Another up and down day here in Puebla, but it ended on a positive as I moved up from 11th to take 5th in race 1 and keep my championship hopes alive for 1 more day. In the morning things started out with Qualifying for tomorrow’s race 2. It was a huge struggle as the car I am in this weekend just seems to have no speed. I spent the majority of the session stuck outside the top 15, before I laid down what felt like a perfect lap to get 11th. That’s the way things seem to be going here with perfect laps earning me 11th. Oh well.

The race was scheduled for 1:25 and for the first time in my career I was hoping for rain. Usually rain isn’t my thing, but I knew I didnt have near enough speed in the dry so I was ready to take my chances. Just before we went out it started raining lightly, not enough for rain tires, but definitely enough to make the track pretty slick. My start wasn’t very good as my car didn’t seem to pull off the line, but I managed to fight off a few people and hold my 11th position after the first corner. The first few laps were wild with the rain and everyone fighting for position, and I was able to make a bunch of smart decisions and actually move up into 5th position. For a while I had pretty good pace, but as the track dried I simply ran out of speed. Luckily I focused really hard on getting good exits, and was able to keep my position until the end. In many ways it was a good finish, as I am now only 19 points out of the championship, but realistically I need a win tomorrow, and starting from 11th, not to mention being down on outright speed, it seems like a big hill to climb. Who knows, maybe a big storm will blow through tomorrow and I might have the chance to do something in the rain.

One big positive for the day was I finished 17 laps, and raised $1088 for Right To Play. With one day left we should be able to get over $12,000 for the season. Amazing! Thanks to everyone for their support! Also a big thanks to everyone at VW, and VW Mexico who are hosting an incredible event down here. Everything is really top notch at the track.

Cheers,

Jake