Season 1, 2020, Week 6, Legends , Lanier Raceplex

So after getting my first ever hard challenged runner up finish ( the first was in street stock at Lakeland, but I only got it because EVERY SINGLE CAR had crashed out in front of me. This one, in the legends '34 Ford , I started halfway in the field in 6th, and though I did receive some ( 9pt ) incident points in the first few laps ( all my fault, and it was rough.... not my proudest starts ) , I legitimately, in mid splits, passed four cars. If there was  ten more laps ( and that lapped car wasn't there ), I would have won the race.

Not sure why people care what split they are in. I mean, if you are in top splits, you are in the pack of the best cars. But really, if your not, your not, and you still have to race. So, I am not sure why I was mid split. I really don't care.

Regardless, I felt the best about this race then I have this entire time. I am actually learning how to go fast, for the first time. So , what did I do differently? Well, for starters, I freaking practiced. I went and found the fastest numbers and raced against it in practice.

The first session, I ran 90 laps, and could only get 23.1xx once. My average was 23.788 . The all time best was 21.1 , and though that was quite the difference, I just simply decided I wanted to go fast.
The next day, I ran 90 laps again, and get this shit..... I ran a 22.7 once and a average of 22.9 . I was excited about the fastest lap, but after the whole session, I can calculate my average on the last 20 lap stint and it was over a half second faster than the last time.

Next day, I practiced again. This time I did 60 laps, took a break and ran another 60 laps. Both times, we just a touched fast than before. The next day, I raced. First with two half hour open practice and then to the race.

Yeah, that is what I am going to do for now on. Practice, practice, practice, open practice, practice, race.

This week, it is the now abandoned Lanier Raceplex.

Lanier was a typical southern dirt track when it opened in 1982. Five years later the 3/8-mile oval was paved, and its moderately-banked wide-open turns and fairly short straightaways made NASCAR-sanctioned Lanier National Speedway a good test for the track's weekly racing divisions, among them Pro Late Models, open-wheel Modifieds and Legends Cars.

Located across the highway from the Road Atlanta road course in Braselton, GA, in the track's heydays it was not unusual to find world renowned road-racers scattered among the throngs watching the intense racing at Lanier, no doubt wondering if they could hack it out there running wheel-to-wheel, lap after lap.

Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Michael Waltrip, David Stremme, Bobby Labonte and road-racer and occasional NASCAR driver Andy Lally all competed at Lanier before the track suspended its weekly racing program following the 2011 season. Lanier National Speedway was purchased by another road racer Jim Downing and renamed Lanier Raceplex in 2014. However, plans to reopen the facility as a race track/stadium concert venue have yet to bear fruit. In the meantime, iRacers can still race on a digital version of Lanier while waiting for the hills of Braselton to, once again, echo with the sounds of Georgia-style short track racing.

For now on, I am going to keep the times for the all-time fastest, and 25th all-time. This is just a damn number, so I am not going to feel bad when I can't even get a second close to it.

At lanier , the time range to shoot for is 14.377 - 14.622 . Tonight is tuesday.... I am going to practice five times. an hour each. Open Practice on Sunday, Race on Monday. The race week changes monday at 4pm, so I will more than likely not be tempted to race again,.... because I won't be able to.

UPDATE:
Tuesday I couldn't seem to go very fast. This track really requires a lot of slow down at the turn apex, especially at turn three into four. I got a 15.22 as my fastest and averaged about 15.5 . Not exactly an all-time record. I hadn't checked what top split was doing, but last night, on Wednesday, I practiced again and hit a 14.977 as my fastest and was averaging 15.211 . At the end of practicing , I ran a twenty lap straight stint with an average of 15.197 , and was being shown as third in a open practice session ( of twenty two cars ). This prompted me to race. yeah,... I am not that disciplined.
I qualified second and ran a no incident race finishing fourth. I could see the sun go behind the clouds in lap ten and could almost swear that five laps later I wasn't gripping the track as well. I am not positive this played a roll, but my setup was expecting a slightly warmer track then what we ended up with at the end ( I can't check track temp until after the race ). Still, I was very pleased with the results. Maybe oscillating days of practice and race is a descent plan? I am going to practice only tonight and race tomorrow and see how that turns out.
So far, week 6 of the Legends Series ( half way through the season ) and I am holding on to 24th in standings ( out of 4482 )