First place in ES 4hr Enduro! 2nd place on Saturday and Sunday sprint races! Fellow FFR challenge competitors Mike Tuck, Paul Arnold, Rafe Baskin, Tom Lavell, Marty Howard and I looked forward to get back to racing after having all of May off.

Mike Tuck and I decided to team up in the 4hr enduro Friday from 1pm to 5pm. Mike just finished his Competition school earlier Friday so we decided to get him more track time he would do two shifts in the enduro, start and finish with me driving the middle stint. The race started with us missing the grid due to a cracked rotor change (thanks Jeff Whitney for all the ‘mechanic’ work you did the whole weekend)  so Mike had to start in the way back.. He drove a great stint, the great team put together by Joe Camire serviced the car, belted me in, and off we went. I had an uneventful stint bringing the car back in after feeling fuel starvation on the previous lap, and it was a good thing because the car as I was coasting down the pits to our pitstall completely ran out of fuel! We sent Mike back out and he was clicking off good laps running consistently. Later in the race our class leader pulled in for a fuel stop, and he got a penalty for spilling fuel! a 5min penalty with about 20-30min left in the race. He was turning about 10sec/lap faster then Mike and was 1lap down when he was done his penalty. We started to wonder, with Mike now being in 1st in the ES class, would the Porsche be able to make up one lap in the time left running 10sec/lap?? We got our answer on the last lap with Mike finishing 1sec ahead of the Porsche for the win!!! Team LTFO Racing won the ES class! Thanks to great pitwork, flawless running car, good driving and fueling by our fellow FFR racer Paul Arnold.

Saturday brought practice, qualifying and race. Qualifying saw Rafe snatching pole (1:36.1) with me (1:36.8), Paul (1:37.1), Tom (1:47.1) and Marty (1:47.2) setting the scene for a great race, Mike Tuck missed qualifying due to another cracked rotor. NASA decided to grid us by time on the 2nd flying start wave so Rafe was p1 at start, with a Camaro next to him, then me Paul, and the rest of the FFR guys were 10 spots back from us. Rafe somehow missed the grid and had to start at the back of the pact with him missing I got the ‘lucky bump’  being on pole filling the spot in front. The race started good, Paul had trouble with bad vibration later identified as really badly unbalanced tires. Rafe driving mad put his head down charging through the field trying to catch me. Well, he caught me late in the race, we had a little battle, with Rafe getting the better hand. He drove a great race with most of his laps in the 1:36’s with me only able to muster 1:38’s most of the race, 3rd was Tom Lavell followed by Mike Tuck, Marty and Paul. Marty did not finish the race as he had transmission issues which unfortunately finished his weekend of racing as he we didnt have a spare T5 for him. Paul on top of having tire issues also had a clogged fuel pump sock so after the race we helped him change it taking quite some time. There is something about Road Atlanta as we always seem to be digging in the fuel cell replacing some type of part just about every time.

Sunday brought qualifying early with the race just after lunch. I noticed an exhaust header crack causing me to be down on power Saturday with Tom Lavell crew’s help (Kent and Jason) welded the hole up as much as they could. Qualifying saw great times with Rafe once again on pole with a 1:36.0, Paul 1:36.1, me 1:36.5, Mike 1:45.7 and Tom 1:46.7. The race started fast and fierce with the 3 FFR’s nose to tail for the early laps rafe getting the better of us getting putting the Camaro between us and him. Paul and I swapped the lead a couple of times before the full-course yellow. After a couple of laps behind the pace car waiting for the track to get cleared, the green flag flew, Rafe, Paul and I started mixing it back up but the faster cars were working through the field with me catching bad luck in traffic loosing touch with Rafe and Paul. Close to the end of the race Paul had an issue and slowed a a little with me catching him back up finishing close to him. Congrats to Rafe for another great drive smashing the track record with a 1:35.529, Paul second with a 1:35.824, me 3rd with a 1:37.6, Tom 1:42.9 and Mike 1:44. Unfortunately after the race Rafe (usually #6) was assigned #61 and he missed the call of #61 to tech after the race, getting a DQ only finding out after we all left the track. That makes Paul P1, me 2nd, tom and Mike. The other bummer is Rafe’s fast lap does not count as he was DQ’d so Paul Arnold now has the track record with a 1:35.824.

After Sunday’s race my car #48 had a pinhole radiator leak and the transmission was being difficult going into 3rd. I decided to drop the car off to Mark Dougherty to get him to fix those two things, with him having the car we made plans to go to July MidOhio with him hauling the car from PA and me flying in for the race.

Pictures: http://www.johngeorgeracing.com/gallery/index.php?/category/362

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