I'm Pooped

Day 1 is complete, and I'm wiped out.

The morning began with too little time to eat breakfast (got some coffee, though!), $4.00/gallon gasoline, a wet seat, and a cool-shirt that wasn't flowing. An inauspicious start, to say the least. Oh, yeah: and our first session on track was only about 4 laps. Apparently they were running behind and wanted to stay on schedule.

There was also a SuperPerformance Cobra that tried to take turn 14a upside down before our session. Curiously this was not the fast line through the turn.

The second session was much more intense. I was surprised that many people were giving me the signal to pass. There are a bunch of VW R32's in my group, along with a handful of mildly exotic sports cars, and one Porsche 911 Turbo (he passed us all a lot), but by and large I was chewing up the mirrors of slower traffic throughout the run.

Somewhere in the middle of it I got the signal to pass coming onto the front straight, but the driver signaling didn't let up on the gas, so I had to make a late pass. Now, it takes a second or two to collect your wits after passing someone to figure out what's next. Unfortunately, I took too long, went way too deep into the braking zone for Turn 1, and slid off into the grass. Oops.

The car was fine, my instructor didn't have too much negative to say, and when I pitted in, I simply told the guy in the pits that I got on the brakes too late, and off I went. I was totally panty-waisting that turn for the rest of the session, and most of the 3rd (and probably even part of the 4th), but I did learn the proper line through HogPen, which is where I spun off the track last year. That turn went from being terrifying to my biggest thrill on the course. Holy smack, HogPen is freakin' awesome.

I had fun today.

Sorry, Tripp: no photos. I thought about it and then left the camera at home anyway. While there are a bunch of VW's and Porsches here, there really aren't any hyper-exotics at this event. Well, except for the Ariel Atom I got to ride in...

Roll Call in the Sleep Inn Parking Lot

2 Miatas (including mine)
3 Z06 Corvettes
1 E30 BMW
2 VW R32's
1 2007 MINI Cooper S
1 Formula Ford
1 Dodge Viper
1 Porsche 911 GT3
1 Porsche Cayman (no badging, but it might be an S)
2 Ford Mustang GT's

I'm down in Danville for 2 days for a HPDE (high-performance driving event) put on by TrackDaze. It's 2 days on the track at VIR, where I've driven twice before, but the difference is seat-time with an instructor and the right to pass slower traffic.

I'm super jazzed about it!

I got down here this afternoon around 4pm and headed over to the track to unload & prep the car. Swapped the wheels, mounted the cool-shirt's cooler in the boot, and ran all the electrics that I'd need for the event.

Then it was time to hob-nob. First up was a guy in another Miata, and from the looks of his car, he knew what was what. Evidently not: he bought the car already prepared and had a look of trepidation when he got close to mine. He must have asked about every single component of my car. It was cool, though, to see the enthusiasm and curiosity that only comes with being new to this racing thing.

Then I spent some time with Ashley (of RiverCityMINIs fame) and his buddy with the 944. Yummy cars... Eventually my eyes settled on a familiar looking vehicle: an E36 M3 that I've seen several times behind Mr. Kimmelshue's house. The fellow unloading it didn't look familiar, though, so I introduced myself. It turns out Chris is poison for other people's wallets, too, as this guy got into track events after talking to Chris.

Anyway, the guy couldn't have been nicer, but while he was releasing the tie-downs that held the car onto the trailer, we were probably flapping our yaps just a bit too much, because he forgot to put the car in gear. When he let the last strap go, the car just started rolling. Both of us had a moment of "hey, is that supposed to happen" before panic set in. I foolishly tried to stop the 3000lb+ car by pulling on the A-pillar. No dice. Then I figured that since the car came with brakes, I might as well use them. I dove through the window (the car was still about a foot or so of the ground) and cranked the emergency brake. 5 feet later it stopped, but it could have been much worse.

15 minutes later, we saw what "much worse" meant. There were a number of cars in line to be tech-inspected. The last two were a Cobra and (I think) an R32, in that order. The guy with the Cobra hopped in, fired the motor, put it in reverse, and slammed the R32, to the utter amazement and stupefaction of at least 10 onlookers, including the R32's owner. Yikes!

Hopefully, that's the worst I'll see this week, but horsepower and adrenaline are closely related, so wish me luck...

Wait, how old am I?

So that's the question that I find myself facing this week. Tomorrow's my birthday, and a curious thing happens when you have a baby: you cease to exist as a separate entity. The first time someone asked me how old I would be on my birthday this year, all I could think was "19 months". I think it took about 15 to 20 seconds for me to come up with "32", and that was based on some shaky math.

Yes, I'll be 32 tomorrow, but it's really not much of a watershed event. It's a day that I get to spend with my wife and child, and that's really all I care about.

Enough sugar and fluff...

This weekend was fun. Hot (oh my god...) but fun. Saturday started with a really great, laid-back breakfast at Feathernesters in Lakeside. The place is a local kitsch shop with a tea room, and their food is superb. They do a bunch of pies & pastries, but we restrained ourselves to some very fluffy pancakes, tasty bacon, and an english muffin for the little man. Yum yum yum.

Then it was off the the Richmond Raceway Complex for the National Street Rod Association's Richmond Nationals. Thousands of street rods (read: cars from the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's souped up and maintained to a level of perfection that is only attainable by the retired or the soon-to-be-divorced) were gathered on the sweltering pavement, and while they were beautiful, they did not engage Alastair's attention. The heat sucked us dry, but we managed to have some fun, and doused the boy with a full bottle of water (straight shots to the face, and he loved it!).

Saturday afternoon we pulled out his baby pool and did some front yard swimming. That kid does love some water!

Sunday was spent on yard work and home repairs during the day, but an absolutely fabulous dinner with friends. It's easy to fall out of touch with friends, and you don't realize the tragedy of that fact until you lose them forever. I'm very blessed to have friends who realize how long it's been and how important it is to sit down for a relaxing time together.

Chris, Terry, Jeff, Evelyn, Amanda and I (and Alastair, of course!) went to Nacho Mama's and spent 2 wonderful hours eating, chatting, gossiping, and acting like fools. It was great, and I think we should make it a more common gathering. The only person missing was Mariah, but we spent a good deal of time talking about how much we miss her (we miss you, Mariah).

What a great ending to a great weekend. I hope we do it again soon.

In 2 days I'm off to VIR for a high-performance driving event. It will be 2 days of flogging the Miata on the race track. Mmmm, yummy...