The Latest...

Just returned from a long cold four days in Willows, California for the 25 Hours of Thunderhill. This year I did not drive with a BMW car team, and went 
sideways to Team Midnight Performance's Acura Integra. Having never raced a front wheel drive car, this Honda Challenge and sometimes USTCC touring 
race car was a good "experience" I was excited to jump into. What better way than being on the team as one of four drivers in a 25 hour race? Plenty 
of seat time.

We anticipated that while the competition from several leading Mazda Miata teams would be tough, we had a great team strategy and a vehicle that
could put down fast times in our E2 class without really pushing the car too hard. The car was solid and well behaved, much to the credit of Tommy
and Paul, two fast engineers from UC Davis. In qualifying we laid down a 3rd position in our class which validated our strategy. So during the race when
in the first stint Tommy was out and we moved to 2nd place, it was our horror when fairly suddenly the transmission began to fail. So suited up I dove
into the car while the team went into a transmission swap. It took them about 40 minutes to swap out another transmission, and I went out on the track
for my first stint. It was tough on all of us, as we did well but never were able to get back all the deficit in time. We finished 7th out of 13 in our class.

I will say that my 8 hours in that car was a great learning experience. Being a rear wheel race car driver, it was a good experience to really present myself
physically a front wheel drive car, and adapt my driving dynamics with it. I had some good times there, even racing and passing some E0 and E1 cars.
Having experience at Thunderhill came to be an advantage I could use, as well as finding strengths a FWD car had in some turns and exits I could take
advantage of. Night time racing is really where it's at in using your skills, and I love the 25 Hours in giving me tons of night time driving.

Certainly I wish it would have rained, we could have really gotten some time back with FWD, but unlike 2008's race the weather was great for December 
- just cold. We finished the race, running all 25 hours outside of the transmission swap. Our times were fairly constant, and everyone did a great job. We 
had the fastest pits in our class, even other bigger money classes, which was observed around the pits. I want to give a BIG THANKS, to Team Midnight 
and all the guys on the pit crew. STELLAR job. And Thanks for the tri-tip!!!

Some highlights from the event (Thanks Joe Slo). There are some great images from Joe in the Racing Gallery section, check them out.

I always look forward to any opportunity to go to a new track and run it, so when SpecE30 had a competition run at Buttonwillow, I wanted to go. Yes the 2009 season has been a wash for me insofar as budget constraints prevented me from doing a full season of SpecE30 this year, but with a great helping hand from Walter Ford of PointSix racing, I had my car arrive and drive.

Buttonwillow is a fun racecourse. All be it is rough around the corners, with patchy roadwork, eroded corners, unforgiving bumps, and surrounded by terrain known as "moon dust" which if any car has contact with it flies into the air in a big dirt cloud and literally hangs like it is not constrained by normal forces of gravity. With those issues aside, it is a full of fast turns and left foot braking hairpins with two straights in between, making passing hard and racing competitive.

Saturday was my learning curve. I was one of the only ones in SpecE30 whom didn't do a day of practice on Friday. So my race day was a learning day. I ended with a solid 3rd place qualification and finished in 2nd place, a car's length or so away from Steve Ferrario (which Buttonwillow is his home track).

Sunday was full of excitment for me, as I anticipated a better strike for a win with at least one hour of being on the track the day before. I qualified in 2nd and grinded 2nd gear at the standing start. Stayed behind Steve and then had Brad behind me. With the two of us duking it out for the first few laps, Steve got a little length of open track on us. However I was pulling on Steve lap per lap before "the incident", which was when I almost lost it in the "riverside" turn from too much trail braking, but made a great high speed recovery. This slowed me down for a moment, but while I was back on the gas getting back to speed Brad tried a crazy "hail mary" pass on me and clobbers the side of me. He got to drive through the dirt, but I was stuck in the "moon" dirt and a bit damaged. I drove to the checkered.

Here is the video of the hit from the Miata just behind me: www.youtube.com/watch

While I surveyed the damage in the paddock, I had Scott Neville come over with a $100 bill. I was chosen for the "Hard Charger" Award. Apparently I had pulled a SpecE30 race record time for Buttonwillow at 2:03.652 (CW14 config), and being that this was also my first time ever at Buttonwillow and didn't have a practice day with the other drivers, I won the Benjamin. It's like Bravo's Top Chef Quickfire!

Some highlights. Also check out the Racing Gallery for more.