The 2011 season has come to an end with the NASA Fall Finale at Summit Point Motorsports Park.   The weekend started off pretty cold and our warm up session consisted of lots of slip sliding around the track.  Pretty much every one of us spent the entire first session tip toeing through the turns.  By the 2^nd timed session the track had a little heat in it and tire pressures were starting to level out.  A familiar comment heard here and there was “chasing rabbits”.  I was definitely one of those.  Mine just happened to be a Spec3 car most of the weekend.  I knew that he was faster than I was, so I was determined to stay as close to him as I could.  Saturday’s best time was 1:32.716.  Sunday was even better which also gave me my fastest ever lap time of 2:31.492. The video below was a best time of 1:32.0.

Even though I have an incredible engine built by Weekend Warrior Racing, the car and driver have been struggling all year to build momentum and come up to pace for the next level.  Thankfully with the help and coaching from Alan as well as a little coaching from Joe I have been able to really work on the driver part.  With an open differential, full tread Toyo 888’s and a few other bits and pieces of less than ideal parts, the car and driver have been able to at least put down consistent times to keep up with some of the SM pack.  The 2012 year is looking promising for sure.

The season ends with two podiums for the year and a 4^th place in the Regional Championship based on the points for Mama Debbie, Glaze Communications, Weekend Warrior Racing and Lab Rescue.  Not quite the place we wanted to be for the year but overall with the amount of dyno re classing that took place in our class, it is still a great overall finish for me.

The entire season for me has been devoted to getting myself faster on track and better prepared to enter Comp School in February to move into the next level of racing.  Am I nervous?  Sure.  Am I excited?  HELL YEA!  It has been my goal for a little while.  I just wanted to spend a little time this year working on preparing “me” for it.

NASA Mid Atlantic at Virginia International Raceway, beautiful weather, friends and my mom. There isn’t much that comes to my mind that is better than that.  Over the last season I have discovered many things about myself. One big thing I have learned is that I over think things to a degree where I end up with a great idea, but at a cost of losing a little bit of the fun. Race weekends are supposed to be fun right? Well they have been, other than the set up and tear down on my “great idea” the last two events. This weekend I rediscovered how even simple things can turn into great paddock setups. I traded in my home made canopy for something simpler and ended up being even better than planned as well as something I can put up and take down by myself. The new 10×20 pop-up worked great. I was able to put it up in about 30-40 minutes by myself and two of us took it down in less than 5 minutes. It was a perfect fit next to the trailer from door to door.

The weekend itself was fantastic. All in all not my best by any means out on track personally. A friend of mine commented about how smooth I am, I replied that I have the smooth part figured out, but I am still learning the go fast part. Sometimes you just need a little push every now and then and stop second guessing yourself. I think I helped my friend Sanjeev find out the same thing when I went for a ride with him this weekend. This was the first weekend he has ever gone over 100 mph through the uphill esses at VIR. It has been a great pleasure to have instructed him and I look forward to watching him taking the next step to Time Trials. My best time for the weekend ended up being 2.27.155. I finished in sixth place each day in class; I am third in points for the year before drops and fourth after drops. Third through fifth place still remains up for grabs into the last event.

After three years in Time Trials and four years instructing I am planning to take the next step. A little over five years ago I never would have guessed or hoped or even thought about preparing to go full wheel to wheel racing. Now, I can’t describe what is going through my head. I am preparing my track history and experience for review, sourcing needed items and yes a little nervous as well as excited. My first year plan is to survive and drive smart and make sure I do everything in my power to finish each race.