Following Skeen Part 1

Saturday, August 7th- World Challenge Race #1 at Mid-Ohio

I was not able to make qualifying on Friday because I had to be at work.  Skeen qualified 2nd only .003 seconds behind Sofronas on pole.  Pumped about being on the front row.  I left work at 5PM and got to enjoy the absolutely terrible roads on the way to Mid-Ohio... I'm glad I pay taxes and tolls for such quality paving jobs.  I rolled into the Days Inn at around 10:30.

It was an early start to the morning with a lot of "hurry up and wait" after we got to the track.  The car was pretty much ready, so the team did a quick warm-up before taking the car across the paddock (We are in the grass so Danica can have her personal RV right next to the track...)

We borrowed a hot flag girl from K-Pax (Volvo competition), but unfortunately she had a ring on her finger.  The Cragar/CRP crew was top notch, and I really enjoyed meeting them. 

Mike got suited up and headed over with the crew.  I headed across the bridge to get a prime spot to watch the race. After a few painfully slow formation laps the race started.  Video of the start is included below.  Mike said the traction control wasn't working quite right, and he had a lot of wheelspin at the start.  The Volvo's went flying by, so he had to get by them in the first laps.

Volvo Competition

Skeen got by Pilgrim (Volvo) pretty quickly with a nice pass going into T2. Once he was in P2 he began to put pressure on Sofronas (Porsche).  Skeen was clearly faster than Sofronas.  It was only a matter of time before he got by Sofronas: coming out of T1 Sofronas got balked by traffic and downshifted at the exit of T1 so Mike blew by.  Mike put a big gap on Sofronas in no time, and absolutely destroyed him in traffic.  There was a full course caution that brought Sofronas back to the rear bumper, but Mike stayed ahead of him with no trouble.

Back Straight

Gap on Sofronas

After 50 minutes, the checkered flag flew and Skeen got the win.  It was an awesome race- straight up domination.  Sofronas finished second and Lindsey was in third (both in Porsches).

Top of Podium

Poppin' Bottles

 The podium finishers were interviewed for quite a while before they went to the podium.  It was fun to watch them play the hat game, and I enjoyed with scenery of the World Challenge girls facing the podium.  I said AWW SKEEN SKEEN when they sprayed the champagne, but I don't think anyone in my immediate area listened to Lil John.

I walked back to the rig (flipflops were a terrible choice).  The top cars were going through tech.  Sofronas' car was on the scales and the Vette was next.  Pictures of impound.

The Cragar/CRP car passed impound with no issues.  Time to celebrate!  Everybody was posing with the trophy, so I figured, what the hell...

Next up was the autograph session.  I wasn't going to go, but I got bored with the activities around the paddock, so I ran through the line to talk some smack to Saini... and get some pictures of my favorite flag girl.

I told Mike to pose with the "scenery" --- Look over his right shoulder.







There you go.  A day in the life of a race winner.  Let's do it all over again tomorrow.