Skip Barber National Championship

Road America

August 19-20, 2005

We have finally discovered the secret on how to win races, invite Tony Coello. Every race that Tony attended last year and this year Andy has won. Now we have figure out how to get Tony to all the races. Tony and Andy go all the way back to Andy's start in racing, beginning with the Jolly kart then moving to Fox and Birel.

This has been a perfect weekend for Andy and certainly his most successful. The achievements have been tremendous; on the pole for both races, new qualifying track record with a time of 2:31.775 sec., new race track record of 2:32.710, third place with fast lap in race one and a win in race two. Road America has always been a special place for Andy. This is Andy's home track and where he collected two wins and a second place last year in the Skip Barber Regional. This year 2 wins and a 3rd place in the Skip Barber National Championship. The track is close enough that family and school friends come to cheer and give him extra motivation to do well. As usual the races at Road America are super competitive with 2 or 3 passes for the lead before they get to start/finish line. This weekend the war was between Jordy Vorrath and Cole Nelson. With Andy they were the only 3 drivers to reach the podium for the two races. The 3 drivers battled each other for the lead every lap for ten laps. All 3 tested strategies throughout the race to figure out the best method to take the lead on the last lap. One little mistake moved them from the lead to 3rd place.

In the first race, held late in the afternoon with a hot track, the car lost grip and had a huge over steer coming out of the corner. Andy had to constantly correct to keep the car on the track especially through the Carousel and the Kink. In the last two laps he started getting tired with fighting the car and started to make small mistakes. Paul Albert started charging from 4th place and Andy made a commitment on the last lap to finish in 3rd place.

For the second race we made a change to reduce the over steer. Thinking the conditions would be the same since the race was also in late afternoon. The change helped enough that Andy was able to keep the lead for the last 2 laps. Even though Cole Nelson was fighting very hard at every turn to take over the lead. In the last lap Andy went a little too deep into Canada Corner exiting the turn too wide and loosing momentum. Cole was barreling down into turn 14, the last turn, trying to out brake Andy. Moving to the inside he went to deep. Out braking Andy is usually a futile attempt because he brakes deeper than most drivers. Coming out of turn 14 Andy was perfectly positioned to make a good exit, while Cole by going wide lost momentum and traction. With a better exit out the corner Andy was able to draft by and keep the lead up the hill to the finish line nipping Cole by .033 sec. This has certainly been a dream weekend for Andy getting a win in front of all his fans.