Sprint #2 (7/6/2019) - 45 Minutes - Portland International Raceway:
For the second sprint we decided to swap the order and have my dad start the race. He gets off to a good start, with the #987 Spiral Out Mustang and #39 SMRT Honda Civic ahead of him. The #12 Three Thieves Racing Mustang was putting some serious pressure from the very beginning, and made it by on the straight dropping us down into 4th place again.
Dave pits on lap 14 and I jump in the car. I'm in 10th, but a lot of cars still need to make their required pit stops and I'm working through traffic quickly. On lap 18 I get down to a 1:29.6 and get up into 7th place. Once I get up into 6th place, I am chasing our long time rival #13 Race Invaders in their Ecotec-swapped Miata. We have very similar grip levels and very similar horsepower, so it mostly comes down to who can get around traffic more efficiently. I chase them for many laps, occasionally being the car hung up, them occasionally being hung up, but I just can't quite get past them.
We catch up to the silver #333 BMW of Blue Bulls Racing. That car doesn't have quite as good grip, but has more horsepower, and they are desperate to hold onto their position. They are trying to make their car as wide as possible and holding both Race Invaders and myself up. Even with a good run off of the corners, the BMW has enough horsepower to slowly walk away from us on the straights but he knows we are right there. On the very last lap of the sprint we are coming up to turn 7, which is a very wide entrance to a sharp right-hander. If you are running a defensive line, you need to hug the inside, but the fastest exit speed comes from a wider line there. The BMW and Miata go to the inside, battling with each other, so I go wide trying to get a good run at them.
I get on the gas before the apex, track out nicely, and it is working. I have a good run on the Miata, although the BMW is still able to power away. But as I am catching the Miata, I see a dark Mustang ahead of us and they are not going nearly as fast. I back out of it, and pull behind the Miata to pass the Mustang on the left, as the normal line is to the right by the wall.
That's when I see the BMW decide they are going to try to squeeze between the Mustang and the wall even though the gap is too small! They better hammer the brakes!
Unfortunately.. they just stay in the gas, and slam into the Mustang and launching their car onto two wheels.
And with the scene unfolding in front of me, I am hard on the brakes watching as the horrific scene unfolds in front of me. The Mustang gets sent left, right into the Miata in front of me. I don't see any clear paths at this point and I know that our car is going to be absolutely smashed.
Right after impact the Mustang starts spinning, and I see a gap! I crank hard right, don't hit anything, and jump back on the gas again!
Definitely not a nice way to end a sprint race, but I'm extremely relieved that our car would still be racing the next day!