We just had a gorgeous weekend at Barber Motorsports Park for the penultimate round of the SRO World Challenge season. I was there continuing my work with Anthony Geraci and Kenny Schmied in their Supra GT4. The championship implications are in full swing, with only one event remaining next month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
This was an especially interesting weekend, because there were three races on tap. One of the races during the previous round at Road America had been cancelled due to weather, so it was added to the Barber schedule. Three races meant there was a lot of potential for a points swing.
Anthony and Kenny got off to a strong start through testing and practice, and despite the Supra not having the outright pace as some of the other cars in class, it still managed to be a contender every time on track.
The extremely exciting first race had lots of drama, and Anthony and Kenny found themselves moving through the field to the front. They had plenty of excitement and close racing, and it eventually landed them fourth in the race.
The second race got off to a much better start and had the most rewarding result of the weekend, with another win for Anthony and Kenny on their tally for the season. Race three garnered them a fifth-place finish.
The weekend’s success catapulted them to within a couple points of the championship lead, which has been in the team’s sights for the back half of the season.
Sometimes, it can be extremely difficult to stay focused on the task at hand when there’s so much excitement building around something like a championship. That anticipation can make all the simple tasks more difficult, and for Anthony and Kenny, it was important that they continue doing the same thing they’ve been doing all season: hitting their marks and staying consistent, not taking too much risk, keeping the car clean, and staying aggressive enough to get the results that have put them in the championship fight.
You have to walk the line between focusing on the race at hand and the championship as a whole in a situation like this. It’s also imperative to stay grounded: as soon as you remove your foot from either side of that line and put yourself 1,000 feet in the air—feeling all the excitement of a potential title—it’s all the more difficult to walk that line! You risk taking something easy and making it more challenging, which is why keeping excitement at bay while in the racecar is paramount.
The team heads to Indy next month, trailing by just a narrow margin in the points. Anything is possible, and while I’m sure the temperatures will be quite different than our summer weekend in Birmingham, things are really heating up in the championship for Anthony and Kenny.