We endured some very poor weather conditions. Friday, all sessions were on a wet racing surface, some of the time with downpours. In the 10 lap Qualifying Race in the rain, and after another competitor was DQ'd from the top position (contact), I ended up in 4th. I don't really care for racing in these conditions, so I was quite happy with this.

Saturday, by the time the second Qualifying Race was held, we had a drying surface. All settings on the car were returned to the dry setup, and back to slicks. I bettered by one position and took a 3rd. The combined points from my 4th and 3rd finishing position (in my class) was good enough for an 18th overall slot in the Championship race, which was 2nd in my class, GTS/2. With all GTS classes combined, we had 48 cars slated to run the Championship Race. I know this is confusing... multi class road racing is difficult to understand!

Sunday National Championship:
We were the last race of the day, and by 4:00, Ike's presence was turning Mid Ohio into a shambles. The large group tents were all torn to shreds, 4 inch steel poles bent like pretzels in the sustained 50-60 mph winds.

When we took to the track on the pace lap, we had gusts up to 75mph, hell of conditions to run a road race! We are not supposed to have hurricanes in Ohio!

No long report... after tightly battling my closest competitor for the first 8 or so laps, I missed a shift on the long back straight at about 110mph, 4th to 3rd rather than to 5th gear!!! Zing goes the motor, but luckily it did not go kablamo! I did harm the power, and from that point, I could not battle for first place, he edged away. About three laps from the finish, I was struck hard by a faster GTS3 car at the turn following the back straight, further damaging my car, and now with severe tire rub on the right front.  I was fortunate enough that the 3rd place car was embattled with a group of cars, and did not catch me until midway through the last lap. I was able to hold off and block any attempts at a pass and crossed the finish line in 2nd place, limping and very, very thankful that the Hoosier tire held up and the Porsche motor survived!
 
We do have the opportunity to race in Indiana in October in the last race of our season, Putnam Park. I currently am in 2nd place in the lesser Great Lakes Regional Championship, trailing by just 30 points and have opportunity. We have yet to commit to racing there though.
 
Thank you all for your interest.

Regards,
Carl & Valarie Picelle

click to view 2008 National Championship race