CHARLES LACARRE
Charles La carre
Race Report: LMV8 Oval Series at Venray - Episode 3
For this last race week-end of my 2019 season, I take the challenge on psychologically with stress, emotion and will!
Will because the perspective of racing regularly every month appeases me. Even if I’m struggling to get all the blog, videos and photos up to date…!
Stress as this is mandatory for me to perform. For the team, I have to be efficient at the right moment and I have to make the best out of every session in order to be credible in my quest for partnerships which never stops!
Emotion because I will leave the car, the team and the track in a complete 360° turn fashion for my studies in Tilburg. After the last race, I will stay in the Netherlands without even get to the home base in France… Until Christmas… Which is not to my displeasure, but it is still a big change in my life.
The first race starts under wet conditions… The track is as slippery as it can be, with slick tires… It is everything I like, isn’t it?! The car handles well, what a good surprise! It is stable and I can launch the attack mode, try new things and work on both the outside and inside line. After a start under the pressure of Ralph Verberkt’s #2, trying to search for my marks and saving the car miraculously after pushing it a bit too far beyond the limits, I try to gather myself, hit the finally found marks and regain 1st place… Task completed, I only have to worry about not getting caught… Until the last turn… Photo-finish with #61 who was a rocket in the last laps… I missed a couple of heart beats after I sa w his front bumper pointing in front of mine a few hundred meters before crossing the finish line… But I resisted and found my happiness back in Victory Lane!
The 2nd race started on a dry track… Everything I like, really! The car doesn’t handle well, what a bad surprise! It’s a topsy-turvy world! The car is capricious and it gives me a hard time guessing the reactions she saves herself after each acceleration. I can withstand the pressure from my opponents and force the car under braking but at the cost of intense efforts to maintain traction on corner exits. I try to take care of my tires and brake temperatures… And I hear the noise of the other drivers really close to me… One day, Pat & Phil, French NASCAR commentators explained drivers spend up to 80% of their time watching their rearview mirrors… Lucky we are to have a pair of eyes, and I was lucky to have Dominik’s pair of eyes in addition (my spotter!) and my pair or mirrors inside the car… The others were the traffic and I was the jam…! I manage to win race 2 with a bit of luck. I brushed the wall slightly though and it really show how tense the situation behind the wheel was.
The 2nd race repeats itself in the 3rd race. The fight on the track is a new experience for me, as I’m not fighting against other, but against my car, against me, against myself and I. The lap times are still disappointing. My opponents are on fire, my nerves are too… Just not in the same way. In the absence of speed, I have to focus on consistency. The smallest mistake will not be forgiven, I have to be perfect every lap. Each corner entry counts… I remember each time the mistake that sent me into the wall in July… This experience comes to good use now because I know how to approach the turn using the outside line… From lap 1 to the end, I use that defensive line. I almost thought I was racing at Darlington! With an unpredictable handling, I have to be twice as cautious and smooth as usual in order to survive corner exit. I still succeed in the task of resistance and win the race again… I am smiling… I had to adapt with a different, grueling approach, but that was also thrilling! The task is now to understand what happened and work with the team to make the car better.
I am proud I could make the team happy and glad I was efficient on a wet track. A good feeling on a wet track and 2 successful races where I was more lucky than quick. Whatever, I like when it’s tough, and I think I got served… It gives a unique taste to every win!
…
The first race on Sunday starts under the rain again. Huge drops that soak the track… However, I am confident, I’m eager to get there! I have Phillip behind me, my experience teammate who loves these conditions. I know I will be able to follow him. I take off like a rocket. I leap like a rabbit on the outside of #2 and I let almost everybody on-site… Until I find myself facing the wall… Too much too young too fast… I end my race before I even saw turn one… I need no one to spoil myself! I wash ashore like a blue red and white whale… I join the green grass on the inflied and transform into a cow watching the train of other cars having fun on track. I hate myself, a lot! I wish I continued on my streak and confirm my new attraction towards wet racing!
Rain rhymes with smooth and I went in there like a Canadian lumberjack… More than overconfidence, that was an excess of impatience and an immediate sanction.
The 2nd race is different. The team did an amazing work on the car. I isolated myself in order to keep my anger for myself. And climb in the cockpit with the desire to redeem myself. The team worked hard for me to put the car back in condition to race.
In the first laps, I have the feeling the car responds to my inputs but that I should be careful and vigilant to its reactions. After starting 6th, I find myself 2nd behind #2. I manage to maintain the gap and at the game of traffic, I am only half a second behind. The gap remains stable but I want more. I want to catch up and I start pushing the car like I did in July. I am stopped in my tracks, surprised in the braking zone, the back of the car comes around… I save it at the last moment before sliding on the dusty asphalt patch on the outside of Venray’s turns… I get to know the wall even more after the morning meeting… I look like Cole Trickle, I act like Cole Trickle, and I don’t like this a lot… I hate to hurt the car and hit the wall repeatedly.
The last race is different. I compute the fact that I only have to do my best. Indeed, the car is badly damaged and despite the work of the team, my crew chief tells me to be cautious. Aware that the car won’t be at a 100% of its capacity. I don’t want to race like a tourist with my toes widely opened but I listen to him. I do my best to score points for the team without being able to do more. I tell myself I should have done that already in race 2 and secured a 2nd place finish.
I would eventually exchange on that matter with Dirk, one of the mechanics. I remember his words to forget Sunday’s disappointment and keep my heads up for my 6 races winning-streak… I keep this in my mind, confused between joy and questioning…
Our emotions when saying goodbye confound… I help Bachor Racing Team tidy the box and the truck up without thinking about my parents departure or Venray Raceway racing… Certainly the hardest moment of the week-end for everybody.
Thanks to the team, thanks to my mechanics, thanks to Dominik, to my #22 car and sorry for hurting you… Thanks to Venray Raceway for accepting me as one of their own and the other drivers for what they are. Everybody brought me a lot. I was surprised by the kindness of LMV8 fans and people. Sign language often replaced word so… Many <3 for you!
Thanks to Mr. Bachor for taking car of me as much as his own son Phillip. Phillip and me, that was a rocking duo and I wish we finished on the podium together at least once but our complementarity, playing hide and seek, performing alternately à la one day’s for you, the other’s for me… That was fun too… Oh, and I forgot to mention once again Dominik, who was my eyes and who sweat a lot for me but with whom I lived each and every second of racing. Discrete, always on the videos (in spite of himself!), he is as efficient as he looks calm and precious for me.
A goodbye, not an adieu and if sponsorships exist, I will find my #22 again one day. Take care of her.
I will not keep on dedicating each and every one of my victories because I’m not sure I will keep a trophy for me at this rate.. However, the toughness of this victories and the energy required to get them comes from my great-uncle Henry. Aged of 100 -7 years, the beautiful age and still rocking it, I share with him my passion for racing as he raced long before having children, my great-cousins. I owe him what I am on the track today and I dedicate my wins to him. It is for you, my OH… From Charles!
As a conclusion, as brief as significant: I succeed at what is hard, but fail what is easy…