NASA's Hyperfest @ Summit Point Raceway June 2008

Hi again, I'm back from the craziness that is Hyperfest. Hyperfest is an event run by NASA Mid Atlantic every year at Summit Point raceway. There is a lot more going on when compared to a typical race weekend, they have a car show, drifting, stunt bikes, rollover contest and much more. As far as racing goes I guess the only difference is the amount of people who register (we had almost 60 cars on track per race group) and the fact that this is a spectator event.

Saturday morning we were the first group on track at 8:00am. Practice went well but the track had some serious surface issues in turns 1,5,and 6. It seems that the repaving they did last year was getting chewed up and had some areas resembling rumble strips. The choice was to go way off line to avoid them or just try to drive right through it. By the time qualifying came around I felt OK at best on what the best line was. So I went out to qualify and was able get 2nd for the start, just behind the Hondaworks EK of Kevin Helms.

The race was a rolling start for this weekend so Kevin set the pace. I was cruising in 3rd gear but soon realized it may have been better to have started in 2nd. The green was out and off we went. Kevin got a couple lengths on me down the straight but I was able to brake later and keep it close. Kevin's car seemed to be faster from turn 1-5 range but I seemed to gain a bit back in the latter part of the track. After a few laps we started catching the back of the pack which consisted mostly of Miata's. Lap after lap there was lapped traffic, once we got through one pack we came up on another. Kevin was fast, he was able make his way through the traffic a bit better and hold onto his position for the win, I finished 2nd, just 2 seconds behind him. Overall I'm happy with 2nd and realize that had I done a few things differently I may have been able to take the win. I did however put down the fastest lap during Saturdays race with a 1:23.227.

Sundays race turned out to be a repeat of Saturday with exception for the fact that I had gotten back to Kevin's bumper only to miss a shift and fall right back out of the battle for 1st. I finished 2nd again.

Both days Kevin and myself were able to break away from the rest of the pack and set our own pace. I came out of the weekend feeling good about the race because IMO, Kevin Helms is the fastest H1 guy in the county and we are able to keep pushing each other to be faster and better racers.

Here is a link to my incar video of Saturdays race. Enjoy! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=679181782039811767