Ben Waddell: Wet & Wild Weekend

This weekend had some ups and some downs. Going in to weekend we were looking to have better pace as after CTMP we were pretty lost on setup. My whole JDX Racing team tested for two days starting from scratch. The test went very positive  so going in to this weekend we were confident we made some progress. In the first few  practice sessions we were off pace but we kept working and chipping away at setup. When it came to qualify, I was able to qualify P4 only 4 hundredths off P2. That was definitely a confidence booster going in to the rest of the weekend. Going in to Race 1 it just finished raining. The track was still very wet but the sun began to come out so we took the gamble to go on to slicks. On the warm up lap, I underestimated the conditions and made a rookie mistake and looped it sliding in to the gravel pit getting stuck. On the restart, I had to start from pit lane, but I just kept my head down and as the track got drier and drier, I worked my way up to P5. After another driver was disqualified, I ended up where I started, P4. It was a very crazy race.


Going in to Race 2, I started P7 as it was fully wet this time. During the race, cars were spinning off and it was becoming a yellow flag driven race. On the final restart I just tried to survive and bring home a 7th place when I was hip checked off into the gravel. Luckily, I was able to keep it going and not get stuck. By the time I rejoined the track, I was P12.

Race 3 was rough. I started P17 as I didn't get a good lap in in Race 2. We had good pace so I was able to work my way through the field getting up to P12. I then tried a move around the outside; it didn't work. Cars swarmed around, dropping me back to P15. After that I just stayed focused getting back up to P11 to finish just outside the points. 

Overall the weekend was positive, showing I had the pace to get back up front after Mosport. Conditions and mistakes didn't get us the result we wanted. 

Thank you again to all my supporters and special thanks to Andy Lally and MotorCrush for the support. Next race is VIR!

 

-Ben