The 2018 NASA Great Lakes Region race season kicked off with a bang at NCM Motorsports Park March 24-25. Or, should I say with a glub, glub, glub. Saturday saw a steady rain all day, giving those of us who have been off-track all winter a good excuse for spending a bit more time “off track.” I suppose it wasn’t so bad considering that there was snow, and lots of it, only a couple counties away, but after a few days of reflection, I stick with my post-race comments on Saturday that, “I’ve never been happier to see the end of a race and get out of a race car.” Note to self: When you spend 20 minutes before the race buffing the windshield, you should probably spend an equal amount of time buffing the inside of the wind screen. My glass fogged up about 4 seconds before the green flag, and that’s the last I saw of, well, anything.
The CMC race on Saturday saw Derek Wright running away from the field for an ‘easy’ win. Seems the secret weapon on Saturday was a bar of Dove soap, a rag, and some elbow grease, as Derek had no troubles with visibility and coasted, if that’s even possible in those conditions, to a win.
There was some excitement on Saturday, not that you could see it, as No. 67 Bob Denton found the Armco at the kink between Turn 4 and Turn 5 on lap eight. Bob was OK, and he managed to get parts tracked down and repairs made for the Sunday race.
Sunday’s race was a bit more typical for a CMC race, as pole was decided by a couple of tenths, fast laps were within one tenth, and, at least I could see Derek take the win at the checkers with a 2-second gap. Tim Bennett held off Bob for third place, and the No. 18 of Bryan White and No. 56 of Dan Majewski rounded out what was an uncharacteristically sparse CMC field. Any race report for the weekend needs to include the wonderful job done by the staff and safety crew at NCM, because they met every challenge seamlessly and with a smile. Nicely done!
