Haha, thanks John, I would love to. Growing up as a twin, my brother and I spent a lot of time together, we went through alot as young kids battling poverty and in order to cope with it you spend alot of time talking, and I think you develop a very unique relationship in that situation and learn how to communicate effectively. In that situation I think you learn to analyze and appreciate an experience in great detail and then communicate that back with extreme precision. I get very excited and passionate about racing; like you and all of the other guys on this forum, and so we are able to connect with one another in a much more "intimate" way as long as we are comfortable doing so. I actually find myself holding back alot here, because it's a challenge sometimes to read what some people say and extract out what they "meant" versus what they actually "wrote." With that I am very passionate about articulating exactly what I mean in a way that can be interpreted in no other way but how I meant it. I am passionate about truths in motorsport that are often overlooked and/or discounted. I need to share those truths with people. I also love watching other awesome drivers control their cars on the limit like a ninja wielding a sword; and look at up and coming drivers as they develop like young children learning to walk. I like to talk about my experiences and share them with our community, and enjoy reading what other people write about, detailing their own experiences. I wish people did it more to be honest.

So anyway, yeah, back to the challenge. The rear tires had given up late in the 2nd to last run vs. Campbell. I crossed the line and found my brother looking at me and following my car as I slowed down to circle the back of the timing trailer. Our eyes tracked locked on one another as I slowed; I could tell he was waiting to verify what the gap was to Campbell. The audio came by and he verified to me, he raised 2 of his fingers and motioned, confirmed I had a 2 tenths lead going in to the final run. I could feel his will for me to win, but knew that he was also staying calm and even keel so that he wouldn't get me too emotional and detract from my focus. It was a mental battle; you have to keep enough emotion and acknowledge the situation that you are in, in order to stay focused, while walking the line of not getting lost in the moment. More deep breaths and snap to attention, ignore the crowd, put the fact that this is it-the final run- to the back of your mind, just eyes ahead and focus on the lights. Delete everything from your brain. All that matters is just hitting the light. You have the timing down, just do the same thing you just did, the same thing you have been doing.

I launch, glance over - .6xx light - ok, let's go - I take the first slalom easy because the car was super loose. In the far left corner of the course I come around the sweeper and the rear of the car starts to let go, the rears just had enough. I counter steer and then fronts go, I never felt anything like that to date on Hoosiers; the fronts also completely overheated and felt like they were rolling over on to the rim, now in to a 4 wheel slide. In that millisecond I said "Nick, you need to calm down." And so I did. I fixed the slide, got the car back online and hit my marks, focusing on smooth controlled aggression like my previous runs and mitigating inside wheelspin out of the showcase sweeper. I nailed it, but in the drag race back across the course I hit fuel starve. "f@#k" I thought. "Nick, calm down." The fuel starve occurred just before the braking zone in to the final double box sweeper- didn't lose much time from the starve. Rotated my head, found the apex cone and first slalom pointer cone, fed in the throttle and snaked it through.

Through the finish. That's the moment where everything goes quiet and you look over at the crowd. You know there are two things you are going to see, the crowd jumping, hands in the air, the screaming cheers - or the respectful condolences of getting so close. Again, I immediately found my brother, and saw him jump up and scream. And then everyone else jumping and screaming. And then I knew. What a moment. ...

Immediately I found Campbell and got out of the car to shake his hand on an amazing battle. I then turned to a swarm of friends and hugs. I hug my brother, I hug Justin. From there it was me battling to keep the raw emotion back. It was very special.


Ya know, we aren't battling for an FIA world championship. But I tell you what, there is nothing better than what we all do on the weekend, whether it's solo, TT or w2w. Win or lose, having the balls and courage to fight and take whatever outcome that comes your way takes a special person. And that's the kind of person that real racers are. I like those kinds of people.

That's it, I unloaded it. That's what happened. That's what it was like.

Nick
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Congratulations Nick! I just wished I had stayed to see it. I loaded up and started the long tow home after the class runs were over. I was frustrated by a crappy performance and knew I had a long drive and a bunch of work waiting for me. A storm knocked down a huge tree at my house while I was in NJ. Your account of the experience of winning the challenge was great. Way to go! You deserve it! Steve