It's true that people drive for love or money. While it seems obvious I don't think it really is. While driving on Friday I came to the conclusions there are 2 types of drivers. Those that live for the moment and those that live for the moments. I myself don't care about winning when I drive, naturally I guess I'm competitive a bit and it is hard to go out on course and not pass even when I didn't need to. For me I enjoy driving itself, the moments, or the love. My friend Alex is a driver who is the opposite he is very much about the moment, he jumps out the car to check for qualifying times the first to ask for his trophy which is what I think of as the money. Pro drivers are like this of course overall, after running a lot faster than last year during testing at Laguna there were still no smiles for the Real Time crew because they believe they need to be even faster to achieve that moment or the money. And where all of this headed?

Competition Licensing School

Something planned so perfectly and thought through start to finish only to come completely undone at the last minute. Like the perfect bad dream with a impossibly short hallway that the faster I run through the farther I get away to the end. I never thought competition-licensing school would be such a battle to get there.

I'd heard many sob stories about the paperwork lost but nothing prepared me for the SCCA and cal club. A mess, that's really the only word for it. Besides being rather vague in some key areas I couldn’t even reach anyone there for 3 weeks. When all hope had failed I tried national and did triple back flips through some flaming hoops just to get a yes / no. But after many calls and lots of extra cash in overnight and long distance charges - boom everything came together like Hannibal’s perfect plan, until.

I'm not sure why god doesn't like me but either this is all been boot camp or I'm going to hell some day. Last Friday before leaving Laguna I placed my suit order. I waited as long as I thought prudent just so I wouldn't end up with a suit made last year, big mistake. After tracking the package Mon~Weds I half expected it to arrive but when It didn’t I figured must be the driver - yep it sure the hell was. Unfortunately the driver missed the label and delivered it to the next building over. He must have because the address is on a different street. That part yeah ok, however generally 2 things happen - the people who signed for it bring it over (good karma) and B UPS tries again. WRONG - by 8am the next day (thurs) it was on it's way back to GA. By the time I found out on Thursday there was simply 0 way to get it overnight or otherwise. And then the suit and gloves arrive. The rep apparently missed that part, but alas the suit is a 1 layer and the underwear was in the other box, woot gloves! But I persevered a quick call to the nicest guy I've ever met and a loaner was spared - sweet

So it's with that I ended up at Special Projects on friday to not only pickup a suit but to my complete amazement a diesel truck loaded with a full tilt Honda Cup car so fresh the motor was still warm from the tuning session at Church’s. Much props to Brian for cleaning the windows. So that after the whole week of mess I was on my way. Well if you've ever wanted to visit the LA area on a Friday my advice is go between the hours of 2am and 3am if you plan on driving anywhere but perhaps down the flood channels. Almost immediately I was parked northbound on the 5 wondering why in gods name an MR2 driver ended up driving off an overpass and landing 20 feet below. About an hour later I was cruising again. Tick Tick I left 4 hours before I had to be there and it's about 90 miles away, even in fubar traffic there's just no way I was going to be late - WRONG after sporadic traffic on the 5 it's when I finally reached the 14 a mere 30 miles from the end that I hit traffic Godzilla. Literally I could see bake lights for miles and I was down to an hour left (kicks self for not leaving at 2) so after crawling up a 15 percent incline towing 4000 pounds @ 1mph I finally passed what appeared to be a couple of sandbags on fire on the totally opposite side of the fwy I almost screamed f#$k all of you, I must mention I simply hate being late. So I end up in lovely Willow in conditions that unless you've been there can only be described as pitch black and did wind sprints up to the class. Upon arriving I understood why a lot of people skip it as most of it is covered from a never been on the track perspective with a brief overview of the flags ect. but I was 100% zeroed in anyway.

About 10 o'clock we finished and something nagging in the back of my mind said "dude get your gear tech'd" I never got shoes or socks so I was wearing my pumas and I wanted to make sure while I still had enough time that I could make arrangements of course there was no way and I had to let it go and get on down the road to find a hotel, did I forget to mention I hadn’t made reservations in all of this (whoops) after all was said and done I ended up better off by paying a bit more I ended up in the nicest hotel I could imagine the Comfort Inn at Palmdale - definitely a great place for 90 a night. So after tossing and turning the alarm clock rang and I was gas’d and ready at the track 15 minutes early - f#$k tech. The Cal Club guys were on slo-mo and after about and hour and a half they had managed to tech 2 cars. Finally the chief steward came out to find the school kids and tech's us himself (damn it no log book I forgot it - hits head) Of course of all the things they could have said it came down to the helmet - where the hell was the Snell sticker - okay freak out. Even though the tech guy said the cars was cool all of my day was going to be ended on a sticker. The helmet was no joke and I can see why people spend the money on things like this especially but no sticker. After another chat with the steward he said absolutely no frigging way - sometimes I get the feeling young guys with Honda cars are like poison to some of the good ol boys @ the SCCA.

At that point I honestly felt like going home - it was all way more stress and no fun, but that was too easy and anything worth doing is worth the hard ship. So for the next 3 hours I scoured the earth for a helmet making multiple trips to town to race shops ect. Of course there were several people who offered to sell me ridiculously over marked up carbon buckets but I was not able to write a 900-dollar check at this point. All I can say about life is 2 things - humility and money. The humility had gotten the steward to clear everything else but the helmet and money, well try not passing tech because of a missing sticker and asking for a refund - attitudes change dramatically. The same people who were so gung ho sticker ****’s suddenly did an about face and this all led me to Marge Banks. For those of you who don't know of her she's the boss – period. When I asked her for my refund she went into whoa there gipper that’s why I'm the boss let's re-evaluate. So she dragged the steward in and gave him an earful on why a Bell Helmet that is apparently the same model he has himself was being overly scrutinized - thanks Marge. Sticker down - good to go.

Of course I missed 2 sessions and 6 hours of track time is usually required. So they threw me in the back of what I can only describe as the 80-year-old Zen master of driving Scotty’s new car. There were some other incidents before hand so I was first hand witness to his no-nonsense approach to his students as he simply said to the lady in the passenger seat (maybe it's better you try like golf or some television and pop corn) Did I mention the back seat bit. I figured "hell this Pontiac GTO is mid pack between the Stratus’s and Camaro’s so it should be a fun ride" WRONG Scotty comes across like the living version of stories about Hans Stuck. On the first lap in a car that he had just gotten yesterday he proved what everyone already knows I'm sure - it's 90% the driver 10% the car. The man was invincible blowing past other instructors in super prepped SS Camaro’s, taking M3's in turns and simply powering past Miata’s - under braking. By the time it was over I had attained junky status and could have spent the whole weekend there. Later an instructor told me he was only going 80% if that WOW.

After that I basically figured I had missed 2 sessions so the only way I was not going to have to make a return trip to school was to exercise some driving skill and set an awesome first impression. The car a nicely powered but incredibly setup suspension wise EK did not disappoint. Despite being vastly different from anything I had ever driven it was no secret how the car was setup to minimize under steer, the only thing that was tricky is using it even 70% around the streets of willow and after several sessions of blowing past every single car out there (mostly on the straight because it's school and I didn't want to infringe in anyway on other peoples lines or there experience since I would prefer to be a good racer than win races by pushing my way through). I told almost everyone at the school at one time or another the car was so much faster than I could drive it and even making super clean passes was just too easy. Hell when I jumped in the shift light was set to 9K I even lowered it to 7K and it was still super fast (thanks Shawn Church). Needless to say my new instructor was very pleased and nearly signed me off on the spot and some of the Wreck Piñata drivers and the R wrecks 7 guys gave the thumbs up on clean driving (unfortunately there were several of those cars that were way out of control and one even punted a rental Celica slightly) Unfortunately with all the bumps I had been spinning the tires a bit and I really should have swapped the rears and fronts (thanks Toyo the tires worked incredibly well even being heat cycled 6 times before I had even started) At one point I experienced a level of driving I never had - where usually I'm totally focused and driving hard to where I almost pass after the checker at the end of the session to a moment where I stopped driving the car and let the car drive itself, if I can get back to that and expand it I have no doubt I can go so much faster.

Sunday I again got early to the school test already done, added some air to the tires, .5 quart of oil and 6 gallons of 100. DAMN I only used 6 gallons in 1.5 hours - sweet. Unfortunately the 100 octane gas must be muddy as the car immediately went into the jitters under low speed Got all lined up did a couple sessions, by this time all the other guys were feeling challenged by the knowledge that I was short shifting and were determined to pass even under formation that only made me drive harder and one of the Celica drivers found his groove behind me and later said he was learning much more quickly how fast his car was capable of. The day went on with some instruction and under the last lap the front tires started to go off a bit and the course had scattered rocks from a few people, which although it slowed down the car a bit I realized more that I wasn't pushing it hard enough and several times when I was under steering I cranked on the wheel harder (yeah note to self the car has 3 degrees of camber for a reason). I ended the day with a few more reminders from the chief steward about driver’s gear for the next time (I think they were a bit peeved about being over ruled).

At around 5 my instructor enthusiastically signed off my novice permit and both the instructors shook my hand and commented that my attitude had been one reason the missing sessions were overlooked and even Scotty said I was a right good laddy and I was on the right track - sweet

In the end everything worked out for the best, not having my suit made me realize that the sizing chart was a bit off because I'm tall and skinny so I'll need a bigger size anyway. All the stewards and flagger nagging was just meant to reinforce and even the deal with registration was more to weed out the non committed.

I was almost hoping not to get signed off so I could do the school over again and learn hopefully even more, the 420 + the 20 extra I donated to the corner workers fund was a bargain for the 6 hours of drive time and all the instruction and experience so I'll probably look into attending the next level up school if there is one for closed wheel cars.

At the end of my journey though this I cannot express my gratitude in enough words for Jeff "Kiwi" Owen who made this possible 100% and Special Projects Don Wilson and crew chief/driver Brian Slames for his help getting everything ready and helping me on Sunday. Shawn Church for copious amounts of reliable power to help mask my newbiness in corners occasionally. The instructors at WSIR especially Scotty and Marge Binks the boss lady. And to WSIR for keeping me on my toes (I still can't figure out why the hell the brick wall is there)

If after my rambling you guys want to have the most fun you can "with your pants on" this car is available for rent and I would highly recommend it.

 

Just out of curiousity, how many other track events had you done up to this point?

 

a few

 

Gotcha. Well, good job, and have fun racing

 

yeah deffinately not rushing it right now, I wish I could do a few more track days before but there really nothing like wheel to wheel in terms of traffic ect and passing in turns ect even though some of these guys are going full tilt for OT days

Racing outside of school in so cal will be interesting since I know a whole bunch of guys are right out of school so figuring out who I can go inside of and who not will keep me busy at cali speedway in feb since around the infield I feel really comfortable going flat out and this time it will be my car.

Most likely I'll probably spend the first 2 events especially kicking back a bit a making the whole this as uneventful as possible.

 

I will see you at CA speedway. I need to lower my current lap record. ITA

 

Congrats on the school

 

I'm looking forward to seeing donna in ITE next year I saw her a couple times this last year including laguna and I just want to be able to keep up with her to be happy

 

Congratulations on your new SCCA License Alex,
1 more for Honda Cup!

I'm glad our "Buddy Club" Civic Type R performed well for you with no problems. It's a cool little car and I believe it performs really well? I havent had a chance to drive it myself yet! We were happy to be able to help you, just as we are always ready to help any deserving new driver or crew/ team member who shows potential.

I must say it's a refreshing change to have some compliments thrown our way by those we try to help, rather than the old "bite the hand that feeds you" crap I/we have been subjected to recently... This new team we are slowly gathering together for next season is really starting to renew my recently destroyed, faith in human nature. It's great to see that there are still some loyal, talented, team players out there who make it a pleasure to help out if we can.

With Tom Lepper and I moving up the ladder to "Pro Factory supported" racing next year, some of our (5) Honda's will be made available to deserving cases, each on it's merit. This is Special Projects Motor Sports way of giving something back to the sport that has supported our business given us so much pleasure.

Well done!

Kiwi

 

yeah I really appreciate what you have done for me and I hope I can somehow repay that and I know brian appreciated the same as well when you helped him. And I know were not isolated cases.

But don't look back Jeff, much of whats said about you that is negative is by people not qualified to do so either by taking from others experiences what they decided must be true or by people who somehow felt they were owed more than they really deserved. Hopefully you know that and can jump both feet back into racing where you belong.

The car itself ran very well only being out performed by some nut job who brought an actual ex busch series car (it must be nice when you have that and an ex trans am car to toy around with, although he admitted he didn't know who andy porterfield is - heh-heh won't he be in for a suprise) and only on the main straight at the very end could he pass.