Day 1 of the “Cheap Points Double National” event at Grattan Raceway was an open practice hosted by the track. I got 4 sessions in on a set of generously donated, well-used tires from my father-in-law, Glenn. The course has been compared to a rollercoaster for good reason. The elevation changes and cambered corners are even more enigmatic when approaching them from 16 inches lower than usual. It’s a fun course, but difficult to learn. My times improved throughout the day, but I still have a lot to improve upon.

Day 2 was the first official day of the event. The national event schedule was a little different than the regional routine I was used to. Instead of a qualifying session and race on each day, everything was spread out between 3 days. Additionally, the races were longer: 23 laps instead of the 15-or-so that you get for regional races. First up: practice qualifying. My times were unspectacular, but I focused on getting to know my car. Ambient temps were already approaching 80 degrees and driving the SRF is a workout: manual steering, manual brakes and a whole lot more g-forces than I’m used to. The car feels directly tied to the course… un-buffered.

That afternoon, I got my first experience with brand new Goodyear tires during qualifying. The car was completely different. The limits were extended and it became even more predictable. It was able to hold off-camber turns much more confidently and I was more comfortable exiting corners, aiming the car and flooring the gas pedal. My times continued to improve, qualifying within a couple seconds of a more experience driver and ahead of another driver. After the session, Glenn, Gina and I inspected the steering rack and decided there was a little too much lash in the wheel movement so they helped me replace my steering rack with one of Glenn’s spares. The cockpit of the car is cramped, especially for somebody with my frame: 6′ 2″, 260 lbs. Moving the shifter further outboard helped a bit, but I continued to have trouble toe-heeling the pedals. Moving the gas pedal back a bit helped some, but I made sure to offset it further after I got home. Grattan always has a great dinner at the end of the race day. Though we got to the food a little late, what was left was still pretty tasty.

Day 3, Sunday. My first national race and I was nervous, but not as much as I would have thought. The temperature was peaking in the mid-80s and another driver gave Glenn and I zip-lock bags to fill with ice and place on our chests inside of our suits… and it worked very well. I had a great start and was moving along well during my laps. However, I was trying too hard to stay out of the more experienced drivers instead of staying on the racing line when they approached. Doing this allowed the driver behind me to catch up to me 3/4 through the race and pass me briefly. After I made a clean re-pass, he cut to the inside of a tight, technical corner. Instead of tracking out and recovering on the exit of the turn, he locked up his brakes, turned his wheels hard to the right… and spun out right in front of me. I t-boned his car at low speed… low enough to do no damage to his car, but crush my radiator and front fiberglass. My first race was over. I limped my car back to pit lane, carefully avoiding the racing line in case I was spilling fluid. Glenn and Gina helped me replace the radiator with Glenn’s spare and tape up the fiberglass. Repairs went smoothly and I was back in action for qualifying later that afternoon… though due to a scheduling mix-up I went out on my practice tires… oops…

The final day of the event promised changing weather: lightning, thunder, rain and… surprisingly… sunlight and a dry track in time for our race! Though a few rain drops fell before the end of our race, it was called early because of lightning strikes nearby. My times were o.k., but I was more focused on following the advice of some of the other drivers I spoke to that morning: slow down and figure out the car and track, then gradually speed up. I was spending so much time during the weekend trying to go fast, that I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to get there. While on track, I mentally broke it down into 3 sections and worked on smoothing out the corners in each one. This approach yielded my best times of the weekend as well as a better understanding of how the corners worked together in each section.

I had a great time. It was a lot of work, but just as much fun. We’ll return to Grattan in August. I’ll have a little more experience with the SRF by then and I’m looking forward to seeing what I’m able to do next time.

Our Nephew’s first birthday was last weekend. Personally, if 50 people showed up for one of my birthday parties, I would have had an anxiety attack! The little guy handled it well, though… especially the ceremonial first cake. All it took was one taste of Gina’s handiwork, and fist-fulls of cake were consumed in record time!

With some of her earning from teaching, Gina bought herself a new-to-her 2008 Impreza Outback Sport! I tease her that I’m jealous to cover for the fact that I’m actually jealous! It’s a nice ride: heated seats, wiper de-icers, premium sound system and averaging about 26 miles per gallon!

Racing season is right around the corner. I’ve been on edge trying to get our new racecar prepped. Gina helped a ton over the past week so I would be a little less stressed. Right now the car is fully assembled and waiting to be loaded into our trailer for a visit with Glenn for alignment and some scale time.

I’ve been running around a lot a work. It’s all quite exciting for me, but the details are sure to bore most everyone out there. Consider yourself spared. However in the category of "almost interesting" is how much work my brother (Christian from Degen Development Corp.) has gotten done on our basement project. He’s been coming over during the week when his big projects allow and we’re just a day of work away from insulation and drywall! I was stunned by how precise and meticulous his work has been. I didn’t expect anything less, but the level of detail in everything he does is amazing. Of particular interest is how cleanly he removed the old drywall from the basement stairs. It looks like it was just installed and the old stuff was never even there!

The weather has allowed temperatures to peek above the 50 degree mark on several occasions recently. That means that I’m officially obligated to get my butt out to the shop and finish up my race car for the season! More to come…

GM, what do you have? Crossovers and luxury cars. Chrysler? The same. Sure, there are plenty of rear-wheel drive offerings that I would love to own. However, I live off of a county dirt road and even if I didn’t most of the options cost more than I could justify spending.

I drive a Subaru daily. I love it. The recent economic climate has made me think twice about driving a foreign car. (Though the entire Legacy and Tribeca lines are built right here in the USA at a “green” facility that is officially a protected natural asset.) I can get any Impreza or Legacy with All-Wheel Drive (of course) and a manual transmission, including the potent GT, WRX, and STi variants. I could buy a Mitsubishi Evolution or Lancer. I could even step it up a notch (into the Taurus and LaCrosse price ranges) and get a well-equipped BMW 338xi or Infiniti G series.

It’s not that the “Big 2 1/2″ aren’t capable of building a sporty AWD car. They’ve done it in the past and offer several in Europe (Ford Focus RS, anyone?). America just doesn’t want to buy them. For most drivers on the expressway, it’s too much work to check one’s blindspot before changing lanes. Why would they want to have to row through gears as they enter and exit the highway? Come on America! Wake up! Pay attention! Put down that cellphone and cheeseburger and learn to drive! That’s the only way we’re going to get cars worth driving in the showrooms.

I stuck some of the clear rubber bumpers that you put between a piece of glass and a table top (among other uses) on each of the directional buttons, and another in the center (for the “ok”) button.

I’ve finally jumped ship for WordPress. Why? I guess I just want to fit in. It seems that the internet loves WordPress and there’s a lot to be said for doing things the same way as a lot of other folks. I don’t spend as much time maintaining my site as a I used to and the tools developed by thousands of folks are more rich and diverse than those I can come up with on my own. I will still do some interesting custom stuff ( like the modified moblog viewer plugin on the homepage), but for now, I’m liking the simplicity and organization of an app designed for blogging. And yes, Brad… I finally have comments.

Gina and I are in week 2 of phase 2 of the P90X plan. We’ve had to skip a day of workouts last week and this week due to illness and schedule, but have otherwise stayed true to the diet and exercise plan. Phase 2 is more intense and the workouts seem even longer, but we’ve both noticed feeling better since beginning the workout. The end of this week marks the 1/2 way point.

We’ve been trying to complete our home updates, but our race season, Gina’s work travels, and our workout plan have severely limited the amount of time we can spend on our projects. Christian’s new company (Degen Development) is keeping him pretty busy, but we’re trying to book him before the end of the year. On the list are crown moldings for the den fireplace, new basement doorwall, and continued work on our basement finishing/theater.

I’ve been thinking about my options relative to my current race car. It’s never been built up beyond my initial prep for Spec Neon apart from a header minor top end cleanup before my first season of 100% ITA. The engine is tired, I have no limited slip diff, I need a real suspension setup, and bigger diameter/wider tires and wheels. The cost of everything combined is close to the cost of a complete, competitive race car. Though I considered staying in ITA, it’s a class where you have to keep up with the Jones’. I don’t have the funds to keep tweaking my car. My other option was to switch to a spec class, such as Spec Miata. But, that has become a very expensive class over the years. I’ve decided to switch to Spec Racer Ford and race alongside my father-in-law. I’m working on getting a new car now and will have more updates soon.

Gina and I recently began our 3rd week of P90X. While we’ve struggled at times to keep up with every movement in every exercise, we’ve been doing remarkably well. We’re even following the diet pretty darn faithfully. The biggest downside is the length of the workouts. They usually run about 90 minutes and are extremely demanding. “Do your best. Forget the rest.” Can I get an “Amen?!”

For the sake of over information: the digital tuner is hooked up to my Windows Media Center server in my basement which feeds my extenders. Nobody actually watched TV on that monitor (it’s an old 17″ Dell) and runs at 1280×1024… to VGA works just dandy for this purpose. Before I was using the FireSTB hack that John told me about. The catch was … Read Morethat I couldn’t watch live TV in HD because of the weird way it recorded SD and HD in parallel, then deleted the SD file after it was done recording, replacing it with the HD version. The hack also let me change channels (usually) via firewire instead of IR blasting. Unfortunately, the hack also turned the volume on my cable set top box down one “click” each time it changed channels, effectively muting SD recordings after a few days. The digital tuner solution fixes all of these issues. The catch? Technically, you’re supposed to have an OEM media center PC with “supported” DRM-friendly bios. There are now workarounds for this…

As noted in previous news updates, Gina and I have been working on a mini-remodel of our den and kitchen. I’ve installed new recessed lighting, other lighting fixtures, run some complicated a/v wiring, and significant drywall work to prepare for our first experience with professional painters. I hate painting… hopefully seeing how easily the pros do it will make it easier to decide to go this route more often.

In other news, I celebrated my 34th birthday last Saturday. Gina made an awesome coconut cream cake, bourbon-glazed ribs and cheesy potatoes. I was able to relax a bit, play some games (finishing Ghostbusters and House of the Dead: Overkill), and get some work done on my race car and around the house.