This is a HUGE upset in the making, and D.J. Quint's face tells it all! The Miners appear to have clawed their way back to a possible podium finish. Race officials moved up the top-tier heats of the crucial endurance race, and the first run group had a pretty wet track 'cause it was still spitting rain when the pole sitters went out. Most teams, including the two schools from Graz, Austria, had to run rain tires to get any hope of traction. TU Graz set a stiff pace for the conditions, but perennial powerhouse Rochester Institute of Technology, then in 2nd place, was running blistering times several seconds faster than even Graz. They were blowing the doors off the other fast teams posting lap times of 65 to 66 seconds.
S&T was in the second group and also mounted rain tires for the officially "damp" conditions, but with the sun beginning to clear Eric Borcherding made the last-second decision to change to slicks, and it paid off big time. When we say "last-second" we mean it. The #8 car was already lined up to go on the track, and when the wheels were swapped out S&T had only two minutes before they were given the green flag!
Andrew D'Hooge started the rally by clocking runs much faster than Graz' and quicker even than RIT's slower driver.
D.J. Quint took over at the mid-way point and blew the doors off of anything in his sights. Our unofficial timer had S&T clocking times as low as 65.2 seconds, with RIT 1/2 to a full second slower. He ran a sparkling race that had the crowd 
mesmerized, and earned that huge smile. We'll see if Andrew and D.J. managed to pull us to 3rd place. If they did, it will best S&T's best-ever showing at Michigan when the Chris Ford-led team took 4th place in 2004.
Cones will figure big time in this race. RIT hit some and so did the Miners, so RIT and S&T are neck-and neck for the top-rated U.S. team at the event. Penn State and its sub-300-pound car was also in the top five going into the endurance race, but inexplicably didn't show for the finals.
Scoring will be out later today, probably too late to post here before we clear the site and head for the airport. Regardless the Miners really wowed them in Michigan this week!
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