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| Unfortunately, qualifying didn't go so well for us. I'm anxious to get another crack at it and show the speed we have in our car. |
Lime Rock marked the first ‘standard’ length race of the season, at 2 hours 45 minutes, for the ALMS (although there are actually only 3 standard length races on the 10 race schedule!), and it would also be the first time this year that my co-driver Henri would start the race while I would bat clean up. While I had the closer job when I raced a Cayman S in Grand-Am in 2010, I was got accustomed to starting again last season, so waiting around for the action to get underway at the start of the race is pretty novel experience for me.
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| On a brighter note, we talked this pretty lady into being our umbrella girl. She also happens to be my fiancee, Teri, which made it easy to convince her. |
This time around, it did not take long for the action to heat up, as Henri got embroiled in GT traffic right away, and shuffled down the order as he was pushed out onto the wrong bit of track. Once traffic spread out enough, he quickly began making up ground. With the help of some attrition amongst the leaders, we were promoted to 5th spot, as Henri caught and started battling with John Bennett for 4th, one of the 2011 champions.
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| The autograph line at the Dempsey Racing trailer is always long and always full of women! They are there mostly, of course, for Patrick, but if they leave the race as fans of the team that's what makes us happy. |
After being knocked off the road once while attempting a pass, Henri eventually made it stick, eventually moving up to 3rd, but the progress was all halted when a coming together with a Corvette while lapping GT traffic knocked our car off track. Somehow, the damage incurred was all superficial. Any additional stop under green at Lime Rock is guaranteed to cost you at least 1 lap, if not more, so Henri soldiered on, although we did lose a couple of laps during a slow pit stop later on.
