Things couldn't have worked out better for the race. We tried some radical changes in the morning practice session, and they did not help at all. So we went back with our qualifying setup and just made a couple tiny changes for the race. It was exactly what the car needed.

Aaron (my co-driver) started out the race good and quickly moved into the lead. He was setting a very good pace and was able to open up a little gap to the cars behind him. After a little while one of the cars behind him got impatient and wanted to get to the front, so Aaron let him by and was content to follow in second. That car soon had to make a pit stop and Aaron took the lead back again. At around the 50 minute mark we got a caution and they made the call to put me in the car.

The team made a great pit stop and got me out in front of everyone else who decided to pit at that time too. So all I had in front of me were cars that were on a different strategy, once they all pitted I would be in the lead again. I ran a few laps and was able to make up a few more positions, but I was content to take my time and not rush anything. Then as I was following a couple of slower cars one of them decided to pull a stupid move on the car in front of him and both car went spinning right in front of me. They spun off to the right and I took evasive action in the grass to the left of them. But, the guy who initiated the wreck was obviously not a very smart person. Instead of locking down the brakes and stopping the car he let it continue spinning out of control. I caught a glimpse of it coming right towards me and all I could do was squeeze as close to the wall on the left as possible and try to avoid it. But, the idiot kept coming and hit me right in the side of the car. My right front wheel was destroyed but worse was that the alignment on the car was knocked way off.

I was able to limp the car around for a couple more laps and we got lucky with a full course caution. I was able to pit and have the car replace the broken wheel and fix the body so it wasn't rubbing against the tire. This wasn’t the only part of the problem though, the car was not handling well at all. It was vibrating severely and not turning very well. I was able to stay out for quite a bit longer, but in the end the sever vibration caused all of my wheel studs to break one by one. Until finally there was only one nut holding the wheel on. At that point the wheel was flopping around and the car was undriveable. So, I had to bring it in and retire from the race. After closer inspection I was pretty lucky that the wheel studs broke before the brake rotor did. When the crew jacked up the car and removed the wheel all the way the brake caliper was totally cracked in half. That would not have held up much longer either.

Once again, we had a very good chance of winning this race and just stupid luck caught us out. I wish it were at least something the team or I was doing wrong that we could fix, but it always seems to be something totally out of our control.

The team was especially down, because all three of the team cars were not able to finish the race. Both other cars were hit from behind and wrecked in seperate incidents. So, by the time the race was over the Kensai Team was packed up and ready to go.