Being required by the series to get out of the car during fueling made for a nice treat because I was able to stretch my back out, but when strapping back in my radio earbuds became disconnected. One of the few things that kept my concentration up during the race was the constant lap-by-lap radio notification of my times. Without it, I began to feel like I was doing endless circles, unsure of when the race would finish. Starting to get hot and uncomfortable, driving a tired car on hockey pucks, it was taking every ounce of my strength and concentration to keep the thing at speed. The lap times certainly reflected this, as I began dropping off quickly from the 31s and 32s to the 33s and 34s.
And then, with an unknown amount of time left, the entire crew appeared at the wall with a sign that said "GO!" I felt my heart lift and my mind freshen, my adrenaline started pumping again and I got the second wind I needed. It was time to push as hard as I could - obviously, something was up if the entire team was at the wall.
With only one lap to go, I saw the limping Orange Viper. As I raced up the back straight, trying to catch it, I hit traffic in front of me and never before had I felt like punting a car off the road like at that very moment. When I finally got around it, I started to chase the Viper down on the front straight and that's when I noticed the checkered flag. I crossed the finish line just three seconds behind the thing. I pulled up next to him to give him thumbs up when I heard the V-10 stumbling and burping, clearly without a drop of fuel left. The Viper couldn't even make it back to the pits, it had to be towed in.
We had been beat by less than a liter of fuel. Had they run out sooner, we would have driven right by them and won the overall race. It also turns out they lost all clutch control and were stuck in fourth gear, so the car had been limping around 15 seconds off the pace for some time. If only there were a few more laps in this race, if only we had driven just a bit harder. But that's when we all realize that we also won. We won because on this particular weekend, we met and exceeded every goal we set out to accomplish, we qualified first in class, won our class (GT2), had a great time, met an incredible gentleman from the other side of the world. Not often does a race go so well, does a car work so well or do you get to be in the presence of such great guys, all fighting for the same thing. That's what racing is all about, whether at an amateur level, pro or anywhere in between.