It's the Canadian Edition of the SBRS Premier Series this week! I haven't had a chance to really test, tune and familiarize myself on Mosport yet because I've been attacking Spa with the SM, but I am going to do everything in my power to make that race this week!

Mosport is one of my better tracks in this series with regards to lap times. I can get within a couple seconds of the world record. So I was looking forward to this round.

However at this point many competitors have dropped out of the series and what's left are mostly hard-core / very competitive racers. The strength of field of Ryan & I's race was the 2nd highest of the series to date!

I set a personal best lap qualifying for this race, but is was still only good for 13th / 22 on the grid.

The start went pretty good. But on lap two someone spun in front of me and I made light contact, damaging my front wing. It wasn't enough to warrant going into the pits, but it did slow me down a bit on the back straight which made me easier to pass.

Despite the damage though, I managed to work my way up to 9th by mid-race. It was very intense with a large pack of cars all running nose-to-tail. Then with about 10 laps to go, I spun in Moss corner and lost 4 places. By the end of the race I had regained a couple of those places, but ran out of laps and finished 11th.

Overall, I was quite happy with the race. Everyone I encountered on the track raced fairly & cleanly. Without the damage & spin I'm sure I would have place a few place higher, but that's about it.

Here's the results:

With this week's healthy points haul, I climbed up 8 spots in the championship. And Ryan jumped up 7 spots:

Currently there are only 38 competitors eligible for the two random draw prizes. Subtract the top three (who already win a prize) and I'll have a 1:35 chance of winning a Skip Barber school. I'm sure the odds will improve even further as we move closer to the series finale.

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

That spin on lap two caught me a bit to. There was a bit of damage to my right rear tire which was the same as Scott's front wing, not enough to warrant a pit, but definitely slowed me down. That might have been the reason I overshot on the Moss Corner, which was effectively the end of my race. 8 minutes in the pits for repairs ended my chance, followed by a spin at turn 2 in the dying laps and I botched another race.

Despite that, Mosport was full as hell, and the field was great. Good times to be had by all!

This week the series visited Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Not one of my better tracks for ultimate speed, but I can run fairly consistent lap times with minimal incidents. So my strategy was to just hang in there, run consistent laps and capitalize on the mistakes of those in front of me.

I qualified the night before, and could only muster a 1:38.611 which is about a 1/2 second slower than my personal best, and about 3.5 seconds off the world record.

As I had Wednesday off, I decided to try a different time slot. I joined the 7am race. Starting 13/17 on the grid, I ran an incident-free race and found myself in 8th when the checkered flag dropped. In the closing laps of the race, I had inherited 8th when the driver in front of me spun. But he was faster than me and was right on my gear box for the last few laps. It was all I could do to hold him off. Then on the last lap he made another error, dropped back, and coasted home. *phew*

Since I was home, I decided to try running the 5pm race as well. This time I started 8/13, but in the opening lap a car spun in front of me and I had to take to the grass to avoid him. This resulted in me getting a black flag for "cutting the course". I tried to appease the black flag by driving slightly slower without losing any positions, but it wasn't enough and I got a 15 second stop-and-go penalty.

After I served the penalty, I was dead last (13th) and half a lap down. By the end of the race I managed to work my way up to 9th through attrition and passing one backmarker, but in the end the 7am race provided me with more championship points.

Speaking of which, here's were we're at:

Currently there are 33 competitors eligible for the random draw prizes (excluding the podium finishers).

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Week 11 brought us to Virginia International Raceway. I was ill prepared, having never driven the Skippy @ VIR until a few hours before the race. I qualified with a 2:12.409 which was about 4 second off the best time. It was enough to place me mid-grid though, at 12th of 21.

The race was a disaster. On lap 2 someone dove up the inside and understeered into the side of me, then the person behind plowed into the both of us. Immediate tow to the pits and 12 minutes of repairs. When I got back out on the track I was 5+ laps down and in 20th place. In the end I finished 17th.

At the very least, I did move up the standings a few spots... 26 from 31:

Currently there are 28 competitors eligible for the random draw prizes (excluding the podium finishers).

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Week 12, the final race.

This time it was Oulton Park Circuit, one of my favorites and ironically my slowest of the series. My qualifying time was only good enough to grid me 14th of 17.

However luck was on my side as a first lap incident took out / damaged several of the front runners and I was instantly promoted up the grid. I ran a fairly clean race with no major mistakes and finished in 7th, rewarding me with my all-time highest points haul.

Despite the personal best points haul, I dropped down one spot in the championship standings.

Here's the final chart showing the whole series points tally, including the two drop weeks:

There were only 26 competitors from which to select the two random prize draws, but unfortunately I did not win neither.

Here's the series wrap-up news article for those interested:
http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/ira ... ries-crown

Overall it was an enjoyable series and I'm glad I participated. Hopefully they'll hold another Skip Barber premier series in the future!

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1997 Talon TSi AWD
2008 EVO X MR

Two prizes for 26 competitors.... so basically a 1 in 13 chance of winning a weekend at the Skip Barber School...... not bad odds.

Better luck next time!

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"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed."-William Gibson
1989 Van Diemen - Formula 2000 Continental