Skip Barber Midwest Race Series

Road America

September 9, 2004 Practice

The final race of the season is this weekend at Road America. There are four drivers left to fight for the championship. Revere Greist, Blake Yager, Winston De Wardt and Andy Rossetto. Revere controls his destiny. If he wins his first race he is the champion. The best Andy can do is to finish second but needs to finish first or second and get help from Blake and Winston by having each finish worse then 6th.

We arrived at the track Thursday morning for open practice and for the first time this year there was no rain in the forecast for the whole weekend. Andy was confident that he could do very well at his home track. He knows the course and only Revere has more laps on it. From the start of practice Andy's driving was the best so far this year. He took control from the beginning and was the fastest by far. By the end of practice he set a blistering lap time of 2:34.18. No one was even within a second of that time.

September 10, 2004 Practice

Friday was also a fine sunny day but much warmer than Thursday. Practice turned out to be a slugfest between Revere and Andy on who set the fastest lap times. It was back and forth between the two of them but the times were slower than Friday because of the warmer temperature. By the end of the day Andy just nipped Revere by .013 sec. Andy was first with a time of 2:34.817 and Revere clocked a time of 2:34.830. Obviously Andy felt pretty good by the end of the day and saw no reason of why he would not be the fastest all weekend. But tomorrow is another day, with qualifying in the morning and the first race in the afternoon.

September 11, 2004 Race 1

Andy was very upbeat for the Saturday morning qualifying session but was concerned about the warm temperature as he has a tendency to overheat the tires. So we planned two sessions of 3 laps per session. Andy would go out and push as hard as possible for the first 3 laps then come into the pits momentarily to cool his tires and then go out hard again for a final time. For the first 3 lap session Andy had the third best time. Not happy with that time he went out with determination and on the second lap he set his bet time of 2:34.674. Then Winston came out of nowhere and got the pole with a time of 2:34.395. Revere was 3rd, and Blake 6th, but he had a broken thumb on his left hand.

The field was set for the first race and for the first time this year, no rain tires. As the green flag drops Andy, Revere and Winston go 3 wide in turn one with Revere taking the lead. This battle goes on for the whole race. By turn 5 Blake joins the group and all 4 are now fighting for the lead. The battle is intense as at every turn after the long RA straights; turn 1, turn 5, Canada Corner, and turn 14, a new driver drafts by for the lead. Even though they are good friends between races, there is no cooperation between them on the track. No one wants to give an inch to the other driver.

On the final lap going in turn 5, Andy is in fourth place with Blake in the lead. Andy did not want to lead on the last lap but did not want to be fourth either. To move up in the standing he needed to move in front of both Winston and Blake. Starting at turn 7, Andy was determined to move up and started pushing as hard as he could move forward. Coming out of the Kink he got by Winston as Revere moved past Blake at Canada Corner. Then at turn 14 Andy and Winston both go by Blake. Revere wins, and locks in the championship, with Andy second and Winston third. This was the best race of the year by far, amateur or professional. Andy achieved his goal to finish in front of Blake and Winston. This should secure third place in the standing. With a win tomorrow and a bad placing by Blake even second place is possible.

September 12, 2004 Race 2

In the second race Andy started second with Revere on the pole. As in the first race the battle began right away at turn one as all 4 drivers tried to outbreak each other at the end of the long straight. This exciting competition went on until the very last lap. With Andy in the lead across the stripe he knew that he would have to push hard and make no mistakes. Going in turn one Revere and Blake tried to go to deep to catch Andy, thereby ruining their exit speed.

"I saw Revere and Blake in my mirrors going side by side into the turn. Right away I thought this was my opportunity to get away by pushing as hard as possible and get a lead. Coming out of the turn the rear end slipped a bit but there was no way I could lift. As they over slowed to make the turn I knew I had it. All I needed now was a clean lap and get the win."

Andy did run a perfect lap and got the win by a pretty good margin compared to Saturday's race. After another exciting race Andy ran a one hour enduro, for fun, with Blake's brother Michael Yager. The race required 2 stops, one for fuel an another for a drivers change. Each driver had to drive at least 15 minutes. They had a little problem with the driver change and finished second. This has been a great end to Andy's season, finishing with a second and a win. This weekend he was the class of the field, confident, fast, and aggressive. Most important he knew he was capable of winning and if you believe in yourself the outcome is a little easier.

After the race, Skippy held the annual banquet at Siebkins. It was great fun as the boys bench raced and reminisced the weekend all over again. Finally Andy received the third place cup for the season, Blake was second, and Revere the championship.