ThursdayWe arrived early Thursday morning at the load in lot near the Lakeshore in downtown Toronto. We were ushered into our paddock spot fairly promptly and spent most of the day getting set up and Austin’s car ready to rock for early Friday Morning.FridayWe had a very early start as we were the first class on the track at 9am for our only practice of the weekend. Austin was in good spirits, we didn’t have any of the anxiety going in like we did last year. He was much more comfortable this year as we hit the track and I feel that had a lot to do with our revised crew this season. Austin had a pretty good practice. He showed a lot of maturity by progressively going faster each lap. On a track as tight as this, one mistake can cause catastrophic damage. So many of Austin’s competitors found this out the hard way.A few hours after practice we were back on track for a short (25mins) qualifying session. With Almost 40 cars on track, finding open space to lay down your fastest lap would prove difficult. The already short session was made shorter still by a couple of full course cautions. Austin did a great job, despite all of the challenges qualifying 5th in class and an amazing 12th overall and setting a personal best around the track by a big margin.Later on in the afternoon we had race #1 of the weekend. 39 Radical’s took to the track and from lap #1 Austin was on it. He had a great start and took off chasing the top four in his class trying to get into a podium position. A full course caution at the midway mark bunched up the field after Austin had gapped the cars behind by several seconds in the opening laps. On the restart Austin lost a position overall to a faster platinum car. This car is much faster in the straights but held up Austin for the rest of the lap in the twisty stuff. It was incredibly frustrating for him as this battle lingered on for the rest of the race. Austin would finish 5th in class and an amazing 10th overall . This would end our busiest day of the weekend. Our paddock spot was filled all day with fans, friends and supporters. It was just a brilliant atmosphere. I am so proud Austin performed so well!!!SaturdayWe were only on track once the whole day but that doesn’t mean we weren’t busy. Again we were deluged by fans, friends and supporters throughout the whole day. It was so busy at our trailer, I am so glad my wife Jennifer was able to attend to help me manage looking after people.When it came time to race again Austin was in good spirits and eager to get going. Originally the start was waived off but it seems Austin was one of the only ones that actually paid attention as he let several cars pass, only to be told on the back straight that we were indeed racing and the race was green. Unfortunately for Austin that same car that was hindering him on Friday was one of the cars that got in front of him on the false start and he spent the rest of the race passing and getting re-passed by the same guy even though the guy doesn’t race in his class. It was a very frustrating race. Austin still had a solid finish but could have finished much higher in the standings.SundaySunday saw our final race of the weekend in front of a massive crowd in the stands and most of the day at our trailer. We were actually the last Radical team to leave as we still had people at our trailer until after 6pmOn to the racing, Austin had his best starting position of the weekend just outside the top 10. Unfortunately the start did not go well. Austin’s row was slow getting away which caused a huge pile up in turn one. Austin incredibly was able to avoid the carnage but he did lose a bunch of spots doing so. The turn 1 chaos caused a very lengthy caution. On the re start Austin would start just inside the top 20, he made some spectacular passes during the next four laps only with another long caution to halt his progress. We would go green again with one lap to go. Austin would somehow avoid another wreck in front of him and also make another pass to almost get back to where he started. I am so proud of how Austin raced this weekend. He deserved a much better fate than he received. Thankfully Austin’s car looks just like it did when we pulled it out of the trailer on Thursday. After Sunday’s race there were at least 10 cars that suffered extensive damage. Without Austin’s skill behind the wheel it could have a much worse outcome.If you have ever wondered what it would like to be on board with Austin around the streets of Toronto, Here’s a couple of hot laps at maximum attack. It’s not for the faint of heart.
