Lime Rock National
Mark Carpenter – F-Production Class Competition

The Lime Rock National presented by Safety-Kleen Products was next up on the schedule for Team GGS Racing. Being my home track, I was very confident about racing in my first National at Lime Rock.

The weekend began with rain on Friday for qualifying; however, the rain stopped shortly before our first session. By the time we had gotten on track, the surface of the track was drying up quickly. I went out on slick tires as a result and placed the GGS Racing Acura on pole in F-Production by the end of the session. The second qualifying session was dry and sunny conditions. The car did not handle as well as I had hoped in full dry conditions. As a result, we were 3rd fastest in the second session and would start 12th overall and 3rd place in FP.

Race day on Saturday was also dry with sunny conditions - perfect racing weather. After the handling issues during the last qualifying session on Friday, we made some much needed chassis changes. The race got off to a good start and the GGS Racing Acura seemed to be handling better during the first part of the race. The second place car in F-Production lost a motor around the midpoint of the race, bumping us to second in FP. Towards the end of the race, the handling started to fall off again, so I settled in to a decent pace, finishing 2nd in F-Production.

The weekend went well. Overall, I was happy to finish 2nd in only our second race. The car is in the development stage, so the handling issues are to be expected initially, and the car will only get faster as the season progresses.