We finished the 2010 season off at Putnam Park Raceway just outside of Indianapolis. It was not my best weekend. It was my first time there, but that's no excuse. I could NOT get the car to turn so I took to throwing it into corners too fast and sliding around instead of driving smoothly. I placed second both days, but mostly because I'm ballsy in traffic. In the middle of both races when things were spread out the competition was pulling away from me at about a second per lap. Regardless, there's some amusing footage from the new GoProHD. The races are two different resolution settings, but I can't remember which is which.

In both races I was gridded third in class behind the black and yellow Z06's. The overall grid order was time-based and not class-based, so for both starts I had two SuperTouring1 (means BIG horsepower) cars (Panoz and Viper) along side. Watch them pull away on the straights...

In general, you can skip the middle parts of both vids, but the beginning and ends are pretty good. You can click the links below for full screen, they actually look good full size with the new camera.

Race 1, terrrible start. Got some of it back and briefly took the lead, but then pulled my usual trick and locked up the brakes and took a ride through the grass. Dammit.

Putnam Race 1 from Spectator Racing on Vimeo.

Race 2, Learned my lesson and refused to give in to the ST1 cars. Better start, but again fell behind once things got sorted out. Caught up when we got to the back of the field and took second, but the black Z06 was probably 10 seconds ahead for the win.

Putnam Park race 2, Oct 9, 2010 from Spectator Racing on Vimeo.

Aside from this less than stellar showing 2010 was awesome. The problems seem to be behind me, so I can focus on setting up the car instead of fixing it. 2011 is going to ROCK! Book your plane tickets now, the National Championships return to my backyard at Mid-Ohio for 2011.

By the way, the blue Mustang that goes by at 4:30 in the second video has ~900hp. No joke.

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Yea, for everyone. Huge gaps between the cars especially at the front of the pack.
At least the C5 has his left foot on the brakes (2ond vid).

I couldn't see the flag station so I backed off to get a look. I feinted left, realized the wall is right there, and by the time I went back to the right it was too late. Add radios to the list of things needed.

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Yea, if you can't see the starter, radios are a must.

If you're mid pack at Laguna, the flag can be dropped before you make the left hand turn on to the straight. The corner worker there even has a green flag that flies when the starter waves his.

If I have time, I try to watch a couple of starts before my race. Sometimes you can read the starter if you're towards the front and can see him. A lot of starters will hold the flag down in the box with their elbow pointed up, so, you watch his elbow with one eye, when it starts to move down, the flag's coming up.

everyone has a bad year - but call this a "rebuilding year!"

That's it! 2011 here we come! When are the runoffs, September? Didn't it snow one year during the runoffs???