This past weekend was a wild weather weekend at Road America! I was there with Forbush Performance for our SRO double-header, and one thing was for sure: we were unsure what the weather was going to do hour by hour. Our practice day as well as the following day’s qualifying and race one had continual mixed conditions, ranging from a drying track to a dampening track to full-on rain. And, of course, we had everything in between!
The weather really challenged the drivers, who had to not only learn the rain line, but also become comfortable with putting the car in places on the track that are different than the usual spots. Matt Forbush didn’t even get any dry laps until the race, which is really a challenge because you’re adapting to the growing performance potential of the car during the actual race.
Luke Rumberg & Caleb Bacon each had podium results this weekend in the Touring Car field. Although Caleb had a heartbreaking tire puncture on the FINAL LAP of Race 2 while running 3rd, he retains the points lead going into Watkins Glen.
We actually had beautiful weather on Sunday, with a dry, consistent racetrack for race two. I was very pleased with the performance from both the car and the drivers as we had our best collective results for the season. They accomplished that in the midst of the largest GT4 field that we’ve seen all year—there were just shy of 40 cars on the grid!
With the shifting weather conditions, it was important for the team to stay focused on the individual goals that were set lap to lap, session to session, and day to day, and not get overwhelmed by all of the variables that we couldn’t control. We put together a plan for every run and tried to execute it to the best of our abilities. Sometimes it went better than others because of the constantly-changing situation, but ultimately, the team persevered, and the results clearly show the team’s performance. Not only that, but Forbush Performance loaded up a clean race car after a very challenging weekend.
The second half of the SRO season is in full swing, and I’m excited to head to Watkins Glen with the team in just a couple of short weeks.