This is my fastest lap (1:31.180) from my first competitive track event. It was a time trial race, and it had much more similarity to wheel to wheel racing than I had expected. The qualifying session is identical. You line up by qualifying position, go out in a line behind a pace car, green flag rolling start, etc. The goal of a TT race is best lap time rather than track position, but either way you're trying to gain on the cars ahead of you (equals faster lap time! Also drafting!) and avoid being overtaken yourself. The main difference is just that you don't fight over it when another car reaches you. But they've still got to be faster than you in order to get there!

Being my first TT event and driving a Miata, I fully expected to qualify in the slower race (TT1). But my qualify time actually put me in 7th position in TT2 between a Ferrari 550 and a BMW. The top 3 positions were full on race cars. I wondered what the heck I was doing there!

To my amazement, I was able to more or less stay with the Ferrari and pull away from the BMW in every race. I gained on the Ferrari in the turns, and as long as I could stay in contact, I could draft his 478hp car on the straights. During each of the 3 races, I eventually made a mistake and lost contact within a couple of laps though. On my own with nobody to draft, I was able to get close to his lap times, finishing as close as 0.399s behind the Ferrari.

I qualified 7th and finished 7th. All I really cared about was that I'd participated in an actual track race, did not make a fool of myself, and did not wreck the car (though I did dodge other competitors spinning out in close proximity twice).