**** GUEST BLOG – BY KEVIN LAWRENCE ****
FD Atlanta was honestly a full week that went by in the blink of an eye it seemed.
Tuesday we had an early start leaving our Enjuku Racing HQ after and all-nighter of putting the finishing touches on my car and knocking out a last minute alignment on Nate’s car. We rolled out just as the sun came up on Tuesday morning with Road Atlanta as our destination. After a brisk few hour nap in the back seat of our tow rig with Nate piloting the first half of the trip, I awoke just as we hit the GA state line. Our trip up included a quick stop to help our fellow Enjuku Racing teammate Savanna Little with a tire blow out on her trailer and a pit stop at Summit Racing to pick up some last minute forgotten things we didn’t grab from the shop. But after a tiresome 9.5 hour trip we made it to Road Atlanta where we unloaded the cars for a quick photoshoot for our new car and livery release and our technical inspection before making it to our hotel and crashing out for about 10 hours.
Wednesday we all woke up well rested and ready for the day, We had some setup to do in the pits with our friends from Fortune Auto. They brought their trailer with awning to let us use for the weekend as our home base. After that was setup it was time for Nate, Josh, and Myself to get our Faces of Konig interviews shot which I feel went really well and will be out soon!
Thursday! The day I have been waiting for, for a long time. It was finally the day I would get to drive Road Atlanta! I got all suited up for practice with a huge grin on my face as I was super pumped on this track. After a few laps in practice I realized that this track was way more technical than I was expecting. We stopped for a few minute break as the rain had started to take a breather and make some adjustments to my car’s nitrous controller to get more of a hit out of it and sooner as I was struggling to put a solid run together thus far. After our adjustments the car was performing exactly how I wanted to but I myself was having issues setting the entry up on the track. After both our practice sessions had finished I had a huge weight sitting on my shoulders as I had yet to complete a run that I felt would have landed me a qualifying position. First run of qualifying I finally got what I had felt to be a decent entry to the first turn. Ran up to the top of the hill and through the horse shoe but on the transition back down the hill. The car had a hickup and I was unable to get it back into boost to complete the run, and due to a big straightening I was given a zero for that run. On the second qualifying run, with even more weight on my shoulders it was now do or die. I threw the car in for the entry got it up the hill and with some very excessive clutch work I made sure the car was in boost and got myself back down the hill and through the finish line. This run was enough to net me a score of a 64 and place me in 10th place qualifier for the main show on Friday.
Friday. We showed up to the track well rested and with a clear mind. We watched the Pro1 class practice and qualify before it was our turn for practice. I got an additional 5-6 practice runs in and felt great. I had my entry dialed in and my line was coming together towards the end of the practice. Going into battle with the intel my spotter gave me from watching practice, I knew that Doug was pretty fast up the hill but was having some issues on entry. I was advised to give him a bit of space on entry and then give it all I got going up to the top of the horseshoe. On the entry I gave Doug a bit too much space and really had to play catch up, I hammered down up the hill with a bit more of a shallow line than Doug to make backup lost distance from entry. Upon charging up to the top of the hill Doug had an issue that caused him to bobble a bit just before the top and he wasn’t able to dive into the horseshoe as fast as normal, by time I realized this it was too late and we made contact just as we entered the horseshoe. After a few seconds of getting the cars back in traction I heard Doug rev his car to try and continue the run and at that point I dropped the clutch in my car expecting him to be back on line but after our initial contact his car was knocked out of gear. I made contact again this time the impact on my car was mostly all on my left rear wheel. The contact damaged quite a bit of parts on my car but I was able to end the run by limping the car back up to the start line. Unfortunately due to the damages from the contact we were unable to source all the parts needed in time to make our second run with Doug and he advanced to the Great 8.
Overall it was an awesome weekend that myself and the team learned a lot from. We will be back to 100% for our next round which is our hometown track in Orlando, FL. I hope to see a full house turn out for my home track and lets all hope for no rain this year!
