CA Sport Racing Blog

At Least it Won't Get Scratched in Daytona

2012-01-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

It is beautiful and it runs, but it is only 99% finished and we just ran out of time to complete that last 1% that would get us in the game. . .

The decision was made about 1 am this morning to call it off. Looking back over the last weeks, I can hardly believe what we've been able to accomplish, yet it wasn't enough. It seems like every part of the build experienced delays due to suppliers sending parts late, getting the wrong parts, or damaged parts. Every day was a roller coaster ride for me: we're going to make it, we're not going to make it, we're going to make it, we're not going to make it. We'd complete something and feel elated over the success, only to find that something else went wrong.

I know that even though we aren't going to Daytona we will show up at Barber with an excellent car. It's beautiful on the inside and out. I also know we gave it everything we had and left nothing in reserve, and with the help of many friends and crew almost made it. You know who you are but I have to say THANKS anyway— Mark, Boli, Kike, Ron, Toby, John, Paul at Nissan, the Pfadt gang, and my boys for putting up with having an overworked, never home mom for the last weeks—we couldn't do it without you all!! And thanks mostly to Vesko who truly is an artist and who has gone without sleep for a record amount of time—I couldn't ask for a better partner in this venture.

Here's to Alabama!

Great News From Grand-am: New Worldwide Coverage for Rolex

2012-01-12T17:33:00.001-08:00

Read the complete story on the Grand-am website

Some highlights of that distribution:

• Eurosport will air selected live coverage of the Rolex 24 race and a Rolex 24 highlight show, reaching 52 countries.
• Speed Latin America will broadcast all 13 races to 42 countries.
• Speed Australia will broadcast all 13 races and the accompanying highlight shows.
• Network Ten will broadcast all 13 races in Australia.
• ESPN2 Caribbean will air all 13 highlight shows to 14 countries while ESPN Dos will reach 14.
• ESPN Africa will broadcast all 13 of the series' highlight shows to 57 countries.
• ESPN Star will have selected live coverage of the Rolex 24 and all highlight shows going to 19 Asian countries.

Red Bull News Years Eve - No Limits

2012-01-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

If you haven't seen this, it's amazing stuff. How big of a deal is it? Even my Mom knew about it, but she told me she couldn't watch until it was over and she knew they were ok. There are several videos you can watch on the Red Bull site, and make sure to check out the view from the take-off to the landing. Yikes!!

Merry Christmas from the Team

2011-12-25T15:37:00.000-08:00

For Christmas today I gave myself the gift of running all the way to the top without stopping, always an accomplishment that makes me feel great. The trail is a place locals know as the Living Room. Once you get to the top there's a great view of Salt Lake City, and rock couches, which always makes it worthwhile. It's unusual for the trail to be clear enough to run this time of year, but with the lack of snow it was this instead of going skiing.

I will be ready for Daytona!

Looks like the cars will too, check out what Santa has been leaving daily at the shop--

I've got a new title "parts manager" I spent two days last week just unpacking and doing inventory. I was so tired afterwards, but it's all very exciting. The cars are looking beautiful, they are really being engineered so well!

Merry Christmas to you all, we wish you a year of blessings and joy! And to our wonderful team, crew and supporters — we couldn't do this without you and we are eternally grateful!!

Skullcandy Team Nissan

Race4Girls.com

2011-12-06T12:08:00.001-08:00

Many of you have noticed the Race4Girls.com stickers on my helmet and car, but I realized today I haven't done a blog post explaining. Race4Girls is a great charity that is dedicated to putting women in race cars."Race4Girls gives female race car drivers in the U.S. a chance to better compete against their male counterparts by providing funds for equipment."

Tracey Passantino the Founder and CEO realized there was a need to support women racers after she got to know Jennifer Jo Cobb and decided to create a charity to support us. Thanks Tracey! Thankfully they decided to support Grand-am and me!

Of course they depend on donations. Tracey's goal is simple, easy (well, maybe not so easy), she want's to get 1 million people to donate just $5, the price of a cup of coffee. She also is working hard to obtain grants. It's all driven by social media, so follow, like and tweet Race4Girls and help me to earn the support they are allocating for Grand-am!

Nissan Motorsport International Company (NISMO) looks forward to India

2011-12-06T07:41:00.001-08:00

Today's motorsports news includes this article about MISMO heading to India. Interesting, I wonder how many race track they have?! Maybe they need some drivers, it's a place I'd love to visit!With increased impetus being shown to motor sports in India, Nissan Motorsport International Company (NISMO) is keen to enter India. The company considers India to be of prime importance and according to Shoichi Miyatani, President of NISMO, since motor sports activities are expected to gather steam in India, it would be considered favorable to launch the brand in the country as and when feasible...read the complete article here.

Don't Give Up

2011-12-05T20:24:00.000-08:00

I was telling a friend about this article over the weekend. I have it taped to my wall in my office and when I get discouraged I like to read it and get my game back. Hopefully you'll like it too! And thanks to Costco for this.

Stance Socks - Coolest Socks Ever!

2011-12-02T12:51:00.001-08:00

Skullcandy Team Nissan (Yes, that's a new name for us) is happy to announce the addition of Stance Socks to our team! I have a few and can say they are awesome, very cool design, and great quality. Welcome to the team Stance!

Keeton Strategy

2011-11-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

Exciting things are happening around the CA Sport shop including the constant improvement of the Keeton Strategy Race Software. I had a chance to preview the latest version that Mark has been working hard on——it's a coding masterpiece! As you can see Mark has a new toy, which will hopefully make his job easier!!

Lime Rock is Back for 2012

2011-11-14T08:58:00.000-08:00

"Lime Rock Park To Host 2012 GRAND-AM Season Finales
Connecticut Circuit Event Moves To Late September

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov. 14, 2011) – GRAND-AM Road Racing will wrap up its 2012 season at historic Lime Rock Park, with a trio of races on Sept. 28-29.

The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series will conclude its 13-race season with a two-hour, 45-minute race on Saturday, Sept. 29. SunTrust Racing’s Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli won the past two years in the Daytona Prototype class, while eventual champions Leh Keen and Andrew Davis took GT honors in 2011 for Brumos Racing.

“Lime Rock adds yet another layer of tradition to our 2012 schedules,” said GRAND-AM President Tom Bledsoe. “This will be the finishing touch to a full season of racing at history-rich venues.”

Going to a split format for the only time in 2012, the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge will end its 10-race season with a pair of two-hour, 30-minute events.

This will mark the eighth time GRAND-AM has competed at the seven-turn, 1.5-mile circuit located in Lakeville, Conn., since its inaugural 2000 season."

2012 Grand-am Schedule, it's Official

2011-11-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge 2012 Schedule of Events
Jan. 27
Daytona International Speedway
Mar 30-April 1
Barber Motorsports Park
April 27-29
Homestead-Miami Speedway
May 11-13
New Jersey Motorsports Park
June 8-10
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
June 22-24
Road America
June 29-July 1
Watkins Glen International
July 27
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Sept. 7-9
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Sept. 28-30
TBA

GRAND-AM Rolex Series 2012 Schedule of Events
Jan. 28-29
Daytona International Speedway
Mar 30-April 1
Barber Motorsports Park
April 27-29
Homestead-Miami Speedway
May 11-13
New Jersey Motorsports Park
June 2
Detroit Belle Isle
June 8-10
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course
June 22-24
Road America
July 29-July 1
Watkins Glen International
July 27
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug 10-12
Watkins Glen International
August 17-19
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
Sept. 7-9
Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Sept. 28-30
TBA

Grand-am 2012 Schedule - That We Know So Far!

2011-11-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting anxiously for the 2012 Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge schedule to be published, but a few dates have been announced. Here they are - I'm getting hotels booked already.

January 26 - 27
Daytona International Speedway
GRAND-AM 200

May 11-13
New Jersey Motorsports Park

May 27 - 30
Lime Rock
Memorial Weekend

June 21 - 24
Road America
NASCAR Nationwide Series/GRAND-AM Rolex Series (SAT)
Sunday TBA

June 29 - July 1
Watkins Glen
Sahlen's Six Hours of there Glen

July 13 - 14
Laguna Seca
Continental Tire Sports Car Festival

July 26 - 29
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Brickyard Super Weekend

Tickets on Sale Now for the Super Weekend at the Brickyard

2011-10-31T11:17:00.001-07:00

Super Weekend At The Brickyard Is New Twist In 2012 NASCAR Schedule - Brickyard 400 - Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Tickets are here

We Didn't Make the Highlights!

2011-10-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

And that is a great thing, here's to avoiding more crashing in 2012!

CA Sport Takes the SunTrust Award for the Season

2011-09-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

We may not have had the funding to finish the season, but we ended up winning the SunTrust Improve Your Position Award for the year. Read the news on the Grand-am website. Thanks SunTrust!

•••

More news from this weekend: Tom Felt joined us at Miller Motorsports Park to work with Vesko on his S2000 car set-up and driving. He was able to take 4 seconds off his best lap time on the East track. Way to go Tom! We look forward to driving with Tom more in the future.

On a sad note we learned that Vesko's father passed away on Saturday. He was recently diagnosed with cancer but this came more quickly than expected. I first met Stefan at my first big race, the 25-hours of Thunderhill where he came to support the team. (those of you who follow my career know all about that crazy race. . .) He was a talented engineer and wonderful father. He will be sincerely missed. Here's to you Stefan for your many successes and your talented son to carry on! RIP

•••

Here's a blast from the past 2006

Great things are in store for 2012, we'll be updating you soon!

A Lap at Indy - Can't wait for 2012

2011-09-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Big news from Grand-am for 2012, and that is: we are driving at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. "Indianapolis Motor Speedway is giving its popular Brickyard 400 weekend an innovative and exciting makeover starting next season and GRAND-AM will play a huge role, in what will be called the "Super Weekend at the Brickyard," on July 26-29." read more here.

Looks like it will be a fun track, here's a video from Ricky Taylor's DP for your viewing enjoyment.

Ayrton Senna - The Movie

2011-09-06T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended a fund-raiser for the Salt Lake Film festival and finally had the chance to see the Senna movie I've been hearing about since the Sundance Festival last year.

In case you haven't heard about the film: "A documentary about Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the world championship three times. The story is told through archival footage. Senna was the idol of his generation until he died at the Grand Prix of San Marino at the age of 34." It's pretty cool how they've pulled everything together into one movie, even driver's meeting footage (which seemed all to familiar).

He says twice in the movie "Pure driving, real racing—that makes me happy", any of us who've dealt with the politics of racing understand that. He also makes the statement "I can't not race." those of you reading this blog may understand.

I hear it will be out in wider release later this year, I think I'll see it again! If you haven't, see it. Even if you're not into racing, you'll love the movie and you may just become a fan.

See the trailer here..

Too Many Race Cars

2011-08-24T14:51:00.000-07:00

Is there such a thing? I don't think so, and never enough driving. Even so I'm now selling the Black Evo, the one of the Miller Super Sport Championships and a few other memorable events.

You can read all about it on our website.

Racing and Rock 'n Roll - We Already Knew they Went Together

2011-08-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

Today I found this is my Google notifications. AC/DC's Brian Johnson and Byron DeFoor - recent Can-Am winner at the Monterey Historics - are teaming up with a pair of multi-time winners for their debut in the 2012 Rolex 24 At Daytona. You can read the complete article here.

More on Rock and Rock: Last week was the 2nd annual London School of Music Guitar Camp in Park City. Brad joined Johnny in producing the event and instructing. The guest artist was Ace Frehley formerly of Kiss. Once I get the video edited I'll have links here.

I'm sure I'm one of many looking forward to Daytona 2012, I know it will be a huge event for the 50th anniversary. For CA Sport it will be the next time we make it to the races. The final race of 2011 at Mid O will unfortunately be a miss for us. That also means we will miss the awards party which is going to be held in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The positive news is that we are working very hard to arrange a successful season for 2012 and I'll be very excited to share the news with you as we finalize things.

Welcome to the Newest Memeber of the CA Sport Team!

2011-06-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Lee and Josh!

On June 13, just in time for Father's Day baby Jaxon arrived to Lee and Josh Sandel. Those of you who read my blog know that Josh is one of our super-star crew members (and Lee too)! Because Jax is a very large boy weighing in at 9 pounds 2 ounces at birth (can't imagine where he got that from . . .) he had to come via c-section, so best wishes to Lee for a speedy recovery.

17 years ago on Father's Day my oldest was born. Hard to believe, but it's true they do grow up fast.

I hope we can meet baby Jax in person soon!

Watkins Glen, Finished 11th

2011-06-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Almost top 10, but not quite. While 11th isn't bad given the large field, we were disappointed with the results. We didn't get any upgrade from Grand-am, which we need and have justified. They admit we are slow but say "Maybe at Road America." The Compass cars were faster than we were and they now have a larger restrictor. If I sound unhappy, it's because I am. Driving the fist stint all the other drivers are going all out, and I'm driving around preserving the car and not using any brakes which means everyone, (and I do mean everyone) can pass me under braking. It's not a great feeling.

Watkins Glen is a great race track and a fun place to drive, it's still at the top of my list. No cars flipped this race, a change from the last two races.

Here's the DeMan Motorsport VIR flip

and here's in car at Lime Rock from the Freedom car

Also just in case you didn't catch the Allan McNish crash from the 24-hours of Le Mans

So I can say, at least we didn't crash the car ;-)

We traveled light to Watkins Glen and Lime Rock, meaning we had only two crew members. Jason Smith and Nick Victor-Smith XS Energy Sports came along for the East Coast loop. In between the races we tested, cleaned and tuned-up again at Monticello Motorsports Park in New York. A gorgeous and fabulous place. Nick rented a Miata and did some coaching with Vesko and we all got a few laps. Looks like Nick has some skills!

So much happened during our journey, it's hard to even remember it all, but here's the worst/funniest (in retrospect) story:

We planned this trip at the last minute and getting hotels on race weekends is always a challenge. The towns are small and it's a huge group that moves in for the Grand-am weekends. I found the perfect little house in Watkins Glen, not fancy but reasonable and with a kitchen. I was thinking "perfect". We were all on our way from Monticello to Watkins Glen when I get a phone call from the manager he said "I'm sorry, but I forgot and booked your house with someone else and they are already moved it, so you can't stay here." Let me tell you now that I had paid in full. Yes, he refunded my money, but can you do that!?! I got online in the truck and started searching, but with the huge race weekend there wasn't anything. One rental homeowner I contacted recommended the "rustic cabins" I called them and got a couple of cabins to rent. When we arrived we were a little disappointed in the cabins, but we were all exhausted and ready for some sleep. We hurriedly made up the beds (it was bring your own linens) and went to sleep. Or tried to . . . I was in my bed trying to sleep and I kept hearing these weird little noises. I thought don't look just sleep, but I had to get up and have a look. Turns out it was spider land under the bed. Picture me grabbing a large spoon and smashing spiders frantically. One was sitting on an egg sac looking a lot like a Brown Recluse and that was the end. Turns out Jason really hates spiders so once I got up and we all looked under our beds we were out of the cabins for good!

The nicest hotel in town, the Harbor Hotel had rooms for only that one night, so we checked into luxury at 1:00 am. It was way out of our budget, but once I told them our story they let us stay the entire time and gave us a discount. It is a lovely hotel with dining on the water, my kind of place! Still way out of our race budget, but I hope we can stay there again next year!

Lime Rock Results - DNF . . .again

2011-05-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

We have arrived at Monticello Motorsports Club in New York where we will be for testing and repair until we head to Watkins Glen. Nick had some fun driver coaching in a rental spec Miata with Vesko yesterday and today.

Yesterday we pulled the data from the Civic and it is a throttle body failure . . . again.

Today the guys will change the car set-up and get it ready for Watkins Glen. The good news is the car body is clean and intact. Not so much for the Freedom Mazda and the Mini who were running 1st and 2nd at the end of the race. The had contact which I did not see, but the result was the Mazda flipping and bouncing over the top of the Mini. We saw the mini driving back to the pits, looking like it had rolled itself, but having a car roll over you will have the same result.

There's no TV coverage of Lime Rock for Continental Tire, our only race not televised, so we'll all miss that unless it turns up on YouTube.

Since the races were split class Mitchum Motorsports agreed to crew for us, (or would of had we needed a pit stop) and the we crewed for them for the GS race. In Watkins Glen we will be working with BlackForest.

We stopped on the way to Monticello in the Hudson Valley and it turned out we were next door to Orange County Choppers so we had a look. I'll stick with race cars!

I am a Californian!

2011-05-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, well not anymore, but there are some things you never get over. For me it's obviously the car culture of Southern California (and the beach of course, and really so many other things). Also I find it's my phobia of public transportation (Nobody Walks in LA)! We have a great train system in Salt Lake City, but I've never even been on one. I do ride my bike a lot to reduce emissions. Today on the way to the airport I saw the tracks going in that will soon extend it right to the airport, once that runs I will have to give it a try.

Right now I am sitting on the New York train system heading north out of Manhattan with Nick (go XS Energy Sports!) I've lost count how many subway trains we've been on since leaving JFK a couple hours ago, not to mention an elevator full of pee. This is all part of my budget, and save the hauler from traffic and small roads plan. Nick and I are headed to meet the hauler that was driven solo by Vesko from Salt Lake.

Hopefully Nick won't fire me as logistics planner after this! More updates from Lime Rock tomorrow and the start of the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge round 5!

A Grueling 2.5 Hours at VIR

2011-05-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Race Day - we all left the beautiful estate early for one last practice at 8:30 am. Once again our session had limited track time, as soon as it was my turn to get into the car the black flag came out. That seems to happen like clockwork. It's hard to get track time when the track is always black flagged. Rain was predicted and based on the last few days of morning drizzle with afternoon thundershowers we were prepared for wet weather. It ended up being dry for our race, but poured during the start of the Rolex race.

Vesko said it best when he got on the radio and said "I don't think anyone want's to finish this race." My first laps included several incidents of light contact, Vesko's session heavy. I'm guessing we had about an hour of yellow flag running which really ruined all attempts at strategy.

I'm not sure how many cars were killed. The Civic has a seriously bashed driver side and a couple donuts on the passenger with paint missing from both bumpers. The incident with Kleinubing did the most damage to us, and I think much more to his car—should make the highlight reel. Thankfully the Civic's damage is minor compared to many other cars.

Speaking of, the SPEED coverage should be dramatic—don't miss it!

A few images of Woodside House:

Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Round 4 at VIR - Update

2011-05-13T12:48:00.000-07:00

After four long days in the truck CA Sport has arrived in Virginia. The trip went smoothly, day one included 100º temps so we worked on our drivers heat tolerance. Day two started with the rain, which we have had for the last few days. We thought day 4 of our drive would be a short 300 miles, but it turned out to be at an average speed of 35 miles per hour through the twisting, turning West Virginia backroads. It was beautiful drive through lush forests and rocky hills, made more exciting by the 52' trailer behind us. I kept wanting to stop for a hike or at least some photos but the trailer prevents most deviations of that type.

We moved into the paddock this morning and started the open test at 1pm. Josh, Jason and Nick all arrived this morning, Mark arrives tonight. We had more track time than we've had so far this year in any test. It seems the test days have so many black flags that I rarely get more than 3 laps. I thought the car felt good and we both had some decent laps and worked towards improving the car. About 4pm when we were working on the car and getting ready for a last session a huge storm hit. The track workers came by and gave us a 5 minute warning that the storm was headed our way so we had time just to load everything into the trailer before the flooding rains and thunder started. It was a crazy storm but since everything was loaded and the weather was so bad we went to dinner.

But right now I am writing to you while relaxing in my four poster bed inside an 1838 Greek Revival style Colonial Mansion—and the house where General Lee was married. How did I land in this luxury, so unlike most race weekends? We planned this race at the last minute so I booked the only hotels I could find (after hours of phone calls and internet searches) two separate hotels in two different towns, neither with a good reputation. Mark got online yesterday and somehow found this house and rented the whole thing for the CA Sport team! He is the ultimate strategist! It took us about 30 minutes just to explore the place, we even braved the haunted basement and the servant's stairway.

Tomorrow we practice and qualify. Go Civic!

Continental Tires Sports Car Challenge TV Viewership Up!

2011-04-22T10:45:00.000-07:00

Of course it is, it's such great racing. I was talking with my dad this morning and he said (as everyone does) "I watched your race on SPEED, but I never saw our car."http://www.grand-am.com/news/index.cfm?series=r&cid=42442

Let's hope we get to try again in Virgina.

A Visit to Girls Inc. Birmingham Chapter

2011-04-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

While the team was in Birmingham I was able to pay a visit to the local Girls Inc. chapter and present the Venessa Gosa the COO with the "big Check" form Ford. I was impressed with the facility, directors and the girls! Girls Inc Birmingham is located in the middle of a park which gave us some logistical problems in getting there. We had just arrived in Birmingham in the hauler and we found we couldn't navigate the small, hilly streets with the rig so when we got within a mile I jumped out and jogged in.

The facility has well equipped classrooms for english, science etc as well as real life living education areas with a washer and dryer (So important in life!) a kitchen and a teen area—plus the beautiful landscape outside. The Birmingham chapter has 82 girls enrolled in the after-school program and about 200 in the summer program.

I had the chance to talk with the girls about what I do: racing, and the Ford Focus Global Test Drive. The girls were a receptive and excited audience, they asked a lot of good questions and were very polite. The plan was for some of the girls to come to the races, but they had scheduling difficulties. We do hope to put together a fund-raiser next year when I'm in Birmingham again so stay tuned for that!

I hope to visit other local chapters while I'm traveling with Grand-am and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge this year and hopefully inspire some girls to achieve their dreams. Thanks to the Ford Focus Global Test Drive for giving Girls Inc $10,000!

Oh the Pain - From 6th with 45 to go to DNF

2011-04-12T08:26:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Barber Motorsports Park for the first time last week. Neither I nor Vesko had ever been there before which is always a big challenge on a race weekend with limited time to practice.

As usual, the practice and test sessions had plenty of black flags which shortened our track time. The car wasn't even close to the right set-up after the first practice day, we've all been turning left a lot this year and Barber is a clockwise track with mostly right hand turns. The car was especially bad on the fast right handers and I ended up going sideways through the second set of esses a few times. Not a great feeling especial knowing that Barber is (the only?) track that makes you pay for any damage you cause to the track or grounds. That means if you hit the wall, you have the terrible experience of killing your car but to add insult to injury you get to pay for the track damage too. Thankfully we didn't do any damage, but a couple of cars did STBY (Sucks to be You, as my friends in Montana would say).

Pre-qualifying practice was black flagged again and Vesko only got two laps. He thought the car was getting pretty close, but couldn't be certain. We decided to send me out to qualify on new tires (I often don't use new to qualify) but we needed to put a couple of laps on them before the race. That meant I needed to get my qualifying time in with two laps, which is standard, but not my strong point. I took several second off my time from the previous day but it was only enough to put us in the 25th position.

Finally in the race I felt like I had the track figured out and was going pretty well while trying to be easy on the brakes and tires. Thanks to our excellent crew Mark called the strategy just right for the driver change and the crew executed a very fast pit stop. So fast I didn't have time to run to the other side of the car and fix the mirror position from my Mustang encounter. Vesko did a second pit stop close to the first but within our fuel window and with 45 minutes to go we were running 6th with a strong car ready for Vesko to battle to the front.

Then our luck changed . . .

We heard Vesko on the radio say the car was acting like it was out of gas. It went into limp mode and he recycled it a couple of times and couldn't get it going. He pulled off track and got towed back to the paddock. It was such a terrible feeling! I had been worried that I used too much of the brakes, but looking at them after we both had done a great job and had plenty left to get to the end. Turns out it's a sensor, or the throttle body, we aren't sure yet since we've been driving home and haven't taking the time to find out.

Thanks to our biggest fan from Salt Lake who traveled to watch the race and take these photos—Dave Howe.

Let's hope we can make it to VIR! We know the car is competitive and that we have a strong team, and I've actually driven VIR before :-)

Going to Barber

2011-04-02T18:24:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we head for Alabama. Somehow the weather always turns bad as the hauler hits the road. We've had a few days of the best spring weather, the tulips are out and trees are just starting to bloom. As usual it's been a lot of work, up to the last minute, but we are thrilled to be headed to Barber Motorsports Park.

A big thanks to XS Energy Sports for their support! And to the crew traveling with us: Mark, Josh, and Jason! We also will have at least two fans from Salt Lake cheering us on, talk about loyal fans. We plan to give them something to cheer about.

More from Birmingham . . .

Dreams X2

2011-03-24T09:41:00.000-07:00

I love the Honda Video's and I've been meaning to post a link to the one below. But then my Mom emailed me another. You've probably seen it, but it's another great reminder that you have to have a dream and you have to follow it!

Today I had the chance to be on the local favorite morning show the Radio from Hell Show with Kerry Bill and Gina. Which was great, but the best part was that they played Brad's song Rollin On, (as a proud mom I brought a CD to give them). Jake woke me up a couple of days ago showing me the robot he had been building for several days. He has plans to create great things as an engineer and is thinking of going to MIT. I'm glad that my kids have dreams and plans for their lives!

These videos are both great!

You

Thank-you SunTrust!

2011-03-15T10:45:00.001-07:00

I got the mail today, we won the most improved position award again at Homestead Miami Speedway! Yeah!! Thanks SunTrust, we appreciate this and we have plans to win the $4000 year-end prize for the most improved positions over the year.

Also today Wes Dunkel sent me a few photos of the race, he has serious skills, so enjoy.

Kia 200 in Car Video of the First Few Laps

2011-03-07T21:35:00.000-08:00

In car with Lara at the Kia 200, Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

The XS Energy, Skullcandy Honda Civic of CA Sport finishes 8th in the Kia 200

2011-03-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

Not quite a podium finish but a great race anyway, proving the point that it's not over until it's over. Once again I started from the back and had plenty of work to do in my stint. I may not have driven lots of hot laps in the last two races due to yellows and our strategy, but I think I get to drive the BEST laps, the first few. I love the race starts, there's so much going on and so many decisions to make.

You will notice from the photos we have a new sponsor for the car: XS Energy and VS Racing, Nick Smith and Jenah Victor. We had a great time getting to know them and Nick helped us crew with mutual friend Tyler Burgoyne. Nick is a driver as well and we hope to have him on track with us soon. They kept us powered with XS Energy drinks and Perfect Water!

Mark Keeton our usual strategist could not join us so we had Laura Olson come along. Laura is also a driver, but was not racing this weekend, so she graciously came to helped out. Thanks Laura! We were joined by our regular and awesome team of Josh Sandel and Jason Smith. They have the pit stops dialed! Enrique drove across the country with Vesko and they are currently making their way home. We were all glad he came along to help last minute, I'm not sure how we could have made it without his hard work.

I'll be adding some in-car video from my stint, thanks Toby for the loan of your camera! I had a few busy laps with two long yellows. We did a quick driver change and with more yellows we were within our fuel window (by one minute) for the final fuel stop where we also did tires since Homestead is so hard on tires.

Unfortunately at the beginning of Vesko's stint he was racing with the Compass car driven by Ryan Eversley who got a little off line in the battle and got turned around. This resulted in a drive-through plus 10 second penalty for us. Ryan later told Vesko their team hadn't complained, that he had gotten in the grass and turned easily. Bummer for us, that Civic finished 3rd.

Vesko drove with his usual perfection and worked up to 8th just catching the Kia at the end, but wasn't able to make the pass stick.

Miami Homestead - Grand-am Kia 200

2011-03-05T07:09:00.000-08:00

I always plan to update the blog daily once race week starts, and once again it's race day and I'm just getting a minute to post. The short story is that we are slow, not just me but the car. It looks like our deficiencies show up on this track: poor braking and low torque out of the slow corners. I'm uploading a video of turns 3 and 4 from practice 3 this morning. Vesko's fastest lap was a 1:34:3, fast laps from the session were in the 32s.

Yesterday I signed a W-9 for Sun Trust since we won the most advanced position award from Daytona. Since I qualified 30th, not last but at the back, I guess we have another chance at it today!

Wish us luck!

Spain Part 2

2011-03-01T09:42:00.000-08:00

Barcelona

We spent two days in Barcelona after Madrid. There were so many places we wanted to see, but figured we had to make Barcelona. Two days is not enough to do it justice, but we tried our hardest!

Renting bikes is the way to go since the city has good bike lanes and there's a lot of bike traffic due to the city bike system they have all over the town. Locals have a bike card and they can pick up a bike anywhere. We took the strenuous route up to the Olympic Amphitheater and the castle which has a great view of the whole city and the water front. Then we headed down to the beach where we ate some excellent paella by the water. The through town and to the Cathedral.

For me as well as most who see the city I would expect, Gaudi's cathedral Sagrada Família is the highlight. I studied much of what I saw in Spain in art history, but to see it in person . . . the cathedral is so large, detailed and grand it's just hard to wrap your head around. Walking through for an hour barely scratches the surface. The cathedral in Toledo is huge and fabulous, but traditional Gothic. Gaudi's is simply the work of a lifetime and century, since it was only --- in 2010 and is still far from finished.

Terragona

I enjoyed the slower pace of Tarragona after the big crazy cities, I would have liked to spent more time here too. It's impressive to be in a town that dates back from at lest 200 bc. There are still many Roman ruins on the waterfront and in the old part of town. There is also a model of the original Roman city and all I can say is you need slaves to accomplish that.

We had dinner in one of the squares and coffee in two this morning. We visited the Roman ruins and the museum, the cathedral and the open air market. Vesko is always saying that the produce is better in Europe and I always think how can that be?" But I have to admit it's true, but it may be partly in buying it fresh every morning.

I'm glad we spent a day in Terragona. But even with the ambitious pace we have been keeping we've barely seen a fraction of what's in Spain. One of the places I wanted to get to but didn't was San Sebastian and the Maison de Chotro. Even if I didn't know the Chotro family was from here, I would have noticed the similarity to my dad Don's art work and the modern Spanish artists! I'll just have to come back!

We headed from Terragona back to Madrid 6 hours of driving, spent a quick night by the airport. Salida means exit in Spanish, that I know, so when we were trying to enter the airport we were very confused about that. Thankfully we went the right way, since in Madrid if you go wrong it takes forever to get back where you started. Once in the airport I saw signs that said salida as in flying out, so the exit part means your exiting Madrid by getting on a airplane! From there I flew non-stop to Miami where I got a rental car and drove up to meet the guys here in Daytona. I'm writing this now overlooking the ocean, but I still can barely stay awake! More from Florida soon!

Focus Global Drive Test Drive Update from Spain

2011-02-21T12:00:00.002-08:00

Today (Monday) most of the Ford group headed home, I'm guessing they were pretty worn out after all the fun, late nights and jet lag. Camille and I happily do not go home until next Sunday. Today we got a little sleep finally, it's true that the nights in Spain go late. (I really felt bad for all of you heading to the airport early this morning.)

First and most importantly, I can't believe how many truly awesome, creative and inspiring people I met over the last three days. Every single event I met more people from around the world and heard more stories of commitment and passion for the work they are doing for their charities. The first evening was a dinner at the hotel where many of the participants were interviewed, then dinner turned into hanging out in the bar till early in the morning.

Our Focus Global Test Drive day was lots of fun and included: Driving Green, Safe Driving, Going Fast, and Driving Smarter. The day was raining a wet, but we had our Focus Global Drive swag to keep us warm. Camille missed all the first part as her plane was canceled and she got stuck in Chicago, but she made it to the test facility the next morning a little tired, but ready to drive. We drove around the infield and around the bowl track (like an oval but round) to see who could get the best mileage. This was great, but it didn't feel right to drive up the banking and not go all out!

We drove 4 laps on the road course—this was my favorite session and I think most of the group loved it too. I was dying for more time on track, Tanner and Justin had been talking about their day with the cars the day before and I was envious. They also got to take the manual transmission out, but we did not. We also toured the car and the self park technology (more on that later). In the afternoon we drove an autocross kind of track and played football/soccer with a giant ball (See the video). I think the hardest part of the day was where we were required to create a video in about 10 minutes, at least that's how long it felt! I'm too much of a perfectionist for that kind of quick and dirty video work. Obviously with the future of social media I need to improve that skill set.

• • •

Diverting to the subject of social media for a minute, this was a great experiment combining the social media world and the automotive industry. I think Ford did a great job, as well as Action Marketing group and all the drivers at AMCI Global, and Tanner Foust and Justin Bell as the hosts, but I have to believe it was groundbreaking for a car manufacturer. Ford invited 40 video "winners" and 40 traveling companions plus 20 professional bloggers and writers. It will be interesting to continue to watch the volume of tweets, blogs and videos that continue to come form the event. There was enough media moving through the wires at the hotel that their internet was as slow as dial-up.

Ford also gave us the goal of furthering the cause of our charities with continued events and media featuring the car over the next couple of months (with their support) . I'm expecting some fun projects to come out of this, I'm thinking hard about what mine will be.

• • •

Back to the car — I was impressed with the handling while on track and the balance. It was raining during the day so I had a wet session, but that is generally better in a street car. Camille did great, after saying repeatedly "I don't like driving on ice." she got through the slick track very well. She was also very tolerant of my backseat driving!

That night the Focus group took over the top floor of the hotel where we had tapas, entertainment and awards. Additional prizes were awarded to charities and driving trophies to drivers. I have a glass brick of a trophy (which is very cool) for best overall — go CA Sport!

The next day included more education on the car, and the Sync system designed by Justin Johnson at Ford (you'll see my interview with him later). I am excited to get my Focus for my 6-week test drive, but I'm very afraid the boys won't want to give it up at the end. Once you've had a car that's a mobile hot spot you can't live without it, that's my prediction anyway! I'm hoping for a manual 6 speed with the Sync system.

In the afternoon we went to the original capital of Spain, Toledo where we toured the old town and the cathedral, which is the second largest in Spain. I wished I could have had more time to look around, but was glad I got there for a few hours. The city is full of style, I loved the mix of very old and modern. I was so tired I feel asleep on the bus both ways, so unlike me!

Last night we went to a restaurant downtown that was excellent. There were three of us vegetarians who were sitting together by coincidence and we were joking about how this had been a weight loss trip. While there was always vegetarian food available, the portions were tiny. Apparently in Europe they think vegetarians don't each much! For lunch they had served me 6 slices of various vegetable and a roll, so I was seriously hungry! At first the restaurant was bringing all these meat and seafood tapas, so we asked for more bread, but the waiter understood that we were starving vegetarians and starting bringing delicious tomatoes, cheese and grilled veggies - yea! I had planned on getting some sleep since I realized I had only slept 5 or less hours each of the last three nights, but in Spain you just don't go to bed early.

Ford Focus Global Test Drive Day 1

2011-02-19T04:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday (was it really just yesterday?) I landed in Madrid at 10 am after an uneventful flight from Salt Lake via Dallas. I woke up and landed ready to go, but we had a quiet day so I had time to head downtown to the old part of Madrid and have a look around. I was joined by a couple of new friends, one named Ally from Self-Help International who is a 20-something much taller that I am!

The hotel we are at, the Puerto American is a funky place where each floor is a different theme from a different designer. I feel like I'm living in Star Trek.

We had an amazing dinner at the hotel and enjoyed the interesting interviews of the fellow "winners" and professional bloggers (and I do mean professional as Justine from iJustine is here.) Ford has done an excellent job of bringing togethers car people, social media experts and connectors. It a great group and I'm meeting so many interesting people!

Lara Heads to Spain for the Ford Focus Global Test Drive

2011-02-16T08:06:00.000-08:00

The Ford Focus Global Test Drive is an exciting and innovative social media initiative by Ford to spread the word about their most exciting new car.

You can read the press release here:

Anticipation Builds as 100 Ford Focus Global Test Drive Participants Head for Spain, Benefiting Charities

I am honored and exciting to have a chance to join Ford in this adventure. Stay tuned for updates from Spain!

Do you think we get to drive the ST version? I wish!
*Don't forget about round 2 of Grand-am's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge in Miami. I will arrive in Miami after my adventures in Spain!

Photos from the Grand-am 200 Daytona 2011

2011-02-16T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Skullcandy Honda Civic si

5th Place for CA Sport at Daytona!

2011-01-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

Daytona was another eventful race for the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge and the CA Sport team. We were join by our crew of: Josh Sandel as crew chief, Mark Keeton as strategist, Jason Smith from Innovative Garage, Ryan Taylor, Tyler Burgoyne and The Pfadt Racing crew: Aaron Pfadt, Josh and Blair.

Practice for us went smoothly, not so much for some of the other teams which caused a black flag in the first session so I ended up getting only one hot lap. Daytona is a short event since the test is earlier in January and due to budget we weren't there. That means that on Thursday we had two practice sessions, and then qualifying. Since the first session didn't give me much track time I was hoping to get it together the quickly. The new track felt quite different, much smoother and faster. The car got up to speed sooner on the oval and caused the car to move more from turbulence. The set-up was pretty good from the start, but Vesko and the crew continued to improve the car and before I knew it it was time to qualify.

Qualifying, what can I say, not pretty. I was trying to find a gap to get a run, but it seemed like the race was on. After a couple of laps I found a hole and put down a better lap, but it was less than stellar so we started the race in 32nd :-(

I was in the car first as usual and my job was to stay out of trouble and to be very easy on the brakes. We still can hardly finish a race with any brakes left and staying out of trouble in the start of a Continental race is challenging. There were 45 cars in the ST field, 80 plus cars total, so it was a busy start. There were two full-course yellows in the first 30 minutes. Mark and Vesko decided to do our pit stop then as I radioed in that there were 5 cars involved and clean-up would be lengthy. I narrowly missed that pile-up, can't wait to see the video. That happened half a lap after one of the Freedom cars got loose in the horseshoe and almost collected me. I think there were 5 full-course yellows during the race and many cars down—but not the Skullcandy Honda Civic si!

Sitting in the pit waiting for the outcome is torture, but watching Vesko show his usual style was excellent. He made it to 3rd place but couldn't get by the KIA's who were working together then he was hit repeatedly by one of the orange civics which happened to be a lap down and not competing in the top ten, but his teammate behind him was trying to catch Vesko. He turned Vesko twice and ripped off the back bumper, but Vesko held on for a 5th place finish.

After the race Grand-am pulled several cars for tech and a dyno test. I doubt well here anything from the results, but I'd love to. It took several hours so we were really late getting packed up and out.

On to Miami. . .

Florida, Pre 24-hours of Daytona

2011-01-25T16:49:00.000-08:00

We've made it to Daytona. Snow, wind, icy roads,and rain—lots and lots of rain did not stop us. Tonight we are with our friends at Black Forest where everyone is finalizing the cars for tomorrow's move-in. There are always so many last minute things to do and time on race weekends is so busy. I finished my vinyl work so I'm off to Camp Boggy Creek in the morning, Grand-am's charity for kids with cancer.

Birmingham, Alabama Getting There

2011-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

We're motoring down Highway 65 headed south to Montgomery. I'm full of collard greens and baked beans Southern style. We haven't taken the time to stop and eat during the days, but we had the Euro travel supplies: filling bread made by Vesko's Mum, veggies, fruit and cheese. I decided we needed to experience some traditional Southern cooking and found a bar-b-que joint recommended on Yelp.

It's a relief to be this far, but there are still 600 miles to go. We got off to a very slow start, mechanical failure in Park City. Brad was available to run some parts up and Vesko fixed the truck even though it was a blizzard out.

Blizzard describes the next part of the journey— I-80 was closed after we started towards Cheyenne. I had checked the weather several times and it looked like a small area of snow that we would pass through quickly but as soon as we entered Wyoming the storm grew rapidly. The next few hours were spent looking for the white lines, several times I looked at the speedometer and we were going 6 miles per hour. We passed several unfortunate rigs buried in the snow, but we made it through. Considering it was the first time I've pulled the 48 foot trailer I think I survived pretty well.

Since then it's been an uneventful blur of truck stops that all seem to look a like. Traveling in a truck is a different experience and takes much more planning than a car road trip. Out on the open road trucks are great, but maneuvering around town is challenging and without a plan and an internet connection almost impossible. When I'm navigating I have my iphone and laptop going, I've even used Google Earth to scope parking!

We plan to meet up with Josh Sandel tomorrow, and knowing Josh he will beat us there! We first met Josh two years ago, at the Daytona Test (the year of the short-lived blue Civic). Josh volunteered to come down to Daytona and help the team that year while he was stationed in Florida with the Coast Guard. If I remember correctly Josh was supposed to meet us at 7 am and he arrived at 3! He's since been transferred to North Carolina but he still joins us for the races heading up the crew and lifting up cars if needed.

Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge 2011

2011-01-20T07:06:00.000-08:00

Today Grand-am Announced TV Schedule for 2011—you can find the schedule here.

The CA Sport team is working hard to be ready to leave for Daytona. The red Civic will be driven this year by myself and Vesko. We will be backed by an excellent crew of Josh Sandel, Jason Smith, Pfadt Race Engineering, Ryan Taylor and our team strategist Mark Keeton. Mark has worked hard during the off-season to design and implement new software to track the car and fuel consumption through the race. Vesko has also worked hard to improve the car and we all hope to be more competitive at Daytona. No more death in 6th gear!

The newly paved track does look to be faster, based on times from the test. The Schultz/Trade Manage Racing Boxster put down a blistering 2:06.869 (yes, that is an ST car). It will be interesting to see what times the ST cars are running come Thursday. I know I can hardly wait!

Off-season

2011-01-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

The short off-season is over, at least it was for all the Grand-am teams who went to the Roar Before the 24 in Daytona. CA Sport did not, but we will be there for the race in two weeks with the Civic and I can hardly wait! As usual it we will still be frantically getting the car ready until the last minute when the trailer rolls out—which is next Sat.

I decided to take a vacation in November and what a great choice it was! I joined Kalama Kamp, big wave surfer Dave Kalama's paddle board boot camp. It was a week of workouts, lots of paddling and fun people in the amazing setting of Turks and Caicos.

In my next post I will have info about our new sponsor for 2011, I'd tell you now, but we are still finalizing our plans!

Funny Video from the Last 2010 Race

2010-11-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

May be I'm to only one who finds humor in this, but it had me laughing so hard during the race. Of course there is much KIA vs. Mini drama that went on during the season. Mr. KIA is giving the "Come here and get some more." hand gesture, watch closely and you can see it. There was a bunch of gesturing going on and then he managed to get his hand out the nets, but you can hardly see it on the video.

Updated 2011 Grand-am Schedule

2010-11-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

The official 2011 Continental Tire Challenge Series schedule will be as follows:

2011 Continental Tire Challenge Schedule
January 7/9 Daytona - Pre 24 hour Event test
January 29/30 - Daytona – 24 Hour Event
March 4/6 - Homestead Event
April 8/10 - Barber Event
May 13/15 - VIR Event
May 27/29 - Lime Rock Event
June 3/5 - Watkins Glen Event
June 24/26 - Road America Event
July 8/10 – Laguna Seca
July 22/24 - New Jersey Event
September 16/18 - Mid Ohio Event

I hope to see you there!

New TV by Grand-am

2010-10-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

If you're a fan of road racing, or just want to learn more, check out Grand-am's new "reality show" The Edge—starting Sunday October 31.

The Edge: GRAND-AM Road Racing Debuts Sunday

Go Alonso!

2010-10-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the Korean Grand Prix. What a crazy unpredictable, wet race. I can't say I was hugely impressed with the newest F1 racetrack. It has too many walls, not that this race was a good indication of regular races under dry conditions.

I am happy the Fernando Alonso, my favorite Formula One driver, won it. I felt bad for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel, but that's why racing is so exciting—it's completely unpredictable. The rain was so heavy that Mark Webber complained about the fact the race would go on, and then didn't look to be driving his best, that's another part of racing that is so tough, the mental aspect.

Anyway if you haven't watched it get the Tivo's going, just fast forward the first hour or so that's all under yellow or red flags.

Read more here on the F1 site.

Grand-am's 2011 schedule

2010-10-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

Rolex and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge 2011 Schedule - No Miller Motorsports :-(

Jan. 29-30: Rolex 24 at Daytona, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Fla.
March 5: Grand Prix of Miami, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead, Fla.
April 9: Porsche 250, Barber Motorsports Park, Birmingham, Ala.
May 14: Bosch Engineering 250, Virginia International Raceway, Danville, Va.
May 30: Memorial Day Classic, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, Conn.
June 4: Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen, Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, N.Y.
June 25: Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wis.
July 9: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Monterey, Calif.
July 24: New Jersey 250, New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, N.J.

Rolex only --
Aug. 13: Crown Royal 200, Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen, N.Y.
Aug. 20: Montreal 200, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Sept. 17: EMCO Gears Classic, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio

• Hopefully Canada will still be added for Conti.

My Favorite Racing (Second to Grand-am, of course!) - Australian V8 Supercars!!

2010-10-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

As much as I like to see Fernando Alonso dominate, I still like the action of the Australian V8 Supercars more!

Getting off subject, I Googled Fernando this morning and the second option that quick-filled when I started typing his name was "fernando alonso salary" — amusing — he makes 40 million in case you were wondering.

Anyway, back to the Supercars. Vesko and I often dissect the coverage of this series and talk about ways Grand-am / SPEED TV could improve the coverage of our races. They certainly spend a lot of money with several cameras in-car both on the driver, and the cars in front and behind, cameras on cables above the race track and cameras in helicopters.

Check out the big crash from last weekends race (which will be on SPEED this weekend)

Also qualifying is broadcast and has a great format. You can find it here:
Complete Qualifying

Enjoy, and notice the interesting camera views.

CA Sport Featured on USA Today

2010-09-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks to USA Today for featuring us today! I've already had calls from friends who saw us on the homepage, so I guess we will get some notice from this. Sponsors take note!

You can see the photo story here

Yesterday Vesko and I had a planning meeting for 2011, while we rode the Great Western trail. Seems like we keep having our meetings while peddling, which is fine by me, since I am always multi-tasking. I did complain to him during the marketing part of our meeting that it's impossible to get him to pose for any photos and we really need one of us with the car, USA Today wanted one and I had very few photos of me, and none of both of us.

So he posed (sort-of) for this one. Here we are a the top of the world, or the top of Utah anyway.

What a beautiful fall day!

Racing Friends and Family

2010-09-23T14:09:00.001-07:00

There's nothing like getting in a car, especially if it's in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge! But one of my favorite parts of racing is all the great people I've met and the family we've developed around racing.

Before the race we had a fun, gourmet lunch provided by Vesko's sister Olia. We all hung out in the garage and enjoyed the good food and friends. I might have been a little more relaxing if I didn't know I had to get in the car and go fast right after!

We were also joined by a school group of boys who came to check out the cars and see what racing was really like. I got this thank-you from them yesterday and it really made my day, so I asked if I could share it with you.

Here are a few photos of the group --

CA Sport Finishes 9th at Miller

2010-09-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

It was a fun and successful weekend at Miller with Grand-am and the Continental Sports Car Challenge. Racing at home is a treat, you get to sleep in your own bed and have all your friends come. For me the best thing was having the boys and their friends there—they are in school for most of the race season and don't get to travel with me. Miller is disappointing because of the lack of crowds when compared to the east coast tracks that sell out for Grand-am weekends, it's such a nice facility I'm still surprised that the locals haven't caught on.

We had most of our usual crew, Josh and Lee flew in from N. Carolina Mark and Sara ran strategy, Boli, Jason, Randy, Wes, and new Jason. We also had friends from Florida, the Blackforest Motorsports team with their Dodge Challenger, and Mustang GS cars. They shared their shop with our group while we were in FL last year, so we were happy to have them join us in our team garage for the weekend.

We enjoyed great food and friends. One night we all had dinner at the Naked Fish which was excellent sushi. Vesko's sister Olia provided lunch for all of us two days and we enjoyed having her join us and her son Alec, and we had Tyler running the BBQ.

I qualified the Civic 16th the morning of the race and it was set-up well and the track was fast. In the afternoon practice the day before the car wasn't working well and I had a lot of trouble with it. For the race the changes we made caused us to be a little off. It was a hard call to make since in the morning the track was cold and fast, but we knew it would be much hotter for the race.

My job was to try and keep up while preserving the brakes, not an easy task. I hate getting passed at the corners because I have to brake early and very gently! I also hate getting passed on the straight, which happened to both Vesko and myself. I got out of the car in 10th and Vesko worked up to 7th, but couldn't hold off the faster cars down that long straight.

I had the hardest battle I've ever had, but it was exactly where I wanted to be. I was determined to stay in the race, and the car was good enough this time to hang in. I've never been hit so many times (or I'll admit hit others sorry APR!) Vesko and I were both hit by GS cars in practice resulting in donuts to both sides of the car. We stayed out trouble with the GS cars during the race. Of course I did in the passenger side, again. . .

I think overall it was a success and I can hardly wait until January, when I hope we will be in Daytona! Thanks everyone who was there!

Ready for the Final Race of 2010

2010-09-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday starts our final event of the season, but possibly the most fun, since it is at our home track at Miller Motorsports Park. We know that track better than any other, have the car set-up and also get to enjoy all of our friends. Here's the car today, ready to head for the race track. I'll look forward to seeing you there!

Thanks again to Citydeals.com and Unique Patio Furniture for their support!

*Miller has given us an excellent discount on tickets for our "friends and family". Please email me if you are interested.

Testing at Miller for the Final Grand-am Weekend of 2010

2010-08-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Racing, Rock-n-roll, They Go Together

2010-08-04T21:33:00.002-07:00

Since this is my blog I get to decide on content :-) So even though this is a blog about the race team, sometimes you just have to suffer through my other favorite topics, like my kids! And rock-n-roll, or tonight the blues.

I had an amazing night, I got to listen to guitar legend Sonny Landreth while he jammed with the best guitarists in Salt lake, Johnny London, Andrew Goldring and Brad Tallman (that would be my favorite, and my son!)

I have never heard a guitar sound as complex or interesting as Sonny's—it was truly an experience.

Congrats to Brad and the London School of Guitar for putting on possibly the best guitar camp ever. Tomorrow night is the lead guitarist of Modest Mouse and ?. . .

Testing at Miller this Weekend

2010-08-04T11:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a quiet couple of months for the team since returning from the East Coast races. We've spent the time getting the cars ready for the final race of the season at Miller. I did race the local series at Miller a couple of weeks ago. Byron was kind enough to let me drive his spec e46 which was a fun car. I had some good racing with local BMW drivers Mark and Toby. Once again there were (unfounded) complaints about my driving from the Challenged Mustang group. I'll refrain for venting and just say that if I were in a Mustang, a stock e46 wouldn't be a problem (unless Vesko was driving it)!

This weekend we will have the Mustang and Civic on track for testing and set-up since it's outer track configuration, which is what we will be running with Grand-am this September.

This week I finally got back on a water-ski, what a great workout that is. Team-mate Keith and I took the boat out early and had some great water. I'm hoping to get back out there tomorrow. I feel pretty lame waiting until August to ski!

More updates soon . . .

BMW Uses Grand-am Racing for their Viral Marketing

2010-06-28T10:04:00.001-07:00

This Month's Top 10

2010-06-06T06:49:00.000-07:00

**The fans at the East Coast races, a top #1!

I woke up at 4:15 am this morning to catch a flight with crew members Jason and Josh, looking forward to getting home after 10 days on the road to see my boys. I was thinking about the highs and lows of the trip, so here are my top 10s —

The top 10 moments of the trip:

10. Seeing Upstate New York and Connecticut in the Spring.
9. Staying in the Rochester Doubletree last night and getting CLEAN!
8. No damage to either of our cars.
7. Getting to do two race starts in the Civic.
6. Meeting new friends, and having our great crew along - Mark, Boli, Jason, Josh, Ryan.
5. Camping and driving at Monticello. I was hoping to see some amazing member cars on track with us but due to the weather they were no-shows. This did mean we had the whole track to ourselves all day! I drove the Mustang some and I have to say V did an awesome job building that car. It's far better than any other Mustang I've ever driven (and did I mention it has POWER?!)
4. Driving at three awesome tracks, 6 out of 10 days on track.
3. Driving over the hill at Lime Rock, woohoo, and driving up the S's at Watkins.
2. Getting on track at Lime Rock, and getting myself up to speed quickly.
1. Running in 7th after an excellent pit stop at Watkins Glen and not using up the brakes or getting involved in the bash fest that was the beginning of the race.

But. . . racing is not all fun and glamor here are the top 10 lows:

10. Walking through Watkins Glen hauling our suitcases like vagrants.
9. Qualifying poorly.
8. Scrounging for tires.
7. The unpredictable, but always hot humid and sticky weather.
6. Missing a session at Watkins Glen due to scheduling changes, (note to self, always check and re-check the schedule because they always change!)
5. Losing much or our track time at Watkins Glen due to black flags.
4. Worrying about the brakes . . .
3. Hose showers, I won't say where
2. My first ever truck stop shower, and if I get to keep racing, I'm sure it's not my last.
1. Being in 7th and having to drop out due to overheating.

Looking back at the list a few days later, the good already far outweighs the bad, I'm most happy that my driving and my ability to learn new tracks is improving. You can't spend that much time on track and not learn a lot. We're still not sure when our next race will be, Miller for sure if not before.

Watkins Glen, Promoter Test Day 2010

2010-06-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Watkins Glen last night, after an uneventful trip, which is always a good thing! Our crew of Josh, Jason, Boli and Ryan are all here helping us get going.

First I have to say a big THANKS to Monticello Motor Club a seriously cool private driving club. They allowed us to park there between races and use the track for testing. It's in a beautiful rural location, with a 4.5 mile track rolling through the hills of New York. We camped out next to the crazy gang of APR and had the track mostly to ourselves. I took out the Mustang while Vesko tested in the Civic. I thought the Mustang was great, much better than any other Mustang I've driven—I've changed my mind about racing that car, should I ever get the chance. The power is a great bonus.

First Session at Watkins
I got in the car first and thought I was riding a bucking bronc from the wild west. The car had seriously stiff rear suspension which made me feel pretty sketchy while on track, especially when the GS cars came by within inches as they like to do. I did 5 laps and handed it over to Vesko.

Second Session
We missed it . . . we got the schedule in the morning, but they changed it and since we are paddocked in the back 40 we didn't notice.

Third Session
I got in the car a thought it was hugely better, got about a lap and a half and the session was red flagged. I hear it was a large incident involving John Potter's Caymen, but I haven't heard for sure.

Official practice and qualifying tomorrow.

More Continental Fun at Lime Rock

2010-05-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Lime Rock was a great couple of days. Neither Vesko or I had ever seen the track before and that is a lot to adjust to in one day. We had two 30 minute practice sessions and then I had to qualify the same day. Even though I qualified 34th out of 36, I really felt like I was doing well. Vesko was able to get the car going any faster himself, and we both went the same pace during the race. The best we could get from the car was in the 1.01 range, while a few cars managed 59, most were at 1.0o

It is a quick lap and a fast track, there's no time to relax, like there is at Miller when you are running down that 1/2 mile front straight. It's also a beautiful area, I look forward to getting there again. This week there's lot more fun and 5 or more days on track ahead.

We are in route to Monticello Motorsports club, where they have graciously offered to host the Grand-am teams before Watkins Glen. We will be testing there in Tuesday and then off to the Glen on Wed.

Up Next Grand-am at Lime Rock!

2010-05-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Once again I have fallen behind on my blogging. After VIR I went to Watkins Glen with Next Generation Motorsports to test and learn the track. Since I've never been to any of these East Coast tracks it's a real challenge for me. I really enjoyed Watkins Glen. Of course it was a low pressure open track day, and I had gotten familiar with the BMW, so that helped. I went to Watkins Glen with our World Challenge team in 2008 (?) and while I didn't drive I did walk and study the track. The images were still in my brain, and even though I was too busy working the week before in California to study video I never felt lost.

We had hoped to run both cars at Lime Rock, but I had not planned to drive, we had other drivers lined up. That didn't work out, so now I'm driving with the V man. I haven't ever been there, and there's no test day, which for me is less than ideal, but have you ever known me to pass us a chance to drive?!

We tested the Civic at Miller about a week ago Friday. Park City TV was there filming (yes, me). I think I was really boring, but they have a lot of talent, so there's hope.

Here's the crazy thing: I won the Utah Best of State in the professional athlete category. My kids said, "Mom, shouldn't a Jazz player or something win that?" All I can say is they must not have entered, but thanks to my excellent PR person Dave Howe, I was entered. It is true, you have to show up to win, and thus we are headed to Lime Rock.

Vesko and Boli left early this morning and they have emailed me photos along the way. I was feeling pretty left out, 'cause I love a good road trip, but it hasn't been the easiest day for them, snow, ice, hail, tornadoes, lightening. Fun fun. I reminded Boli that at least it wasn't as bad as the day it was 120 degrees and people were dying in the towns we passed of heat stroke. We were without a/c, but somehow Vesko was never hot . . .

Here's a view from the hauler today, May 24.
I better go a study some track video!

Continental Sports Car Challenge 2010 t VIR Highlights

2010-05-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Video from VIR

2010-04-26T09:08:00.000-07:00

Laura Olson will have the Cobalt video up later this week and I'll add that, but here's a lap from APR. I studied the videos before arriving this weekend, since I had never been there, and I was surprised how much larger the elevation changes were than they appear on video. I guess it's just like watching snow skiing video of yourself, you always think it looks so flat . .

VIR — Continental Sports Car Challenge 2010

2010-04-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Started 31st (yes, last) finished 13th

It's almost midnight here in Virgina, I've made it to Raleigh / Durham and am finally clean and fed! I've been dying for a shower since I got out of the car. It must have been about 30 minutes into the race where I it hit me how hot and humid it was, I got that sensation when you open your oven door for a peek.

Overall I'm happy with the results of the weekend, but it has tough and frustrating moments. I did really enjoy the Next Gen team, Jeff and his family and getting to know Laura, Ted and Chris the regular Next Gen drivers. I was happy to have Josh and Lee, from our team drive up and join us for the day, that was 4.5 hours of driving each way—thanks! Also, VJ graciously coached me and he is an excellent teacher. He is driving with Sara Cattaneo this year in the Mini, but also coaching Laura and Chris. Without having Vesko with me to coach me and show me what a car is really capable of I was thankful to have the support of Laura and VJ. I know that Vesko can get in a car an within two laps put together a time that is all the car is capable of. That gives me a target, and even though I rarely if ever make that target I can easily judge my progress.

We didn't get much time in the car for testing. Our first session I got one hot lap and then came down the hill to see a Cobalt upside down and burning. Not a great site. As you come over the climbing S part of the track you are going fast and the cars are loose, the grassy hill drops off steeply to the right as you crest the hill and turn down to the left. Watching the in-car video of this you don't get a feel for the speed or elevation change, driving at VIR for the first time is eye-opening. Chris happened to be right behind the Cobalt when it went down and the video is impressive and terrible. The day before we had experienced multiple black flags one when and Bimmer World BMW tangled with a Porsche also in the S's and James Clay ended up going nose over tail.

For qualifying we made a large change to the car which helped to looseness it was having on corner exit. Even so I qualified last, 31st. One of Jeff's son's asked if it was embarrassing to be last and I said "Yes, don't ever do it." Going to the pre-race drivers meeting was no fun.

About 30 minutes into my stint I thought, "I can't believe there hasn't been a full course caution yet." Because of the track and the events during testing I really expected many cautions. About 50 minutes into the race we had one. This brought the 36 car in for a driver change. As soon as I saw the yellow light on my dash I drove as hard as I could, I had been hoping for a caution to give me a chance to catch up. I drove hard, but the pace car was setting as fast pace with the GS cars and it was tough to catch. I got the radio to go around the GS cars, but as I approached the second in line GS car, the APR Audi he wouldn't let me by. Even though Grand-am was on the radio telling the GS cars to let the ST cars by no one would let me pass. I caught them in the first s's and it narrow. I kept trying to get around Ian Baas in the Audi and he kept blocking me. He kept gesturing like what are you trying to do it's yellow you can't pass me. I seriously should have hit him, but I did not want to damage the BMW in any way, so I just gave him a gesture of my own as I finally got around. His team apologized to Jeff, but what a pain. As soon as we went green again, we went yellow. Once more down the hill four cars, three crashed in a pile. Here's the Grand-am copy:

Four cars were involved in the race's only major incident, with contact involving defending race winner Derek Whitis's No. 25 Aventura Technologies Mazda MX-5, Todd Buras's No. 51 Irish Mike's Racing Volkswagen Jetta GLI and Chris Prusinski's No. 79 Coastline Imaging BMW M3 causing the race's second caution and forcing retirement for all three cars. Buras was transported to Danville Regional Medical Center and later treated and released. The No. 32 Cybernation MAZDASPEED3 of Taylor Hacquard also made hard contact with Whitis's car but continued on to pit lane." Very messy! I was thinking how many cars have be totaled so far this weekend 7, 8?

As we went yellow again it started to sprinkle and because the team knew the yellow would be longer than three laps they decided to keep me out one more lap to see if it would rain or not. The sprinkles didn't increase so I got out of the car about 1:13 and Ted got in. Because Ted got in the car very close to one hour 15 minutes which is just how long the BMW can run on a tank of gas we knew it would be risky to finish without another fuel stop, but we decided to keep him out and hope he cold finish. The car started sputtering on the last lap. His drive was clean and uneventful, no more yellows and we ended up in 13th.

Laura Olson had a great drive and the car was up to 5th. Unfortunately, during Chris's drive the motor died and took them out of the race, ending that car in 21st position.

Virgina Test Day

2010-04-22T20:33:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Virginia late last night, so I didn't see anything as I drove from North Carolina up to Danville. I didn't have to be at the track until noon today (what a change that was), so I had time to work a little and explore the old downtown area a bit. I went to Coffee on Main where I experienced real Southern coffee, it was so sweet I couldn't drink it. I also found the tobacco warehouse district from the 1800's all morning I really felt like I was in the South.

Then I went to the track. It's beautiful. Everything around here is rolling and green. My first thought while watching the Mustang Challenge was that the elevation changes are much greater than the video shows. I've been reviewing James Clay on YouTube at VIR, unfortunately his car ended it's weekend today with an incident involving a Porsche. As usual I am challenged greatly by a new track, and new car. The BMW is fun to drive, but it does need to be driven differently from the Civic Si.

Website Updates

2010-03-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Check out the new site for motorsportsgirl.com

And the new CA Sport team site, which is now at www.ca-sport.com

Grand-am in Miami

2010-03-05T07:04:00.000-08:00

Today I'm in Miami for the Grand-am races: the Homestead 200 and the Grand Prix of Miami. Lucky me! Well, not really because I am here and not driving, my team is not even here, so I'm a little lost.

I have had several good conversations with teams and Grand-am (Let me say one more time how much I love the Grand-am people. I know I've said it before, but I still feel the pain from that other series and that makes me realize how great Grand-am is.) About our sponsorship deals and the future and I am optimistic. I will be racing soon.

Speaking of the other series, it looks like they have defected en-mass to Rolex and Continental Tire. I had a look at the new Corvette that from LGMotorsports, Lou Gigliotti,I'm interested to see how it runs today.

Even though I'm bummed about not driving today, I just had a huge laugh over this eBay item
That's right, someone has put my "hero card" on eBay. Ha ha ha - someone buy it please!

SPEED TV Coverage

2010-02-17T10:23:00.000-08:00

If you were like me and went out Saturday night, you missed the race. (Yes, once in a while I do have a social life.) I left my Tivo at home recording—I thought—and came home looking forward to watching some great racing. When I found there was no race I was BUMMED. You can complain to SPEED TV here:

SPEED Feedback

Also, as a fan an hopefully a more knowledgeable-than-average human of all things social media I've been excited about what's going on in Twitter land. I had the privilege of going the the TweetHouse seminar during the Sundance Film Festival (yes it was a GREAT party), but I learned a lot too. Hollywood is using Twitter in some interesting and very effective ways that I think would be great for Grand-am. My first step is to grow my Twitter following, so if you aren't following me yet, please do! I'm laratall.

Thanks for reading!

More Pics of the Cars

2010-02-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

http://lkphotography.zenfolio.com/p635844202

Daytona Fresh From Florida TV Coverage

2010-02-12T14:05:00.001-08:00

I know what I'm doing Saurday night, and no it's not a hot Valentines date --
You probably won't see our cars since we weren't in the top 10, but keep your eye out for #67 and #68.

DATE: Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010
TIME: 7 p.m. ET
NETWORK: SPEED

EVENT: Fresh From Florida 200

The season-opening Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race, the Fresh From Florida 200, boasts a lineup of over 70 cars. Tune in to see thrilling battles between the latest production-based sports cars on the challenging infield road course at Daytona International Speedway.

Please visit www.grand-am.com for more information.

Honda -- Failure: The Secret to Success

2010-02-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't seen this short video by Honda Racing:
Failure: The Secret to Success

Daytona 2010

2010-01-31T08:29:00.000-08:00

Our team approached the 2010 season without solid funding, but with great determination to participate in the newly named Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Vesko and Boli have labored for months to see both cars finished and ready for the first race — the Fresh from Florida race in Daytona.

Our trip to the got off to a rough start. We were missing a co-driver, as Keith Rossberg was unable to attend. With the goal of getting the car on track we attempted to find another co-driver with only hours to spare. Our friend Jeff Bock recommended Bryan Ortiz, someone who would be fast and safe in the car, as the last thing we wanted to repeat was a crashed car. Brian managed to find a flight that night from his home in Puerto Rico, just as we had the Mustang out for the last session and realized the new motor did not have oil pressure and would have to be swapped. Brian decided to risk it and get on the plane, while our crew got to work. Since the garages had a mandatory close time of 9:30 I was skeptical we could make it. Amazingly our crew got the job done about 5 minutes before going on track race day.

The total race entry list was 81 cars, 75 actually started the race. Since the Mustang missed qualifying the night before it hard to start from the back of the GS pack in the 39th position. Ernie qualified and started in the car 30th in the ST field.

Since I usually start the race, I was happy to try it the other way around. I sat nervously watching, but also in awe as Bryan brought the car from 39th to 8th without incidents. That was some driving! The thought of having two very fast drivers in the car gave me great optimism, but of course that's when the trouble started. During the first pit stop when Vesko got in the car the jack was improperly placed and the car fell off and the crew couldn't get the jack back under. At that point Josh PICKED UP THE CAR, and the jack man was able to get the jack back under. With that kind of heroic only about 10 seconds were wasted, but the stop overall was very slow and the car went a lap down. With further bad luck a full-course yellow was thrown immediately after. Pretty much the same story on the second pit, with another yellow following, and then a rear rotor blew out taking the caliper with it.

By then I was in the Civic, and as a came around NASCAR turn 2, headed into the bus stop I was so bummed to see the Mustang limping home. I didn't have much time to dwell on that is for the whole of my time on track I was in the battles. It's some of the best racing I have been involved in—close and competive the whole time. I can't wait to do it again. Daytona is a fun, fun track. And who knew the Civic si would go 142? Even with waaaaay tooo long of a 6th gear.

We've been enjoying the Rolex 24, wishing we were driving, and are doing some maintenance today to the hauler can head back to Salt Lake with the competent crew of Vesko and Ryan.

I don't know what our next race will be, but I know it won't be soon enough.

Final results for the Civic: 14th in class, 37th overall.

Thanks to our Sponsors!

Unique Patio Furniture
Class Auto Center
Redline Technik
CityDeals.com
LunaWebs.com

Oh, I haven't told you about the great patio furniture donated by Unique Patio Furniture for a give-away. I really appreciate their support of the team. More later . . .

If racing was easy, would we like it so much?

2010-01-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

“In prosperity, our friends know us; in adversity, we know our friends”
— John Churton Collins

Thanks to a great crew:
Aaron and Robbin Pfadt
Josh Sandel
Aaron Morgan
John Cox
Mike Morley
Jason Smith
Aaron Failner
Ryan Taylor

and to my co-driver Ernie Becker, his partner Mark for the photos, his girlfriend Tracy, and Corey!

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford

Daytona — Here We Come!

2010-01-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

It is with a huge sense of relief that I say the cars are finished and (I hope) in the hauler ready to head for Florida in the morning. I left the shop this evening after finishing the vinyl, you can see from the photos the Grand-am series decals are not on the car yet. The series sponsor was unhappy with the colors after test days, so they have re-printed them and I'll pick them up Wed. at the track and get them on the cars.

I want to say thanks to a few people:

My new co-driver Ernie Becker and he has been so helpful and professional - I hope we can continue the season.
Class Auto Center for their sponsorship of the car.
Unique Patio Furniture who have donated a complete patio set to be given away to one lucky fan.
CityDeals.com and Keith Rossberg for their race team support.
All of our volunteer crew, who are just the most awesome ever, I'm so happy we have the group we do traveling with us this time. Also, the Utah gang, can't wait to drive with you this summer, thanks for being our fans.
Boli for sticking with the team and doing excellent work, and
Most of all Vesko for pushing all of us, building superior cars, always being right and letting me drive!

Highlight from the 2009 Koni Race at Miller

2009-12-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

Check out professional motorsports photographer Wes Dunkel's highlights of the Koni and Mustang Challenge races at Miller here.

There are several great photos of the car and team.

“There is no Honda Without Racing” - Mr. Honda

2009-11-14T22:38:00.000-08:00

I spent most of today touring the Honda Performance Development facility in Santa Clarita, CA. My visit home to my parents and 94-year-old Grandfather conveniently coincided with the open house, so I took advantage of the opportunity and headed over to Honda’s “top-secret” race headquarters.

The massive, high-tech123,000 square foot building is where the engines are built for Honda’s ALMS and Indy car efforts. They do take security seriously as evidenced by the large quantity of guards—we were not allowed to wander unaccompanied or photograph anything other than the stars drivers Helio Castroneves and Dan Wheldon (who are great sports).

As you would expect the whole place is operating room sterile, with a separate part of the building for each part of development, building and testing. All parts that enter are first put into quarantine, and then weighed and measured before being approved.

One of the coolest parts of the engine testing area were the different “rooms” for dyno testing the engines, parts and transmissions. Each room is soundproofed, and has complete climate control for replicating the altitude and humidity of different track locations, and of course has a complete ventilation system. The test is video taped and is run by a technician that sits outside the explosion-proofed glass at the computer. I can only imagine the increased performance they could coax out of our stock Civic motor.

The best part of the days was of course the people. It was good the meet the Honda team that I’ve been talking to on the phone, and other racers, quite a few that I’ve met at various tracks. Also, Helio and Dan (I’m definitely too tall for Indy).

A racer himself, Mr. Honda, based his company on the belief that racing is the ultimate proving ground. Mr. Honda also said "I've failed 99% of my trials, in order to succeed in the remaining 1%". Thank you Honda for continuing to make racing a priority!

Grand-am Has Released the 2010 Schedule

2009-10-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

How did I miss this? I've been watching for it. There must have been too much good racing on TV! They have not released the TV details yet.

Top Gear at Laguna Seca in an NSX

2009-10-11T18:01:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind in my TV viewing, today's Rolex and ALMS races are still waiting on my Tivo, but I did catch an old Top Gear from season 7. Jeremy Clarkson decided to find out if he was faster driving the video game or on the actual track. He drove an NSX at Laguna Seca both in the game and in reality. This made me pretty nostalgic for my NSX, but that awesome car has funded a few race cars for me, so it's now a happy memory.

I've often thought about learning a new track this way. It does work for some drivers, but I can't even figure out which button to press on the little controller, let alone look at where I am going. My kids think I am lame, but that's the way it is, and I just can't see putting more time into figuring out the game when I have laundry to do and a garden to weed. Jeremy looked to be comfortable with the controller and drove the virtual NSX around with a fast lap of 1.41 —not bad. On the real Laguna Seca, in the real Acura he couldn't get within 15 seconds of that time.

His explanation for the difference was that he couldn't stop thinking "What would happen if the wheel fell off now? or What if a metior hit right in front of me?" He doesn't believe that real race drivers have any of those thoughts while on track. That was a relevant question since I did have a wheel fall off at the most inoportune time (between turn 8 and 9) during the 25 hours of Thunderhill in 2006. I guess that's probably true, there's no time for questions like that when you're thinking about car behavior, turn-in, placement, the car next to you. I don't know, maybe if my brain processed a little faster I'd have time for that—do you?

This all tied into all the media I've been reading this week about Forza 3. The images are amazingly life-like! It makes me want to give it one more go. I'm not sure which "real" tracks it comes with, that would be the selling point for me. That and the fact that it might be a cheaper way to go, but hey if a wheel can't really fall off, what's the point?

F1 without Flavio is like Miller without Vesko

2009-10-09T07:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe that's a bad analogy, but I just couldn't resist. Lest you go down the wrong path here, I'm not talking about the cheating thing, it's the whole interesting personality thing. I love the story behind the race, the interviews, the characters, of which motorsports has plenty. I look forward to the Acura Pre-race Show, and I have to admit Flavio is always one of my favorite interviewees. He's passionate about F1, I guess spending several million will have that effect, or being passionate about it will allow you to spend the millions it takes. Either way, good or bad, motorsports has a story.

This month seems to have had more than usual. Flavio and his "crash-gate", APR and the motor tear-down after the Miller Koni race, (Did you follow the forums about that? If you didn't it's too late, the Grand-am forum has been taken down). Then the news yesterday that J.C. France was pulled over for street racing, and subsequently arrested for driving under the influence and also charged for possession of cocaine. Grand-am has banned him from racing but I don't think we've heard the last of that. Brumos, need to fill that seat? I'm available this weekend :-)

I'm curious about the APR caught cheating story. I first heard about it from a reliable source the day after the tear-down, someone who had been there. Their info was that there were many rule infractions, enough that the Grand-am officials were shocked. APR's statement on the forum was that it was only a minor intake modification that did not increase the Volkswagen's power. Having been passed by those cars on track I have thoughts of my own about their power . . . The Koni Grand-am officials believed that even though they threw a bunch of changes and restrictions at the APR team they were just so talented that they were able to consistently go faster regardless of the rule changes. I have to say that my favorite quote on this comes from Subaru 111 driver Andrew Aquilante "Those APR cars really handle well in a straight line." I can understand the Sube team's frustration, if I were Carl T of Compass 360 I'd be adding up all the prize money lost to APR. Grand-am has been pretty quiet on this story recently—sanctioning bodies don't appear to believe the PR view that "all press is good press" APR's site and blogs have not updated since the press release about the win. Grand-am did fine APR $10,000 and the Violation List says this:

Jeff Mishtawy - (one per car)
Violations of General 1-1 and Koni 3-3.3
Unauthorized engine modifications. Each car must conform to standard configuration as delivered to US customers by the manufacturer except where regulations allow or require modifications. $5,000 Loss of All Team, Driver, MFG. Points and
Purse. Grand-Am will retain ineligible parts.

Grand-am has also added regulations for monitoring engine data. I can't wait to see where it all shakes out in 2010, my guess is the new Mazda's will be fast, but the street model does start with 263 hp. Can we just get the Civic over 200?? Please!

Now I've been accused of being to, umm, of the non-male gender in my appreciation of the background story, but after following the forums on the APR story I am certain it's not just us women who appreciate the human interest angle. Maybe the reason there aren't as many women fans of motorsports is the lack of coverage for the whole story, and not the just story behind the race, but the whole race story. SPEED, we don't want to only watch the top three or four cars in a race, especially when they are going around lap after lap with no excitement. Show us the other battles on the track—I know they are out there.

More Race Pics

2009-10-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Wes Dunkel for the great photos.

Koni Race - Brakes, Brakes, Brakes

2009-10-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

The race started out well. With a poor qualifying position of 14th, I was able work up into the top 10 pretty quickly. Sara got on the radio to remind me to be easy on the brakes, as we knew that would be a limitation. I thought I was, but at the same time I didn't want to loose any position. In early laps I had slight contact with someone and my left mirror was pointed skyward, which gave me zero visibility on the left side. After an hour or so we were into our fuel window and I thought it would be better to pit early and fix the mirror to avoid contact with the GS traffic that was headed my way. Vesko got into the car and was driving very conservatively to preserve the brakes, even so he realized they were basically gone after about half an hour.

We decided to keep him out on track and try for a decent finish. He did finish the race —13th — but what impressive driving! I know in theory how you could drive a car without brakes, but in actuality I don't think most of us could make it work. Certainly not for 30 minutes. Good job Vesko, thanks for bring the car to a finish safely. On to plans for 2010.

Thanks again to all of our awesome volunteer crew!

Koni Challenge at Miller Motorsports Park - Pre Race

2009-09-18T09:21:00.001-07:00

All week we've been busy preparing for this race. It's great to be racing on our home track, but that hasn't seemed to make it less work, or make it easier to go faster. The competition is tough, several teams were here racing the NASA event last week to prepare for Koni / Rolex, and of course most of these drivers have been here many times before.

Yesterday was an exceptionally long day for me. I arrived at the track at 5:30 am for a brief news interview and a rigged session in the go-karts with the news guy. I also did an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune who printed the article today, and tomorrow have a live radio interview. Thanks to Grand-am for the media support, I'm sure CityDeals.com is getting some good exposure from all of this.

Yesterday during the promoter test day we lost the throttle body and missed a session. Compass 360 was kind enough to share a spare with us, and we have another arriving today. The car was completely different to drive once again, but better this time.

First session today went well, our times put us in 10th overall.

MPRA Race 6

2009-08-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Patrick Long (of ALMS and Rolex) had his first victory in the Camping World West NASCAR race at Miller this past weekend. The Miller race was his third start in a stock car, but he made it look effortless. I was impressed to learn that 81-year-old Hershel McGriff was racing, and looking good, although a flat tire close to the end of the race gave him a 19th place finish. Way to go Hershel!

But enough of NASCAR, lets talk about MPRA. Many things went wrong and the early race found Sara and Vesko out. I found myself at the back once again because of rev-limiter issues during the start. Jeff Morgan drove to the front to battle the Porsche and Corvette collections in Super Sport, while Aaron Morgan and Mark Keeton took their BMWs to the front of the GT groups. (I'm not actually sure what group Aaron is in, the cars have been switched around a few times.)

Ben Crossland in the Mustang group managed a 2:10.9 with Keith Rossberg right behind him. The drivers that impressed me were John Hanson, our strategist and Zach Rossberg, driving to what must have been their fastest laps to date. Great work!

I was happy with the changes Vesko made to the Koni Civic during the weekend. The car is much happier now and I look forward to Grand-am's weekend at Miller in September. I find that the Civic is no match for the 400-700hp in Super Sport, but there's always a race going on somewhere in group 2 and that makes for fun racing.

The Group 1 race was a good battle and enjoying to watch, especially the trophy presentation.

NASCAR Camping World West and MPRA round 6

2009-07-27T16:07:00.000-07:00

Miller Park Racing Association round 6 will be run with the NASCAR Camping World West series this weekend. Because NASCAR is not my usual motorsports series of choice — I find it interesting to see the cars up close and find it entertaining to watch them navigate the road course. For anyone in Salt Lake interested in NASCAR this is your best chance to watch the cars an meet some of the up-and-coming drivers.

As for MPRA, it's always a lot of fun, I get to get on track and hang out with friends.

Here's a link to the schedule

More from Mid O

2009-07-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

2009-07-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

What's Next?

2009-06-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

As we roll through Iowa today I have plenty of time for reflection, that's one of the reasons I travel with the cars when I can. (It keeps me pretty focused on work too, since there's not much else to do.) The question on the teams mind, and the one we keep asking Vesko is what car is next? Keith, ultimately has the final decision, but he's not here to pester. In true Vesko style he's not giving much away.

Racing can be painful, but "nothing good comes easy," right? Keith is feeling the pain today, turns out he has 5 broken ribs, he was just too tough to realize it. The team in the toter is feeling the pain trying to stay on the no ac program Vesko believes in for heat-tolerance training—it's been 96º in here for most of the day. I do think it works, and every time I get to grouchy about it all I have to do is think about my sister and her family who are missionaries in the Dominican Republic —they never have the luxury of ac, or hot showers.

This weekend was another disappointment, but I hope we learned a lot, and I think we had fun anyway. We had some of the best accomodations and food that we've had at a race. Hanging out by the fire at Somewhere in Time was just icing on the cake. Thanks especially to our team, from this race Boli, Josh, Joe and the rest from other races this year, the Bush Decor gang, our strategsits John and Sara, Andy the miracle chef, and Keith and Vesko, my co-driver Byron, and to Grand-am for letting me race! This is truly a team sport, we wouldn't get anywhere with out the complete team, thanks again to Penske Racing.

Looking over this blog there's a lot of disappointment, but also a lot of fun, teamwork and passion. I've met so many great people and gotten to travel to interesting places, and best of all gone racing. So the question isn't are we going racing again, it's when?

Mid Ohio Race Day

2009-06-22T17:00:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 22, 2009

Race Day (pictures to come later) By Sara Levitt

Sitting in the trailer listening to the bits and pieces of the awards ceremony that drifted over from the loud speakers, it really hit me that the weekend was over. While it was exhausting and at times frustrating, it was always fun. The company, the food, the track even the disappointments, is all part of racing which means that mishaps and hardships included, its one of the things I love most in the world.

Unfortunately we weren't able to finish the race. With only ten laps remaining, a call came over the radios that made all of our hearts sink. "Guys, I'm coming in. We don't have brakes. The car isn't drive able." We had lost the driver's front caliper, our race was over. Since other cars had ended their races before we did, we finished 26th, dropping only two spots from our qualifying position, even with mechanical problems.

Byron and Lara drove their hearts out and all things considered with the car, were incredible. The amount of mental and physical focus that goes into endurance racing is something many people don't comprehend. Our drivers need to drive flawlessly for over an hour. By the time you get our of the car, you're both physically and mentally exhausted. When you factor in the heat, the traffic, the pressure and the stress, its a victory alone that they kept lap times consistent and made minimal errors. I'm so proud of both of them, for all of us, for being here and doing it, finishing position aside.

All in all I think the weekend was a great success. We learned a lot about the cars and team dynamics that provided vital information for the future. You have to start somewhere, and its never going to be perfect. Learning from our mistakes will only make us better. And while I can only speak for myself, it was an amazing time and I learned a lot about myself.

Most importantly, I need to thank Doug, John, John and Fred fromPenske for helping us with our pit stop. We couldn't have even started the race without you. You brought a great confidence to the team, especially by letting us sit in the "condo" to watch timing and scoring. And for letting me pretend to be Roger Penske for two hours. Congratulations on your fourth place finish. I also want to thank Nancy at Somewhere in Time for graciously opening her beautiful home to us and making amazing breakfasts very early every morning and to Jeff Smallwood at Grand-Am for being so helpful and supportive. He made me feel so welcome and included. It was so nice to see a friendly, smiling face every time I was at the Grand-Am trailer. Wes Duenkel was also a great help today taking pictures for us (Wes took the pictures I will be posting later). He was also staying at the same bed and breakfast. It was great getting to talk to you and look at your amazing pictures. They are very different than most motorsports pictures, and the artistic element in them is incredible.

And thank you, for reading and following us this weekend. I'll leave you with Keith's words of wisdom from the weekend - "Why not?"

Qualifying and GS race

2009-06-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Qualifying and should have been our race day. By Sara Levitt

Another early morning, another day of rain. Lara drove awesome in the rain, very smooth and very fast. It dried up for qualifying which turned out to be like a race. Lara said people were passing and driving like it was race day. Unfortunately that meant it was tough to get a good, clean qualifying lap. We ended up 24^th, but I’m sure we’ll do well tomorrow.

After our sessions, we practiced our pit stops. At first, Lara and Byron were practicing our driver changes. After a couple pretty tough shin scraps, Joe took over as our stunt double.

After taking a couple seconds off our pit stop times, it was time to relax. Yes, this is Vesko enjoying a beer!

Everyone is in good spirits tonight as we sit across the fire in the back yard of our bed and breakfast. There are peacocks… making peacock noises… (I don’t know what you call the noise that comes out of this bird) and watching the fire flies. Its been a great weekend so far and I think tomorrow will go well.

Friday at Mid O - Rain to Dry

2009-06-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

Overall I would classify today as"uneventful" although it really didn't feel that way from where I was sitting. As the always helpful Koni staff member Jeff Smallwood said "Did you damage any cars? Ruin a set of tires? No? Then today was a good day."

I didn't think so when I was headed into the same tires Keith ran into yesterday. Thankfully I ended up getting the car turned a bit and missed them by about a foot. Then I did it again, different place. The car is fine, I'll be qualifying tomorrow.

This afternoon we alse had a tornado scare, the sky got black and green and coulds were spinning in a circle above us. The wind got crazy and we were all tying down our easy-ups and securing everything light. We took a few moments to watch the sky but the clouds moved on and blue sky prevailed. Keith was hoping for one that would pick up the Mustang so he could turn it in into his insurance.

Byron and I are still challenged by the Civic, but are making some progress. Neither of us could break out of the 1.40's. First session was heavy rain while I was in the car and stopping during Byron's stint, but never drying up. Even an hour later when the Rolex cars were out, it had not rained anymore, but was still very wet. We walked the whole track and watched them, which helped me learn the rain line better.

The second session of the day I made the mistake if pushing too hard and having some big offs. Unusually we finshed early and had time for a dinner out together. There aren't many dining options here in town, but it's beautiful, and a terribly fun track.

Koni Practice Day at Mid Ohio

2009-06-19T19:12:00.000-07:00

Here's a post from Sara our new Civic strategist, management assistant and all-around help. You'll see her posting here now to help me keep up and also I hope there will be post from John Hanson our new head strategist for the team. Thanks Sara and John and also to ALL of our fab crew!

Practice, Day 1 at Mid O What a day...
By Sara Levitt

We got to the track at 7:00am, after a 6:15 wake up call and awesome breakfast by Nancy (our house "mom"). It was humid and slightly hazy from the early morning fog. We had all prepared for rain but luckily it never came. The track itself is a little disorienting for one being used to a wide open oasis in the middle of the Tooele desert. The track is in the heart of the country, where there are bails of hay and red farm houses. It comes out of no where, and all of the sudden you see the familiar semis, smell the race gas, hear the engines and you know you're at a race track.

We were in meetings until our first session, which went well. It was Byron's first time on the track and he dropped time like crazy. Lara has had a little more experience here and sounded
confident over the radios, she says the track "feels like a roller coaster". Vesko and Keith went out next and everything went as planned. Still no rain. Both cars had another session, then it was lunch.

After lunch the Civic went out again. Byron was dropping lap times and let us know he was having fun and the car felt good, even for the track being so "snug". Once again, everything was running smoothly and by this time it had cleared into a warm sunny day, perfect for racing.

And then, in true racing style, our day went from smooth sailing to gail force winds in one lap. Vesko had just brought the car in on the Mustang's third session, he jumped out and Keith jumped in. Keith's lap times had been close to Vesko's and we were all excited to see how much more time he could drop.

The course went to a black flag, Josh radioed to Keith to bring the car back into the pits. No answer. John tried. No answer. I called, at this point, a little frustrated we couldn't get a hold of him. Still no answer. At the same time a woman ran over to our pit spot and yelled "is your driver okay?! He's on the roof!!" On the roof?! All of us jumped in golf carts and took off to see what had happened. Keith was in the medical tent, so the rest of us went to see the car. This is what we found:

Keith had lost brakes coming out of the Key Hole at 100+ mph. As he hit the curbing,
Keith and the Mustang caught air, about 15 feet of it say the drivers behind him. Keith landed on the top of the tire barrier, pushing a solid concrete block about two feet outwards. Then, he landed on the side on the ground below.

Keith was "banged up but not broken" as John put it. Luckily and thankfully no one was hurt. Our morale suffered a little, but this is racing, and unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens.

We got the Civic ready for tomorrow, figured out a plan, and ate some awesome dinner, (thanks to Andy - our "dead man") and after an "atheistically" pleasing sunset, left the track and headed back "home" around 9:45 pm.

We've got our fingers crossed for a better day tomorrow, and with all hands on deck for the Civic, I think everything will go back to being as planned (knock on wood).

Civic Racing V2.0

2009-03-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Keith and his trucks — that happened to be in Florida heading back to Utah — we were able to get the crashed Civic home. Vesko and Boli are looking for undamaged parts to use on V2.0. So far the passenger door works, as it was only slightly damaged.

Finding a trailer in the Orlando / Daytona area ended up being a 4 am to 7 pm challenge, but Vesko managed it and Boli, his dad and Jay drove the trucks home uneventfully. Thanks guys!

V2.0 is underway and we plan to have it in the Koni race at Laguna Seca in May. I'll be driving with Jeff Morgan.

We're packing for the Miami Koni race now. Vesko leaves with Pratt Cole and Ron on Saturday and we will both be returning with the hauler, which is still at Black Forest Racing in DeLand. They have been very helpful and supportive of our team. They are partial to Guinness beer (in a can) which is not in plentiful supply. I have found a few local areas to procure it and I make the rounds when I'm there.

Race Day

2009-01-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

It was just another race day, a million details to follow-up on, crew to organze and dress, meetings to get to, and I wasn't even driving. I've decided it's much more stressful to watch and wait from the pits. I started the race watching from the in-field near turn two, where it turns out three cars went down on the first lap. The race included 7 full-course cautions, and a couple more minor contacts to the Mustang. Keith missed the first big crash by a small margin, but ended up clipping a Porsche who decided to park in the middle of turn one. This damaged the rear suspension again (that's two rear-ends in one weekend). The back left tire spent the rest of the race heading in the wrong direction and trying to put the back of the car into the wall.

The car finished a decent 17th in GS, finished being the keyword.

Daytona Practice and Qualifying

2009-01-22T19:00:00.000-08:00

Practice - Hit in the first lap.

Vesko headed out for his first lap in the Mustang only to have a BMW not see him as he passed and hit him in the back left wheel. The wheel was destroyed and the Mustang spun six times close to the wall, then shot down through the infield still traveling at 120 mph. The compete rear-end was damaged and had to be replaced, but the car made it out for the second session, thanks to a hard working crew. Our crew is comprised of Erich Ficker as crew chief, four volunteers plus a gang that Keith brought.

Qualifying - Hit in the last Lap

Keith did an excellent qualifying lap of 2.03.1, which starts them 21st in a field of 34 GS cars. There are 69 cars total in the Koni Challenge race. On the last lap he had contact with a TRG Porche (John Potter?), which did some minor front end damage.

The End of Koni Test Days = The End of the Civic

2009-01-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

Daytona was going GREAT, the cars were getting better and better, and we were all enjoying the track and the weather. It was 80 degrees and sunny — while it was snowing back at home — gorgeous days. The track at Daytona is a fun place to drive, we were getting faster, and finding what the car needed to be competitive. The Civic designed and built by Veskso was impressive. There were the usual improvements that can only be found by putting a car on track, but each session saw progress.

Vesko, and Erich Ficker, (our crew chief for the season) worked hard since we went without any other crew for the test. They had both the Civic and the Mustang GS car owned by Keith Rossberg to care for.

In the last session we had a renter in the Civic who lost it in the kink and ended up hitting the wall a couple of times. He has a broken wrist, but is otherwise ok. It was a terribly hard hit, which shows how well the cars are built–to be able to take an impact like that and protect the driver.

Our plan is to find another Civic, and work day and night to finish it for the Race in Miami. This will be a repeat of the first Civic, since he literally finished it five minutes before putting it in the hauler to head for Florida. This plan is contingent on Vesko getting paid for the damage of his car. Once he gets the money he can start ordering parts and looking for another Civic.

Daytona Test Days '09

2009-01-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

I finally have a little downtime to enjoy the warm FL weather and relax for a minute. There are four of us here for the test days: Vesko, Keith myself and Erich Ficker as crew. That's right, once again we only have one crew member. It's been a little difficult and we're all ready for some sleep, but both cars are on track and looking great. I had my first session this morning and it was a lot of fun, but challenging to learn a new car and track at the same time. The Honda was jumping around so much I though it was experiencing technical difficulties, but that's just the track here, super bumpy!

We need to change the map—we're running on the factory settings. We are hitting the rev limiter too early and not able to use complete power in places, going around the oval we have to lift a little, and stay in 5th, since sifting to 6th actually slows the car down. we'll bring the computer home and get that fixed after test days. The cars are staying here until the East coast races are over.

Miller Racing Association 3 hour Enduro

2008-11-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

CA sport raced Byron's new Spec E-35 325 BMW in the first annual MPRA enduro this weekend. We ran the outer loop at Miller, which seems to be everyone's favorite configuration. Byron drove first and since it was a brand-new (race car, that is) car we weren't sure how long it would go on a tank of fuel. He ended up driving for an hour and 45 minutes! Way to go Byron—it happened to be his birthday too. Since the car didn't have power steering that was a really impressive drive. Due to a miss-calculation in our mandatory 5-minute pit stop, we had to come into the pits and sit for 5 minutes, costing us the lead in the under category. We finished second, and added more insight into our racing education.

While it wasn't a huge turnout, it was a good one, and a beautiful day. With mixed classes it made for more entertainment, but every time a GT3 cup car zoomed past me I have to admit I wished I was in it. Or, maybe just a fast Evo . . .

Atlanta . . .

2008-10-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

I’ve waited a while to post about our week in Atlanta; I needed a little time to think about it (and yes, cool down). After reviewing video, watching it on SPEED, and seeing all the photos, here’s my view of things.

Things were improving with the car—after each session in practice Vesko would download the data and make small changes in the map. The changes were enough that while the car was still not as fast as the other GT cars (don’t believe everything you hear on TV!), it was closer to being competitive. Vesko had more confidence in the car and was driving it hard, big Vesko style. It seemed to handle well, the first half of the track is more technical and the car was on pace for that section. The second half is a very long straight, and the other cars could easily get past the Evo in that section.

The race started cleanly, with the Evo picking up a few spots. I had noticed in grid that Rich Marziale, who had had an amazing qualifying session, was at the back of the grid. It did make me wonder about the state of the small privateer teams. The thought crossed my mind that we don’t have a chance against big money. Rich was d’qed in tech for having his wing about a millimeter too high. In my short time with WC, I’ve noticed there seems to be a discrepancy in how the cars are teched. We’ve had battles over our battery placement, but I noticed that the Porches have their batteries in the front bumper. Not a legal (or safe) place by my interpretations. That’s a small example of our challenges, but telling of the situation.

Back to the race. . . Vesko was hanging in the battle well. He could make up some ground in the first half of the lap and hang on during the second. By the time he made the front straight the cars behind would be catching him. He used the “one move per corner rule”, by moving into the corner early on Mike Davis, gave him a little bump. That caused the officials to get on the radio with me and tell me to “Warn my driver to pay attention, since he almost caused an accident.” That’s laughable to anyone who’s been on track with Vesko. (I really hate it when we’re all out driving and after the session he says something to me like “ Why’d you miss your apex on turn 10?” How does he do that?) I refrained from responding to the radio. Davis was able to catch the Evo at the beginning of the back section and rather than passing him, he gave him a punt. The car stalled and he had trouble getting it going again.

Back in the battles he once again protected his line against the Remington Cadillac driven by McCann. This got him blacked flagged. I was on the radio protesting, and trying to talk with Vesko. Unfortunately, we were experiencing some technical difficulties with the radios, which made this a challenge. SCCA heard my complaint, but said he had to come in for a stop-n-go anyway. Needless to say this takes away any chance of being in the race. He did come in for the penalty; he had no other choice that left us to appeal after the race.

I downloaded our video and gave the card to the officials. I went over to appeal and an SCCA official said, “Well you saw what he did!” I responded that I had seen a legal move, protecting his line, and that a car is allowed one move. He replied “One move per race?” We asked to be shown the evidence on tape. We checked back several times in the next two hours. Everyone was busy packing up to go to the banquet that night, and wasn’t very interested in getting to the bottom of things. One official told me that if you are a slower car you have to just get out of the way. Well, the best racing is when a great driver is in a slower car and the battle is fierce. We were there to race, not play dead, regardless of the car’s abilities. So they held that Vesko was blocking without discussing anything with me—acting as the team manager, and the one who appealed. They told us to leave the trailer or we would be fined. Then they called Vesko in and showed him where he moved over early in front of Mike and said that was blocking. According to all I’ve read that is allowed in all the club and pro series. Yes, that would be one move per corner.

For me the best thing came from Tommy Drissi after the race, he came up to Vesko and said “That was great, you drove the wheels off that car, you just need to make it faster in a straight line.”

I had hopes that the officials would penalize Mike (in time, not money) but when the results came out they hadn’t.

I’m left with a few questions: Can the small privateer teams succeed in World Challenge? Are the officials of World Challenge biased, or is it possible they’ve can be bought (I really hope not)? Should we give up now? Are we crazy? (Yes.) I’m working on figuring this out for myself; I’ll probably never figure it out for sure. I do happen to have an awesome Evo and a spectacular team with immense potential. . .