.