Prepping for trip - NASA @ Road Atlanta

As 2014 schedules are being leaked and I debate renting vs buying for 2014 - the Road Atlanta weekend is quickly approaching!

Plans are to make the 9 hour drive Thursday afternoon, with my Old Man riding shotgun with me.  He actually came in my only other trip to Road ATL in March/2012 when I towed down the Evo and enjoyed it.  This weekend should be much more interesting as instead of running Time Trials, I'll be taking part in the NASA 8hr Enduro on Friday and Sprint races on Saturday.  I already see 17 cars registered in the se30 class for Saturday and 56 total in our racegroup.  Should be a terrific race and hopefully I'll have the car figured out after my time in it Friday during the Enduro to place towards the front!

As for the 8hr Enduro, final driver lineups for our team are set.  Drivegear put the team together, which includes 2 other races I have not yet met.  We'll plan on splitting the 5 stints between the 3 of us with a 45min practice session also on the schedule.  I believe a Drivegear team finished 2nd or 3rd in last year's Enduro so I'm expecting their cars to be well prepped and for us to be in the running in the E3 class.

I'm very interested in piloting what will be 2 different se30's (Spec BMW E30 models) this weekend.  I've already had some local some rental and purchase options for se30's in 2014 and a lot of that will depend on what I think of the models while at Road ATL. 
I leave you with one of my favorite pics of the #929Evo - from Road Atlanta!

'Santa's Toy Run' - Road Atlanta with NASA SE region

Next up; back to Road Atlanta!  This NASA-SE event kicks off Friday with an 8hr Enduro and then a normal Saturday with Sprint Races and finally Sunday with some end of the year fun specifically catered to the SE region.

I will be driving both Friday and Saturday.  Friday I'll be sharing the red #89 se30 (Spec BMW e30) from DriveGear Racing with 2 other gentleman.  On Saturday I'll be in another se30 from Drivegear; the white #88. 

After having a friend recommend DriveGear and their se30 rentals, I have been communicating with Andrew off and on most of the year.  And when my November Chumpcar race at AMP fell through, I quickly scoured my resources for a final big event and having loved Road Atlanta when I visited it in March/2012 I have been itching to go back.  More info to come...

DirtFish Rally School - Boneyard!

After a few rounds on the Slalom course - sharing the 4 cars and 4 instructors between the 8 of us students, we moved onto the next course.  This was is nicknamed the 'Boneyard' and would be much longer with higher speeds and varying types of corners.  I was def looking forward to this, as this is one of the courses that Top Gear utilized when they visited - that episode airing just a few weeks prior to my trip!

The video below is my first round of runs through the Boneyard.  Some turns good, but the double-apex ones not so good on exit as I kept trying to drive the car like a Tarmac course and it just would not turn as the grip level is non-existent!
My most common flaw was not turning the wheel enough to get the car to fully rotate.  But unlike most of the others, I never spun the car completely around or anything crazy.  I was cool enough to knock over a few cones with the rear of the car (since it wouldn't rotate fast enough).  That was fun!  Also pretty cool as the instructor is yelling - "...just go, keep going!"

It was a heck of a lot of fun, and something completely different.  I was picking it up fast, but I had a long long way to go if I ever really wanted to Rally.  A 1/2 day school by no means was going to make me an expert; I was just here to have fun!  And the views around the Washington state countryside were spectacular - check out the vid!