So, Northerners have trouble driving in snow and ice as well?

Living in Atlanta it always perturbs me when those who get more snow than us talk about how we can't drive when the white stuff falls here. Well, it also pleases me to see these "good" drivers get into situations where, they too, can't drive like what you can see in this footage from Wisconsin.

Just watch the first 60 seconds...I especially like the dillweeds who get out of their cars to walk around as other cars are still piling in. Didn't they teach us to never get out of our cars on the racetrack in DE events? ;-)

Who knows, maybe these were all just Southerners passing through. Or it was ice...yeah, that's mostly what we get on the roads of Atlanta too. :)

Too bad people were injured...I feel for them.

Still, it's good to see that these folks aren't as good of drivers as they often claim to be. As I've discovered in my HPDE days and now with racing, you're not nearly as good a driver as you think you are. It's humbling, especially in Spec Miata!

There's something on the track! How an AWD Subaru STI can *still* spinout at Road Atlanta.

Here's an oldie but goodie: It's footage of what happens when another car drops fluid/oil on the track and you find out about it the hard way.

The off occurs in turn 6 after I pass the Porsche. For perspective, I'm doing 115mph in the straightaway before I go off and ~75mph in the turn when I start sliding. As you can see, like black ice, it catches you off guard!

The off isn't all though. Note the slight bump I get by the orange Lotus Elise in my rear view mirror when pulling back out onto the track. That pushed in the bumper for my STI...no real damage. The Elise, on the other hand, probably had $10K worth of damage. Why? After bumping me he proceeded to hit the concrete wall. :|

You can see a couple more cars going off but there were six or seven total. Perhaps the most entertaining portion of the video is when I state the obvious to the corner worker at the end of the clip.

My family STILL won't let me live down the comment...or the spin.

Enjoy!

Racing is starting to pay off

Okay, everyone who races knows how expensive it can be. And it's rare to make any sizable amount of money at our level to even think about breaking even. But there's a racing perk that I never thought of...

I was telling a relatively new friend of mine about my recent race weekend. He didn't realize I raced but I suppose it lended enough credibility for him to say: "Hey, you want to borrow my Ferrari and drive it for a while?"

Just damn...how do you respond to that!? Needless to say my daily driver is now outside and this is in my garage:

One of the coolest things that anyone has ever done for me.

Now if I could only be as comfortable driving it as I am my Miata...this is definitely a case of too much car and not enough driver!

2013 ARRC Spec Miata race - November 2, 2013

Here are the highlights of my first official Spec Miata race. Enjoy!

The word "amateur" does Spec Miata no justice

Be it in my personal or professional life, I've always thought of amateurs as people who do things, well, not so well. In fact, Houghton Mifflin defines amateur, in part, as "one lacking the skill of a professional" (noun) and "not professional; unskillful" (adjective).

We've all hear the word "amateurish" often in conjunction with "behavior" or "work"...and that's the way I've always thought of amateur car racing. That is until I've gotten involved with SCCA "amateur" racing this year.

Maybe it's because I'm racing in Spec Miata but I suspect it's across the board. The guys I'm going up against are a far cry from the actual definition of amateur. The way Danny Steyn, Cliff Brown and other front-runners fly past me as I'm being lapped is absolutely astonishing. It can be downright scary how fast these guys are flinging their Miatas through the turns while, at the same time, I feel like I'm on edge flinging mine through the turns!

I see these guys' corner apex speeds and overall data and know without a doubt that the front-runner Spec Miata guys could go head-to-head with front-running professionals in any other racing series given the same equipment. There's no doubt in my mind.

Knowing what I now know, I'm going to stop referring to SCCA (again, especially Spec Miata) racing as "amateur racing". It's really not. Yeah, we all have our careers outside of racing and there's not much money in the races that do pay like Pro-IT...but there's got to be a better way to define what we do.

The driving, the racecraft, the willing assistance in the paddock are all top-notch professional in my book. Great stuff.

Welcome to my blog

Today was painful. Back to reality...You see, today was my first day back after my first big Spec Miata race: the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Road Atlanta this past weekend.

Well, technically it was my second race in my Spec Miata if you count the Majors race at Road Atlanta in March 2013 when I raced Pro-IT. That race, albeit my first, wasn't as special because I learned the hard way about how challenging it is to drive on a set of Hoosier SM6s with 12+ heat cycles in them. Ouch.


Anyway, I, like most other Spec Miata racers, am just a regular guy. I work in IT - computer security to be exact. That's what pays the bills (mortgage, Hoosiers, dinners out, trackside support, and the like) but my true passion - something I think of ~85% of any given hour - is racing.

In the car. Letting loose. Being a guy.

I've started this blog because I like to write. I've written several books and hundreds of articles and blog posts on computer security...but again, I love cars and racing and have a need to get some of those thoughts off my chest.

I literally have two years worth of ideas I've been saving up on the voice recorders of my former iPhone and current Galaxy Note II. And more stuff (ideas) seems to pop into my head daily. Now, I won't be writing that often. I've got to pay the bills, you know...for more Hoosiers and trackside support, of course.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope to be of some value.

Cheers!