I'm finally home from southern Georgia. Man, that is a long drive to only be two states away. The event was awesome considering the weather swamping most of the Southeast. Luckily, it didn't rain at all during the tour. FSP was a war. First off, thanks a ton to Jason for flying out and co-driving with me. He had a little trouble getting used to the car and only got 3 short, low speed practice runs in it before competition. He still had some fast times in the event, but getting into the trophies required some bonzai runs with a little luck on top. I learned a few things about the car this weekend and Jason helped me put together a few ideas to try on it. Saturday didn't start off that well for me. I don't remember hitting 3 cones on my first run, but that is what it says. The scratch time was still good and I think most of the other top runners spun out. Run #2 was where things started getting exciting. Jinx coned a high 49 second run and I pulled a clean 49.7. Zimmer was right behind me, in run order and time, with a 49.9. I knew we were going to be close but this was a little more than I expected. Jinx goes out in his third run and just lays out a scorcher 49.1, but I was behind him on course so I didn't know what his times were until I finished. I was right with him with a 49.3, but I coned it and Zimmer did the same thing right behind me. That left me sitting in 2nd after day one .6 behind Jinx. Day 2 was even crazier. Jinx had cone trouble on run 1. I decided it was time to put up or shut up and laid down a clean 48.2 which no one could touch until Neal Tovsen (co-driving Zimmer's Rabbit) came out of nowhere with a 46.9. At least 20 people in the immediate area where I was at in grid said "Holy s***!" all at the same time. Neal was a half second behind on Day 1 so I knew I still had a chance to come out on top if I could just get into the low 47s. Jinx got a 47.7 dirty on run two and I came in with a 47.4 that put me back into the lead by .008. At that point it was a 4 horse race between me in 1st, Neal .008 back with Jinx and Zimmer still looking for clean runs. Neal went out on his 3rd run and shocked everyone again by taking off another half second for a 46.5. Jinx put in another hero run to take over 2nd place with a 47.8, but I was unaware and had already decided that my race was with Neal. It was spin it or win it time. I was pushing at 110% through the first few turns and had a good little slide coming out of the first sweeper which spooked me a bit since there was a wall of cones on the outside and I knew the back of the car got real close. That got me a little out of sequence for the next little slalom, but it didn't feel like it cost me any time. I nailed the kink right after and got on the gas early for the next set of offsets which I took WOT. There was a little 3 cone wiggle at the end of that section, but I got in a little too deep and the lost the rear of the car under braking. I gathered it up pretty quick, but I couldn't get turned back in time and tapped the last cone with my front tire. I knew at that point that 1st place wasn't for me so the rest of the course was an attempt to see just how fast I could go. I did the big slalom on the backside of the course almost WOT with just a slight lift in the middle and I was almost on the rev limiter before I got the the last cone. That was about as close to nailing it as it was going to get. The last few offsets I took just a hair faster than my previous runs and came through the finish shaking my head. I knew how good it could have been, but the cones cost me. I had run the time I needed to run to win, 46.949, but had two cones. I left the event with 3rd place and some mixed feelings. I was happy with 3rd place and that I now knew the car belonged with the top of the FSP class. 12th in PAX made me smile pretty good too. I was dissapointed that I couldn't put it all together in the end, but I have to keep telling myself that it's just the beginning of a long season. I got tons of compliments on the car and it's performance which really made my weekend. She's tucked away back in the garage now waiting on a few little adjustments.