Driving the Lola at Road America was a real treat. The speed the car could carry around the normally challenging carousel and the speed it could carry without a lot of leaning and sliding was something to behold. A few laps into the first practice session provided enough confidence to try the kink flat, and what do you know, in this car it seemed pretty easy; our speed there was about 158 mph.

Early on in my driving career, I learned one of the dangers of racing comes from getting into a comfort zone, where you actually become unaware of the speed you are actually travelling until something goes wrong. That first realization was at Phoenix International Raceway, on the oval. It was in a Star Mazda, and the average speed was about 130 mph. After a few laps it didn't seem like anything, kind of like how going 75 mph for a few minutes on a freeway lulls you into it feeling slower.

Any way, during the race at PIR I was following two other cars who were side by side -- Grant Riley and Chantz Wade -- and then they touched wheels. Although they avoided an accident, both cars jerked, wiggled and veered to the left and right, where they were no longer heading in the exact same direction as I was; for that instant, the two cars appeared to suddenly and rapidly speed up. I suppose it is like the sensation people in street car accidents often report when they say, "it all happened so fast."

Back to Road America. During the race we struggled as a cracked intercooler was gradually deteriorating our straightline speed. It was hard to pass GT1 cars in a straightline, and even GT2 car passes had to be timed. Sad, but true. That being the case, I was approaching the kink and had the GT2 Peterson Porsche ahead. I knew that car would slow in the kink, and so I timed things so that right out of the kink the pass could be done easily ... or so I thought.

Just as I turned in for the kink, all the air that normally creates great downforce and forward bite almost entirely disappeared. Apparently I was too close to the Porsche, and the wake it created, created a significant problem -- no steering at the very moment it is vitally required. So, off I went in the grass, all four wheels at somewhere in the neighborhood of 155-160 mph.

Eveyrone who knows the kink, knows the fear of this outcome is the legend that makes the corner. Well, I'm here to tell you, it's NOT SO BAD, although not recommended as something to do on Sunday afternoons.

Jon Field was behind me and later told me it looked like quite a ride. All I know was I didn't want to wreck the car against the rail, or worse yet, didn't want to be doing a Mid-Ohio Joey Hand barrel role (he did something like 8 flips in a BMW this year by driving through grass at a high speed -- go to www.youtube.com and search "mid ohio joey hand" for the video) in a prototype. I'm all for making the highlight reel, but just not this way!

Honestly, I'm not sure how I avoided catastrophe. I didn't brake in the grass. Just steered delicately, not wanting to do anything abrupt. Ironically, and luckily, it was actually a fairly smooth, albeit dusty and eye-opeing, skate through the grass before re-entering the track where the back straight bends to the left. Heading to Mosport, home of the wildest turn in the series -- turn two -- I'm glad my "off" for the season is out of my system.