DGFX West Series Final - COTA

COTA was the last DGFX West Series event before the East-West Championship at Road Atlanta and all our Green Team (Mikey and Dave) had to do was finish P4 or better to take the West Championship.

In practice, there were only 2 cars turning 1:59, Mikey and Black Adder Motorsports (BAM), with Mikey fastest, but in qualifying, the positions were reversed with BAM on pole with a 1:59.370 against Mikey’s 1:59.901. Our Yellow Team (Chuck and Kevin) were holding P3 until the very last lap and Club HAM inched them out by 0.003 sec ! Our GT Team (Andy and JC) qualified P6 with a 2:07.542 in GT3 and the starting positions for the 19-car field was set.

For Team Green, Dave started and filed into P2 going up the hill to T1 with Chuck right on his tail. Chuck got a better start than P3 and took the spot coming out of T1. From there, Dave and Chuck raced nose to tail until L16 when Dave got a little greedy and nip T19 by an inch. But, the black flag meant that Dave had to give up P2 on the S/F straight. About the same time, the leading GT3 Audi spun exiting T9 and their race was over – they simply quit. Their misfortune meant Andy picked up a position. In our C7s, Chuck and Dave settled in and started setting consistent 2:01-2:02, despite persistent traffic.

On L29, both C7s pitted; Kevin replaced Chuck and Mikey replace Dave and started cranking out 2:00-2:01, with an occasional 1:59, tracking Kevin down in the process. In our Audi, Andy was turning consistent 2:09-2:11, with a fast lap of 2:08.971. On L31, Andy handed the Audi R8 over to JC. By L44, Mikey caught Kevin and got him under breaking going into the tight left T12 just before the Stadium Section. On L58, JC bit a nipple going through the Esses, spun, and used the Armco to improve the driver's side aerodynamics while maintaining P6 GT3. On L60, Mikey sets the fastest lap of the race: 1:59.621. Kevin is turning solid 2:01-2:02, with their fast lap (L55) a 2:00.927, and firmly in P3. On L65, Andy jumps back in the Audi and starts lapping in the 2:09-2:11 range.

With 1 hour left, BAM is P1, vApex Green P2, Yellow P3, and they are the only cars left on the lead lap; vApex GT is in P7 (GT3). But, with BAM’s driver change, they’re now setting laps in the 2:02-2:03 to Mikey’s 2:00-2:01s. With a 1 min lead and an hour to go, it looked like it was going to be close a close finish. Kevin was not being challenged for P3.

With 10 min left, BAM pitted on L82 and when he comes back on-track, the lead was only 16 sec; but with only 2 min left and a Championship the priority, Mikey eases off and brings home the DGFX West Series Championship with a superb 2nd, Kevin takes third, and Andy get a fine P6 GT3 finish. To read more about the DGFX event, check out:

Nice job Mikey, Dave, Chuck, Kevin, Andy and JC – well done gentlemen! Now it’s off to the East-West Championship at Road Atlanta, November 19. Be there…