Sorry for the late post, should have done this over a week ago.  I guess I was too busy licking my wounds of failure.  March 31st was the biggest event of the year and crucial for my NASA-TT title defense.  Starting out competing on the FIR West track I had to wrestle with the car and took a chance on strategy by missing the 2nd session in order to save my tires for the final session on the track.  I was .4 down going into the 3rd session, but made an adjustment to the car I hoped would give me what I needed to get the win.  Immediately the car was better, but I still had to work hard to keep the car on the road.  I ran a 1:07.3, beating my competition by one tenth of a second!  So with this momentum on my side I planned to go for another win in the night portion of the event on FIR Main.  I skipped the first session as it was still in the day time and I knew the track would be faster when the sun went down.  I took the gamble and went out in the 2nd session.  My attempt to jockey for gird position was probably my undoing as there were too many cars fighting for the same space as soon as we got on track.  I was able to lay back and create a gap so I could put in 2 solid laps.  I got a safe lap in and then really put the hammer down for the 2nd.  As I was coming into the final sector I realized I had caught the others too fast and was going to have an interesting time navigating the final turn with 2 other cars possibly in my way.  This however, was short lived as my foot slipped off the brake pedal as I went to heel-toe-downshift from 4th to 3rd gear.  This put my in a situation of either hit the other 2 cars or go straight into the tire wall.  I chose the latter only getting on the brakes moments before I hit the wall.  Black Betty is one tough broad as her damage was only cosmetic.  I refired the engine, back up and got off track.  When you are down, you really know who your friends are as no less than 5 people came over and put Black Betty back together with some duct tape love.  I was going to go back out and go for the win but another issue on track prevented me from having a shot at it.  My time was actually .2 faster than anyone else, but since I hit the wall my time didn’t count.  So a win and a 7th place finish is what I got out of it, that and a damaged car….  So only a few weeks left till the next event and I am working flat out to get Black Betty ready for redemption at INDE.

Ok so I crashed my car, everything is ok, great.  But what about the Radical!?  Well in racing I have learned that 1 is none and 2 is 1.  We started the day with 2 Radicals, but after 1 practice and qualifying session there was only 1 Radical.  So I lost my ride for the remainder of the day and didn’t get to race as planned, but as it turned out I was pretty busy with my car as it is, so maybe it worked out for the best.

How many people you know that when they participated in their first car race that they get to do it in a competitive purpose built racecar, not many right? Well tomorrow during the 7th Annual NASA-AZ Night Event at Firebird Raceway I will be driving the yellow #777 Radical SR3 from Arizona Pain Specialists along side Dr. Paul Lynch in the black #102 SR8 Radical. This was a deal that came together within the last 10 days, but I did get some laps in the car at Spring Mountain Raceway last weekend to familiarize myself with the car. Even though the competition will be tough at what is NASA-AZ’s biggest event of the year, the car is strong enough that if the driver does his job the car can finish on the podium. Thus my job is to drive smart, keep the car on the road and off other cars and finish on the podium.

Here is a lap I took in the car I’ll be driving. Recon Lap

The Audi Style 24 Hours of Lemons Racing Team came to me month or so ago looking for some Rubber Toed help.  I worked with the team prior to the test with suspension setup mainly.  The car had been suffering from terminal understeer and massive front tire wear.  I came up with a different spring rate solution that I was confident would help with both the understeer and front tire wear.  The test would prove whether I was an idiot or if I knew what I was talking about.  We had 2 days at AMP with NASA-AZ and I was on double duty as usual, mixing HPDE3 instruction, working and testing with the team whenever I could.  Since I had not driven the car previously I didn’t know just how bad the understeer was, but the team informed me it was a night and day difference.  The terminal understeer was now just understeer.  We worked on the car mostly over the 2 days sorting out various issues, etc.  But at the end of the day Sunday 5 of us had 15-20 minute consecutive runs with the car.  Next event for them is Infineon March 24&25, checkout their website: http://audistyleracing.com

Round 3&4 of the NASA-AZ Time Trial Championship took me to Chuckwalla Raceway located in Desert Center, CA.  It’s a fast, wide open and challenging track.  Knowing the local SoCal crew would be there ready to go fast from the first session Saturday.  So I got in some practice runs Friday to familiarize myself with the circuit and make my plan of attack.  Although, my car was fast, I didn’t feel fast enough.  Saturday morning I scoped out my competition and found I would be fighting against the reigning Socal and National TTD Champion and Emilio from 949 with his wicked fast SuperMiata.  I set my time in the 3nd session and was driving around try and size up the competition.  Right as I was thinking I could be in good shape, Emilio appeared in my rear view and quickly dispatched of me.  3rd place was the best I could do Saturday and it was the best I could hope for Sunday.  I went out in the 1st session Sunday, but it didn’t help much as I still got smoked and took 3rd place again.

So onto the Time Attack where I was planning to get some redemption.  This time I was driving Aaron Hiar’s sweet RX-8.  As I completed my outlap I knew I was going to be too fast for the cars in front.  I got some spacing but it wasn’t enough, so I had to back off towards the end of my 1st hotlap.  Onto the final and I had everything set, except for carrying too much speed into turn 7 and spinning on exit.  My time was way fast enough to win, but I threw it away.  So that capped off my epic fail weekend.  Time to get some work done on Black Betty and raise my game or else I’m toast!

Hopefully this will be the first of many epic battle write-ups this year.  Round 1 was on January 14th and 15th at the Firebird Main “Fast Configuration” Track.  All of the NASA Time Trial TTD track records are up for grabs this year as Tage Evanson has prepared his car to challenge for them.  Saturday we all introduced ourselves to the fast configuration and quickly realized it was going to be a close battle.  I opted to use the last 2 sessions of the day after seeing the time of 1:08.5 that I would to beat.  In the final run I put in a 1:08.4 to take the win for the day.  However, there was no celebration as I knew Sunday would be the real fight.  Tage and I both went out in the 2nd session and I quickly found myself in traffic and although I was on a 1:07.5 laptime, I didn’t space myself out properly and hit traffic before I could complete the lap.  Rain would prevent both of us from running the in the 3rd session, setting up for a final run winner take all showdown.  Tage led the way out, so we both got to gauge our strengths and weaknesses.  Unfortunately, although I improved my time, Tage did even better and took the win and track record with a 1:07.9.  Getting beat in the first event of the year was not how I wanted to start things out, but it has motivated me to identify my weaknesses and improve.

On to UMS Time Attack, where I drove Robert Smithson’s wicked Turbo Miata.  Again, I made a mistake and got stuck in 6th gear, but it was good enough to take 3rd in class.

NASA-TT: 1:08.2
UMA TA: 1:06

A job happened.  Failure must happen sometimes in order to improve and move forward.  Or you can just say I got lazy and stopped updating my site.  In either case you’ll notice that the look of the site is different and there is fresh content.  But a quick update on what has transpired since my last update way back in August.  I kept racing on a more limited budget, so the lack of development has really put my on the backfoot to start this year.  I started a company called Turn2 Solutions and started offering private instruction, getting to travel and drive some pretty cool cars.

At August 21/22 event when I re-set my track record I actually broke off a piece of the engines head due to the stress from supercharger yanking on it constantly.  I was able to salvage the head but it required a delicate welding repair.  This repair got me through the rest of the season, but it would come at a great cost.  From here I took a trip to Chicago to see my best friend Brian and enjoy a change in scenery for a few days.

The next event would be INDE where I annihilated the competition at the previous event earlier in the year.  However, due to the cost of my recent repairs I had to go racing on tires past their prime.  Skating around the track for 2 days wasn’t much fun but good enough for 2 Time Trial wins.  Only to throw away the Time Attack Championship when I drove off track earning zero points that event.  The season went back to Firebird West where again on old tires I got my 2 wins in Time Trial and then drove my friend Noz’s wicked fast Miata to the Time Attack win.  In between this time, I had to move and simultaneously stopped riding my bikes.  Both things were not ideal and I felt the effects both financially and physically.  So moving on, the season finished up at Firebird East where I got 2 more wins, ending a year with 18wins out of a possible 19 in Time Trials and 9wins out of 10 attempts in Time Attack.  Now if you if asked me what do I remember most from this season, the top 5 would be:

1. My 1st loss in Time Trial on Firebird West at the biggest event of the year.  The mistakes I made that could have prevented them.
2. My 1 loss in Time Attack, the mistakes I made that could have prevented them.
3. Beating my track record at Firebird West with an engine that had a cracked head.
4. My first Time Attack win
5. Seeing my friend Noz transform into an amazing driver who embodies all the qualities I only wish I could have.

So now I’ll post the full recaps on my 2 previous events this year at Firebird Main and Chuckwalla.  Both will be good and I promise to stay on top of them moving forward!

After the NASA season finale I hosted my first private trackday through my company Turn2 Solutions.  Since then I have been able to put on a 2nd event and the future looks bright as to what we’re going to do next.  This journey has been very rewarding and time consuming at the same time.  I now also have the opportunity to compete in a 24hours of Lemons race and also get into some Honda Challenge races.  I’ll actually be testing the Lemons car I hope to race this weekend, so that will be another update coming up soon, like next week!

The long overdue update from my August 20-21 event at Firebird West has finally arrived. More than a day late, and I have no excuse, so let’s get to it!

This event was very crucial for me as I was going up against Tage Evanson and his wicked grocery getting Honda Accord. Don’t laugh cause this car has more track records and in multiple classes than Black Betty does. So the pressure was on to rise to the occasion and get the win, no excuses. First session out Saturday was pretty cool as Tage and I ran together throughout the session, but I ended up 1 tenth down, 1:07.8 to 1:07.9. A quick adjustment to the car and driver for the 2nd session and we were back at it again. This time I just slayed the track and beat my own previous track record by 2 tenths to set a time of 1:06.3! This time would hold up for the rest of the day, but Sunday was still up for grabs.

The goal for the first session Sunday morning was to break the 1:05 barrier, but it was not to be as my transponder didn’t communicate with timing and scoring. Having to go back out in the 2nd session was not the plan, but there was no choice other than to suck it up and get the win. A 1:06.7 was not what I was hoping for, but it was good enough for the win and the much needed tire so I could get some more Hoosier tires. I had a good run in Time Attack, backing up my Time Trial time with another 1:06.7. So 3 events, 3 wins and a couple of tires from Hoosier made it a successful weekend.

Last weekend’s event was the final event before a well deserved Summer break.  The event schedule was only half a day, so there would be fewer sessions and less time in each to get the job done.  First session was at 6:15am and all was going well until my foot slipped off the brake pedal heading into turn 4.  So I had to use the 2nd session to put it all together and set a time of 1:06.4.  The time was about .5 off my track record, and since the track was slowing down at that point I decided to wait til Sunday to better my time.  I used Saturday night to pinpoint the corner adjustments and figure out what setup changes I wanted to make.  I decided on making a rear sway-bar change and dialing some more brake bias to the rear. First session on Sunday I went out and was running fast and the car was handling more to my liking.  However, I had the same issue occur with my foot slipping off the brakes, this time coming into turn 2.  After getting back to the pits I found that the rubber pedal cover had broken and slipped off and thus my foot went with it!  I was pleased the changes allowed me to get more rotation on corner entry without locking up the front brakes.  The stop watch never lies though, so considering how much better the car felt I was bummed to only lower my time to 1:06.2.  Given the track conditions and my tire life, or lack there of I can be happy with 3 wins.

I have been fighting Black Betty all year long with the changes I made over the off-season.  So with the big 11 week break in the schedule I am going to get everything sorted out and get the handling back on track.  So I can put the fear back in my competition again!

Weekend Results:
Saturday
1st Place NASA-TT: 1:06.4

Sunday
1st Place NASA-TT: 1:06.3
1st Place UMS Time Attack: 1:06.2

Victories and track records! INDE Motorsports Ranch is a new track located down in Wilcox, AZ. Preparation was the key to my success. I networked my way into getting some test time before the event. So heading into the weekend I was well prepared and ready to win. Saturday morning I hit the track for the first Time Trial session and immediately found traffic. With the track folding in on itself, I was able to see my competition, so I let the group fight it out ahead of me. I then focused on getting a gap to nail a winning time. With a time of 2:04.1 I locked up the win early on and let the rest fight for 2nd place. This was good as I had some overheating issues due to my new radiator overpowering my old hoses. A quick run up to the store and it was fixed. After a quick test run to confirm it was resolved, it was onto the Time Attack, with a 2:04.7 I was able to hold onto the win.

That night I went over the track map and found 3 places I could go faster and put it all together in one session. So first time out Sunday I put down 2 laps in Time Trial and ran 2:03.3! I then went on to a 2:03.7 in the Time Attack. So 4 first place finishes in as many attempts, and no off track excursions. It was nice to tackle a big event like that with the travel to get there and the unexpected that the track can throw out you. The next event is June 4/5 @ FIR East, so not much time left before the next event and there is always more preparation that can be done.

Weekend Results:

Saturday
1st Place NASA-TT: 2:04.1
1st Place UMS Time Attack: 2:04.7

Sunday
1st Place NASA-TT: 2:03.3
1st Place UMS Time Attack: 2:03.6

NASA-AZ’s night event at Firebird is the biggest event of the year and I’ve never had much luck.  I’ve had mechanical failures the 2 previous years I competed in the event.  But heading into the event this year I was confident there would be no mechanical issues.  The event would actually be split into two events, one in the morning/afternoon at the West track and the other in the afternoon/night on the Main track.  I was set to compete in both NASA Time Trial and UMS Time Attack.  Going for 3 wins on 2 different tracks in 1 day was no easy task.

So the plan was simple win everything, all day and night!  Well, that plan got derailed rather quickly as I struggled all over the West track.  With no grip and diabolical handling, I was unable to put a solid lap together.  One of my competitors put in a strong 1:06.8 laptime while I was way back with a 1:08.2 after the first session.  Unable to make it on track for the 2nd session I went out for the third and final session on the West track. I gave everything I had and more, but it wasn’t enough.  A 1:07:6 was the best I could produce with the car.  Having to settle for 2nd was tough to deal with, but fortunately the event quickly moved onto the Main track.  A fresher set of tires and I was out for the 2nd session on the Main track around 7pm under the lights.  Knowing that I had the car to get the job done, I hit the track ready to go for victory.  It was absolutely crazy out on track, with some 2-3 wide action and eating up slower cars mid session.  Somehow I was able to get a gap and put the hammer down for 2 laps and got the time I needed to win, 1:12.2!  I had a short break before I had to compete in the UMS Time Attack where I was determined to keep my Time Attack win streak alive!  So I ripped off another 1:12.2 and called it a night with another win in hand.

Weekend Results:
2nd Place NASA-TT: 1:07.6 (West Track)
1st Place NASA-TT: 1:12.2 (Main Track)
1st Place UMS Time Attack: 1:12.2 (Main Track)

Here’s a photo of my front splitter after my TT and Time Attack runs on the Main track.  My Dad said as long as I keep winning he doesn’t mind fixing the splitter, I’ll do as I’m told!