2014 - Season (pre)Planning...

The past 2 winters - without a racecar - have been much different.  From 2009-2012 I was eagerly awaiting new classing rulesets to decide where to position the #929Evo, what mods to do or undo, what items to refresh and what would need done by my title sponsor (ECU Tuning, etc).  I would pull together all that information and eventually build my schedule.  The biggest pain of that process was scheduling the tuning/maintenance time with my title sponsors - AMS Performance or Buschur Racing.  The sponsors were great help - no issues there - but with them being between 3.5 hrs and 8 hrs away over the years, it provided schedule concerns, time off from work, issues with the weather, etc.  Some pics from years past:

The past 2 winters - without a racecar - have been much different!  No scheduling of long-distance trips, no pre-prep on the car, no figuring out mods, no ordering mods (UPS/Fedex guy probably misses me!), no time spent freezing in the garage during these cold months, etc.
So not owning a racecar isn't all bad news.  But I was extremely meticulous with my maintenance schedule and always strived to keep my racecar legal and in full advantage of the rules.

2014 Events Schedule to come...

2013 Recap!

It was a very different 2013 for me.  After selling the #929Evo last fall, I had a complete of renting.  I drove a Miata, a Volvo (twice), 2 Mustangs, 3 different BMW SpecE30's and a Subaru STI rally car.  I set a track record, took 1st in a Sprint race, took 1st in an Endurance and tried some Rallying!

We started at Gateway with a NASA sprint weekend in a PTE Miata. First place and a track record.

Next up was the 1st of two 24 Hours of Lemons events.  With 65+ other cars, we turned some crazy 3-hr stints into 420+ laps over 15hrs and a solid yet disappointing 2nd place overall.


Another NASA Sprint race weekend - in a Mustang that never ran correctly followed next and definitely one of the most frustrating weekends in my race career.

A planned gap over the long hot summer months came next.  Lots of work setting up a July/August event but it all fell through.

Finally, 2 weeks before a 4.5hr Enduro at Autobahn I had lines on 3 different rides.  1 fell through, 1 was out of my pricerange and the one I went with netted me my first ever Enduro win!  In a Mustang no less...

A quick 1/2 day excursion to DirtFish outside Seattle during a weekend getaway yielded some good video and showed me the gravel stuff is crazily different than the tarmac stuff!

I had a November Chumpcar race lined up at a brand new track, but it fell through as well.  I scrambled and picked up an early December Enduro + Sprint weekend with NASA and it was pretty awesome.


Overall, I seemed to gravitate towards Enduros.  If nothing else, it helped maximize my seattime and get the most out of an event or weekend.  There were some good arrive-and-drive options, some good friends with good cars and some not so great events.

2013 Schedule Outlook

Looking into 2013, it's really wide open!  Having obtained my NASA race license in 2012 and then selling my personal car last fall really opens up a lot of possibilities.  I think the goal would be to do some arrive-n-drive rentals at a few tracks throughout the year while keeping my eyes/ears open for other possibilities that might present themselves.

I have already had some inquiries to race with a few Chumpcar Teams, a Lemons Team as well as some NASA rentals.  Additionally I have inquired about a few NASA rentals across various regions including Enduro's and Sprint races.  I have considered larger ideas like One Lap or building towards the 25-hrs of Thunderhill endurance race as well as where my current DD would fit into the current NASA TT (Time Trial) classification system (answer; it's not currently classed).

Most of the 2013 schedules are out and pretty firmed up, with the exception of my local NASA Enduro events.  So it's really time to sit down and figure out what I would like to do, match up some dates and events and find a car that'll work for me!  That process is well underway....

And in case anyone is wondering, I still have no plans to purchase/own a racecar in the near future.  Having sold my trailer and my tow truck last year along with the #929Evo; I am not setup for it anymore either.  I am very open to offers for 24-hr races, Enduro's, filling in for teams, etc.  Hit me up:  pitchn at gmail (dot) com

2012 year in review!

2012 started with a 1000 mile roundtrip to Buschur Racing in Ohio in lots of snow and ice.  Out of that trip we yeilded up updated setup, tune and a new primary sponsor.  Shortly thereafter we headed on a near 1400 mile round-trip for my first ever trip to Road Atlanta with help from my Dad as a co-pilot.  Then the car was further gutted and turned over to Izzy's in STL for a proper 6pt cage.  After some teething issues which forced me to rent a car to complete COMP school in April I had my w2w license! 

The next few events were spent feeling out the dynamics of the #929Evo over the course of a 25-35min sprint race; in a single word:  HEAT!  Several upgrades over the rest of the year were made to handle the heat both inside and outside of the car. 

2012 yielded my first podiums & trophies from both Sprint races and Endurance Racing.  The latter courtesy of a GP Racing Products rented E3 Miata where I turned nearly 70 laps at Putnam.  We also set our first PTA track record. 

Some major changes on the personal side of life kicked off in April and really changed the scope of the year.  These somewhat played into my decision to officially put up the #929Evo for sale.  With the fall approaching and some aggressive pricing I was able to find a new home for the car in early September.  After that I wrapped up the year with 1 additional rental in a Chumpcar.

2012 yielded a total of 13 days on track.  10 days in the #929Evo and 3 days in rentals.  In all I competed in 6 different classes (TTA, TTS, ST2, PTA, E0, Chumpcar) in 3 different cars.

Ebay Auction - Did NOT sell.

The Ebay auction ended around 9:30am CST with the price not meeting the reserve.  We really did not think the car would sell on Ebay, at least not with the first auction listing but thought it was worth a shot to stir up and gauge some interest. 

In all we had 42 total bids with 20 watchers and 2371 total views.

Next step is to decide whether to relist the car or not on Ebay.  Perhaps with a tweaked price, ad wording, pictures, with the trailer, who knows.  In the meantime we still have it appearing in a few magazines along with several different forum listings.  There has been a slow but steady stream of inquiries about it, and finding the right buyer for this more or less 'niche' car is the hard part!  I am confident the next owner will be very happy with their decision!