I flew into Cleveland late Wednesday night and got a look at the track, which was a pretty challenging layout. The Super Spec buggies were merged with the 21.5 stock buggy class for the week because of some low turnout.
Thursday was practice and the 21.5 buggies got their own practice sessions every hour, so I used it to dial in the motor and getting the gearing dialed in. I struggled to keep up with the faster buggies bit kept working with some of the guys in my pit and even got advice from some of the Team Associated factory drivers I'm attendance.
Friday was seeding the first two rounds of qualifying. Round 1 of seeding was marred by my electronic speed control shutting itself off because the tape holding it down came loose and bumped into my power switch. The marshal was able to get it secured and I finished my run but I was well down the order.
Round 2 was only slightly better and I ended up seeded 14th overall with the stock buggies, which put me in the first heat for qualifying.
There were 5 rounds of qualifying, 2 Friday and 3 Saturday. I made progressive changes to my car with each round, and made improvements with each run though my speed didn't get to the level of the faster drivers.
Sunday I started 6th in the B-Main. I rolled in the second turn after passing a couple cars off the start. I worked on turning consistent laps the rest of the race and finished where I started, but finished with my best run of the week.
I want to thank a lot of people that played a part in my experience this week.
Thanks to Matt and Colton Brienzo who pitted across from me for charging my batteries, thanks to Lee Setser from Team Associated for helping me with adjusting my car, and thanks to Scotty Ernst for putting on an outstanding event and helping me work through my first major race. Also thanks to Scotty for surprising me with the 2nd place plaque from the Super Spec class even though it wasn't officially run.
