I wasn’t looking forward to NASA Northeast’s Pocono Grand Slam. Both course configurations, which predominantly use the Pocono NASCAR superspeedway, favor high horsepower cars. There is no horsepower limit in the Super Unlimited class, and I don’t have the biggest motor of the regular SU cars. However, the weekend didn’t turn out bad at all!

The weather both days was ideal. Saturday started with the usual practice session, and I ended up qualifying on the pole for the double infield race with a lap of 1:33.968 — breaking the track record! In the race, I was passed at the start by my teammate, Mike Cohen. I then overdrove the entrance to the south course trying to catch him and had to take the escape road. I re-entered 4th place in class, and raced my way back up to a 2nd place finish. Click here for Saturday’s race results. Mike holds the race race track record with a 1:34.135.

The Sunday single infield race was even more interesting. I started second behind Mike and he left me at the start. I ended up doing battle with a red ARCA stock car with 800hp. We exchanged the lead several times, including once when I had an offtrack excursion while passing lap traffic entering devil’s elbow. Mike exited the race due to mechanical problems, leaving the stock car and I to battle for the class and overall win. I end up passing the stock car going into the infield and then take it 3 wide to lock him behind lap traffic and drove away for the win. Click here for Sunday’s race results. My best lap was a 1.25:485, missing the race track record by .046 seconds!

In-car video from both races is on the Videos page.

The weekend turned out pretty good after all. I was competitive, the car is in 1 piece, and I kept my lead in the NASA Northeast championship.

Next stop is the Mid Ohio Sports Car course in August.