Qualifying: 2nd Race 1: 1st Race 2: 1st
As Thanksgiving came, it was once again time for the QDB squad to travel to Sebring International Raceway for the annual Turkey Trot event. We can’t thank the Central Florida region SCCA enough for putting on this amazing event every year. With hundreds of participants, it’s one of the biggest events we go to each year. This event also reminds us how lucky we are to be able to race. We are glad to be part of the SCCA community and are grateful for all the great people we have met in this community. We would also like to extend a special thank you to all of the SCCA stewards, corner workers, and volunteers for all of their hard work in making these awesome events run smoothly.
The team got to work preparing the car before the track action started. A fresh bath, some routine maintenance, and some set-up tweaks meant the Banana Boat (our nickname for the car) was ready for the racing to come. Quentin was a bit pre-occupied with studying for his final exams, although he was once again in full race-mode as soon as he got in the car and put his helmet visor down. He may have been too focused, however, as he drove onto the grid for Saturday morning practice with the car leaking a bit of fuel. Southeast Spec Racer owner, Tony Newson, was quick to com help Quentin diagnose the car and find a leaky fuel-injector. With practice about to begin, Quentin rushed the car over to Duane Neyer Motorsports where their mechanics quickly sourced a new injector and installed it in no time! We only missed the first few minutes of practice, and Quentin was able to complete plenty of laps which helped insure the car was working as expected.
A few hours later, Quentin took to the track again for the qualifying session. He was still getting to grips with the track, but was able to put down some competitive lap times to qualify 2nd only a single tenth behind pole-sitter Bill Ladoniczki. Unsurprisingly, Ladoniczki was the one man who was able to out-race Quentin at the Turkey Trot event last year. So it became clear that Ladoniczki would be Quentins’ main rival for the entire race weekend. After qualifying, the QDB team made a few more set-up adjustments to give Quentin a better chance of beating his rival in the first sprint race.
Redemption was the only thing on Quentins’ mind as the cars headed out on track for their first race of the weekend. After a decent start, Quentin was battling to retain 2nd position into turn 1. He was able to stay ahead and quickly set his mind on catching Ladoniczki. Unfortunately, traffic got in his way quite a few times, and then Quentin ran wide at turn 1. He lost some ground but was happy to safely rejoin the track without any damage to the car. Quentin really got down to business afterwards, and quickly caught up to Ladoniczki. On lap 4, Quentin made his move to successfully pass his rival. He maintained his lead to the end of the race, effectively winning his first race on the full-circuit at Sebring! The feature race on Sunday went even smoother as Quentin started from pole and held first position to the end of the race.
The team were awarded with two 1st place trophies including a gold-colored Turkey which the community affectionately nick-named the ‘golden gobbler.’ The hardware was greatly appreciated after all of the teams’ hard work. This will be our last event with Quentin behind the wheel for quite a while, and we couldn’t think of a better way to end the 2018 season. We need to give a special thank you to Jesse Grose, Mark Eaton, Duane Neyer, Chris Eaton, and everyone else who helped make our season an amazing success. Thank you to our sponsors Venturi Motorsport Management, Duane Neyer Motorsports, and Hooked On Driving for their continued support of the team. Of course, thank you to all of our friends and family for following all of our endeavors, and always giving us motivation to keep succeeding! Also, thank you to Allick Jorgensen who came out to Sebring to shoot a special video for us, but more on that coming soon! We can not thank everyone involved enough for all of the fun and success we had over the past year and a half, and we hope to see everyone at the track very soon!
