|
By Andrew Caddell
My ride for the 2007 SCCA Runoffs came together rather quickly. I got a call from Charlie James at SafeRacer.com wanting to know if we had found a ride yet. I told him no. The ride came together fast and we headed off to Topeka, Kansas.
 Getting up to speed after not driving a Spec Miata for a full year couldn't have gone any better. We quickly realized that we had the speed to run up front, we just had to put the time down in qualifying. We ended putting the SafeRacer.com Miata on pole after being the fastest car for all 4 days of qualifying.
The race was a different story. It rained hard the night before the race changing the track dramatically. We didn't change anything as the track was drying and went out for the race. We led the first couple laps, then Brad Rampleberg passed me and I was content to ride behind him. In the last 5 minutes I tried a couple moves to get by him for the win but he was doing a good job staying there. On the last lap we went into turn 9 and someone had thrown up mud on the track. Brad got sideways and saved it but I wasn't so lucky. I went off the track into the mud. I was lucky to save it but the race for the win was over. We did end up with a pretty good second place, trading places with Brad from 2006.
All in all it was a great week working with the SafeRacer.com folks. Thanks to Charlie and Chris James, Mike Asselta, Derek Gresham and the whole crew. I also have to thank Carbotech Brakes for supplying the brake pads to put us up front. Hugh Sutton worked at getting some of the weight off the car and it was great to meet him. |
