Two SE30s (Robert Schmitt and Tom Tiede) took the greens at Autobahn this weekend. Unfortunately, Kyle Burkhardt’s car was totalled at MidO two weeks prior, and our fourth driver, Rob Rhodes, suffered a pretty good fall from his bike laning him on the PUP list for the weekend.
But, hey–two cars makes a race!
It was hot and the drought conditions in the MW made for some scarry moments for many cars over the weekend. Several grass fires claimed parts or all of cars.
On Saturday, Tiede qualified on the SE30 pole, but was almost 2 secs off the pace we set in the cooler April weather earlier in the year. Schmitt was back on track for the first time since and was about 2 secs off Tom’s pace. The 40 min race saw Tiede take the lead from the start, and extended it to about a half lap by the end of the race. Scmitt did a nice job of negotiating the SMs and 944s to get his third start toward his provisional.
On Sunday it was clear that Schmitt had knocked the rust off as he was just tenths off Tiede’s qualifying pace. With that confidence, Schmitt did a fantastic job negotiating a HC car in T1 so as not to let Tiede get a quick get away. Schmitt pushed Tiede for about 8 laps before a coolant pressure drop forced him to park it.
Overall a great weekend despite attrition in the ranks. We were introduced to another future racer–Rich Friman. He’s just a cage and comp school away from joining us!