Corey Fergus's PWC diary: Road America fun and frustration

Hi everyone. I'm Corey Fergus, racing the No. 00 Porsche Cayman for Motorsports Promotions in the Pirelli World Challenge TC class. I'm also a Porsche Brand Specialist at Byers Imports in Columbus, Ohio. Racing what I sell is quite the experience.

Going into Rounds 7,8, and 9 at Road America we were leading the championship. Coming out of that weekend, we are now sitting in second, just 12 points behind the leader. We had a tough weekend. We're still in a great position but not ideally where we'd like to be half way through the season. I like being in control, at the top.

The first race didn't go too bad. I started fourth and had a great start moving up to second into Turn 1. But Road America is a horsepower track, and it really favored the turbo-powered cars. I got stuck behind the Nissan Altima in a battle for the lead at the end. I was faster, but he would pull me by five car lengths on the straights. I had to settle for second, which was great for points. I created an even bigger gap in my championship lead.

Even though I finished second in Race 1, I set the sixth-fastest race lap so that's where we started for Race 2. In the early stages I moved up to podium contention, but shortly after the car started to fall off a bit. It sure didn't help that the Cayman got a 50-pound weight penalty heading into the weekend. I was hanging on for dear life to finish sixth.

For the last race of the weekend we completely changed the setup. I mean a big change. We knew in Race 2 we blew it, so we took a little bit of a gamble. I started fourth and moved up to third quickly. The setup felt much better already. Unfortunately, this was not our lucky race. Halfway through the race into the brake zone into Turn 5, my right-rear tire went flat, which was quite a handful. I had to limp around for nearly three miles to get to pit lane! I was in third at the time. Now I know why the car started handling poorly in the left-handers before the flat. The crew did a great job and changed the tire out getting me back out there. I hadn't even gone a lap down yet. Then I started having ABS failures. Not to mention the left wheel bearing was having issues. We couldn't buy a break. I ended up in P11, which given the circumstances wasn't all that bad.

We'll be back on track Aug. 13-15 for Rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the TC championship at my home track, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

-Corey