NASA Northeast had its first race weekend on May 30-31 at Pocono North.  It was a great weekend because over the course of 2 races I got my first pole position, got my first overall and class win, and broke the track laptime record and held that record for about 24 hours!

This was the first race weekend for the Mach-1 Performance racing team as I was joined by Mike Cohen, my teammate who ran SCCA Pro Racing events last year but is running all NASA events this year.  We both race in the Super Unlimited class and our cars are very similar, although Mike has a 800bhp, 10,000 RPM race motor in his car (that’s about 2oobhp and 2000 RPM more motor!).

The weather and track conditions were perfect both days.  After a lackluster performance at the Watkins Glen test in early May, I didn’t have much hope of competing with my teammate. Fortunately, Johnny Coy made some great setup changes at the shop between the races and the car was hooked up.  

I qualified on the pole position for the Saturday race with a laptime of 0:52.848 (102.180MPH), which also set a NASA NE track record (although technically track records only are set during races, it was the fastest recorded lap in NASA NE qualifying or racing at Pocono North).  My teammate started second used his horsepower to pass me at the start and took the win with me finishing second.  Race results are available here.

On Sunday, Mike broke my track record in qualifying with a laptime of 0:52.536 (102.787MPH) and started on pole with me starting second.  I chased him for about 3 laps and then Mike crashed out of the race due to a mechanical problem with his power steering pump.  I then paced myself and took an easy win (my first!).  I would rather have earned the win against Mike on the track, but I’ll take it!  Race results are available here.

Next event is in 3 weeks at New Jersey Motorsports Park’s Lightning track.