We finished the Toledo ProSolo with another team victory, taking the top two spots in BSP. Hez took the win over me by 0.2 seconds for another close finish between us and gapping the rest of the class by 1.8 seconds.
Team Bumblestook - Toledo ProSolo - 6/12/2016
We arrived on site early on Friday to secure our paddock spot and unload. The course that was set up for this event was designed by Alex Jones and was probably one of the best ProSolo courses I've ever driven. It was very technical and had the right balance of fast and slow sections. For our morning runs of day 1, Hez pulled off some fast runs early with me sitting a distant 2nd by a crushing 1.8 seconds. By noon, the ambient temperatures had already risen to 94F and we were baking in the sun but the good news was that the rain we had in the forecast wasn't going to happen. Unfortunately, timing problems and a few car breakages caused the morning session to drag on until 3pm. Being in the last run group there was a chance we wouldn't be able to get done with our runs that day. Miraculously, the afternoon session went on at a much more normal pace and we got our last runs in. The course was getting grippier and Hez redlit most of his afternoon runs and didn't improve on his clean run. I was able to find about half a second but was still 1.3 seconds behind Hez and only 0.1 seconds ahead of Lee in 3rd coming into day 2.
In Grid - Day 1 - Toledo ProSolo - 6/11/2016
On day 2 of competition, the temperature was much more comfortable. The sun was out and temps were in the mid-70s. These were ideal conditions to go faster. Hez found another half a second and extended his lead back up to 1.8 seconds. After reviewing my videos from the day before I realized what I was doing wrong. This course required patience and I was doing everything wrong. I was trying to go too deep into the tighter sections, increasing distance and pinching myself in key spots forcing me to back off in places where I should be hard on the throttle. I also wasn't moving my head enough to spot the corner exit out of the 180 turns. I focused on looking ahead and nailing car placement for my runs. I found a good chunk of time on the left side course and got within 0.160 of Hez's fastest left side run and trailed him now by only half a second. On my final right side run, I was able to string the corners together much better and got to within 0.043 of Hez's right side run.
Getting ready to run - Day 2 - Toledo ProSolo - 6/12/2016
In the end, Hez still got me but I was happy to get out of my slump and close the gap. We had a solid 1, 2 finish, got much needed practice on concrete and more importantly, won 2 more Hoosier tires to complete the set we need for Nationals. Bumblestook survived yet another battle intact and we'll take the next few weeks to get her looked over for some much needed TLC.
Hez taking win #2 - Toledo ProSolo - 6/12/2016
We'll skip Wilmington next month and instead use those days to run the ProSolo Finale in August. Hez will be coming into the finale with 40 points, equal to the current BSP ProSolo points leader Anthony Porta in his Mazdaspeed Miata and I'm now tied with Tony Rivera in his 350Z for 2nd with 32 points so it'll come down to the finale to determine the overall ProSolo winner. It was a great weekend overall and we're looking forward to going to Lincoln, Nebraska for the ProSolo Finale and National Championship in a little over 2 months to try follow in the line of S2000s that have taken the BSP top spot in the country.
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