Qualifying: 3rd Race 1: 2nd Race 2: 1st Race 3: 1st
Last weekend kicked off the 2018 season for the QDB Racing team, and we were ready after a long off-season. Following our arrival at Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR) late on Friday night, all the operations started early Saturday morning. The team quickly checked over the car, tires, and fuel load before sending Quentin onto the track for his morning qualifying session. Twenty minutes later, Quentin had easily refamiliarized himself with the PBIR circuit, and finished the session without issue. Unfortunately, there were timing issues during the session, so lap times from everyone were estimated by drivers themselves. This unique method put Quentin 3rd in class to start the Saturday SARRC race.
A few readjustments to the car and the team was prepared for the race. Quentin was able to fly into the lead on lap one, however this wouldn’t last long. A couple laps later, he was dismissed to 2nd position. There was some battling for the lead, but ultimately Quentin had to settle for 2nd after his car started acting up. Back under the tent, the team found that the cars right rear tire was running on cords. This was eventually traced to a failing wheel-bearing on the same corner. With these facts in mind, the team were fairly happy that Quentin managed to hold on to his 2nd place finish.
For Sunday the team had fitted the car with a new set of Hoosier tires, a new wheel-bearing, as well as a slightly different set-up. As the on-track action began, the team were confident that the car would be in great shape for the first race of the day. Some confusion from the officials on the grid eventually led to Quentin starting the race in 2nd, where he had finished the previous days’ race. Everyone got off to a clean start, with Quentin maintaining 2nd position. A lap later, he was in hot pursuit for the lead. A clean pass at the end of lap two saw Quentin move up into the lead. Lap after lap, Quentin was able to open the gap. Quentin kept this up and finished well over five seconds ahead of the 2nd place finisher. The race also saw Quentin set the fastest lap of the weekend. You can watch the entire race yourself here:
When the team got back to the tent, Quentin explained that the car felt much better. However, he complained that the car was driving slightly funky which may have been the alignment. The team quickly got to work and re-aligned the car for race two. Since all the gen 3 SRF’s didn’t run the 2nd race, Quentin was slated to start 2nd overall. However, the pole-sitter had car issues and so Quentin started the race in pole position. The start went smoothly, and Quentin copied what he had done in race one. He was able to pull away from the entire field and finish 1st with a big margin behind him. We couldn’t be happier with the race weekend. Quentin snatched a 2nd place and two wins! We would like to thank Duane Neyer Motorsports for giving us outstanding trackside support, as well as our sponsors In-Gear Design and Venturi Motorsport Management for their continued support to the QDB Racing team. Also a thank you to all the other QDB Racing supporters and the SCCA volunteers who make the races possible!
