More Exciting News for 2010

Hi Pat,

What a nice Christmas surprise for your fans – a TRG/Flying Lizard team-up for the Grand-Am Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. Test days are January 8-10 and oh how I’d love to be a fly on the wall for that! If I could get away from work, I’d love to catch the race. Alas, it looks like things will be at fever pitch for me at work. But you never know.

Anyway, the TRG guys are awesome, which I know you know since you’ve worked with them before. I got to meet and chat with several of them over the summer when they displayed some team cars at the local Porsche dealership in a pre-race event. I’ll be great to root for some of my favorite drivers in the 24-hour race. And wow what a stellar line-up. You guys will ROCK.

It’s a really lovely Christmas here. We drove an hour west to spend the evening with my husband’s family. We made a few other stops around Tuscaloosa as well. The weather was pretty rotten, with unusually high winds and rain. We got back home after midnight to find that part of our tall wood privacy fence blew down. We got it stood back up for now but we’ll be shopping repair estimates first thing next week for sure.

I’ve repacked some stuff, and gotten other stuff ready to pack, and in the morning, we’re off to Atlanta to spend some time with my family. It’ll be our first time with all four of us siblings together in quite a while – we’re all looking forward to it.

Merry merry Christmas!
VroomGrrl

Porsche to Ferrari

Hi Pat,

Well everybody’s abuzz today with news that Flying Lizard Johannes van Overbeek is moving to Extreme Speed Motorsports to drive a Ferrari with Scott Sharp. Wow will that make things interesting! Flying Lizard sent out a press release on it today, and there’s a little more, including reaction from his new team, over at AmericanLemans.com right HERE. As usual, I have no clue what more this might mean, what’s gone on behind the scenes. I hope it’s a good thing for everyone.

Not much going on here. Still working through noon on Christmas Eve. Then I’m off for a few days. I put on a Santa hat yesterday, fired up the 911, and went to several Porsche-related destinations to drop off little packages of Christmas candy – my mechanics, my friends at PSDS/Barber, etc. I have a few packages lined up by the door for shipping around the country (Colorado, Arizona, Georgia, Maryland) but there’s no time to get them posted until tomorrow if I’m lucky, maybe not until next week. We’ll be off to Atlanta this weekend, looking forward to that.

Where are you? In Cali with family? Doing fun car stuff? Back from Germany? Zipping around in your Cayenne doing your holiday shopping – or do you have PEOPLE to do that for you? Hahaha! Well wherever, whatever, you know I wish you all the best for a Merry Christmas and super Happy New Year!

x0×0x0
VroomGrrl

Who’s On First for 2010?

Hi Pat,

News from your personal corner of the world has been quiet these days. That’s OK – you deserve a break after the year you’ve had! Actually I have a feeling you’re not exactly on “break” either, to tell the truth. I suspect you may still be over in Stuttgart for the Night of Champions which will close the big week of festivities at the new Porsche Museum this week. Busy busy boy!

Even so, the first news from Porsche AG is out!

STUTTGART, Germany – December 11 — Porsche will remain loyal to its successful customer teams and drivers in major international GT series around the world for 2010, including those in the North America.

In the American Le Mans Series, factory drivers Joerg Bergmeister (Germany) and Patrick Long (USA) will defend their championship drivers title with Flying Lizard Motorsports in the Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, the most successful GT vehicle worldwide in the 2009 season.

So there we have it. Of course, this is the Porsche factory view. I’m delighted to know you’ll continue your successful team with Jorg for Flying Lizard. But I also know you are involved with several other organizations, teams, cars and series. Will you drive with IMSA Matmut at the 24 Heures du Mans again this season, or with another of your teams? I wonder if you’ll continue in the NASCAR Camping World Series for 2010? I loved seeing you bang it up with the NASCAR folks, holding your own and giving ‘em pure unadulterated Pat Long HELL.

Things are quiet with me and my car just now. She’s been parked since we got back from Road Atlanta, and I’ve only been out to be sure she still starts up a couple of times during our recent cold snap. I think we may take her on the short romp to a family party this weekend. Must be sure she gets out & gets her legs stretched occasionally.

I’m going to be ordering up the free Hawk brake pads I won for my front axle, and I am pretty sure I have a back-up set of OEM stock pads for the rear. Once I have that together, I’ll get with JB and we will do pads all around, and a flush and bleed of my brake system.

Of course, I need to get a good look at my tires – but God help me (literally) if I need new ones anytime soon. Let’s just say that the employment fairies are not yet smiling kindly on my husband, and it’s going to be a home-made kind of Christmas for us this year. I can’t even THINK about new tires right now, and am kind of glad that I didn’t drive hard enough this year to need to replace them to start next season, embarrassing as that kind of is. Silver lining and all.

We’re really enjoying the season with what we do have. I have Griswold-ified the front of our house with colored lights, and decked out the inside with all kinds of tchochkies. After a weekend blitz of baking, I will hope to delight family and friends with gifts of my special home-made Christmas candy which we fondly refer to as Christmas Crack. My mother refuses to utter the phrase “Christmas Crack,” but is demanding her plate ASAP, “extra large, please, I love that stuff!” she says. Crack indeed! Hee!

I love making the stuff, putting it into holiday packages, and delivering it to friends and family. I’ve got my local repair shop on the list, and if I can work out the logistics, I’ll be sure to drop some by my new friends at Franz Blam Racing. Their redesigned website looks sharp!

Work is nuts one day, less nuts the next, but overall pretty stressful just now. Boy could I use some good hard fast….driving! What did you think I was going to say?? Hee!

On that note, I’m outta here for now.

Happy warm fuzzies to you wherever you are,
VroomGrrl

Looking Ahead

Hi Pat,

OK well the announcements are starting to trickle in about the 2010 season. Flying Lizard just published a press release saying that you and Jorg will be back in the #45 for the coming year. I keep hearing that Kevin Buckler/TRG is trying to get you into one of their Porsches, but no big announcement there yet. The 24 Heures du Mans invites went out a month or so ago, and I know you probably have several options there – or not, depending what agreements you already have in place. I guess I will just have to sit tight with the rest of the world to see what’s up for 2010!

Of course, I tried to get Franz Blam talking about 2010 when I was in the shop on Monday. With a gleam in his eye, he admitted that it will be quite a big job to make the Flying Lizard Porsches competitive with some of the teams whose 2010 cars are already out (BMW, Ferrari, I think…). I think he said there will be another Ferrari team, too? I have refrained from any further prying and brain-picking. See above re: patience (not my strong suit, can you tell???).

One interesting tidbit from the week concerns the infamous Danica Patrick. She is signed on with a team to drive in some of the “junior” NASCAR races this year, while keeping her IRL schedule. Here in Birmingham, Alabama, we are super excited about Indy cars coming to Barber in April. And for my birthday, no less! Thank you, IRL! Haha! Danica has her fans and detractors, to be sure. If she were dog-ugly, I think she’d actually have it easier. Instead, she’s accused of pretty-girling her way to the top. Personally, I think that is BS. Either you can drive, or you can’t. And let’s face it – the girl CAN drive. Danica seems to have some talent, and she seems to have earned her stripes.

Now in some cases, criticism is warranted. Women in motorsports are always going to stand out, always going to be lightning rods for criticism and controversy. In this regard, I do wonder about Milka Duno’s talent and ability. She hasn’t really earned her way up – she’s been handed some awesome opportunities. She has the power of the Venezuelan government (and CITGO) behind her, and has the best of everything at her disposal. On the one hand, Duno has blazed some trails for women in motorsports, scoring the best finish for a woman driver at Daytona and things like that. On the other hand, she seems so inconsistent, and occasionally displays some serious gaps in her performance. I get the idea that Milka is one who HAS pretty-girled her way to where she is. Which pisses me off because it makes it that much harder for truly talented women to compete and make their way through the ranks.

How did I get onto all that? 2010! Yeah. So anyway, hurry up and tell us what you’re doing. Your fans have plans to make! Oh how I’d love to be at Daytona, or Sebring…sigh! I’ll have to see the schedule for the year and see if there’s any way. As of 2010, I am officially saving for a trip to Lebanon (my late father’s homeland) so big travel will probably be limited, or very budget-minded. In the meantime, I’m so lucky to be within an easy drive of both Barber, Road Atlanta, and even Talladega. So I can always get to something close when the urge strikes.

It’s a cloudy, bitter cold day today. I hope you are warm and snuggly, wherever you are!

DeGrinching as I Type,
VroomGrrl

I Love My Car

Hi Pat,

I probably shouldn’t be so attached to my car, but man, I love my car. She was great fun over the weekend and I really enjoyed having her off for a nice road trip.

It was very very cold over the weekend, but at least we didn’t get rained on. You know how much fun Road Atlanta is in the rain! I had all my layers on, and was just fine. We ran both sides of the track, with the racers paddocked and gridded on the “pro” side (infield) and the HPDE folks on the outer paddock and grid. I liked my assignment at grid-in on the DE side, close to the tower and to my car. I ended up being the runner to get the grid sheets from the tower to the DE grid for time trials, so I got to get out and about, and walk the entire length of the grid multiple times – best way to stay warm! Perfect!

One of my favorite cars had its passenger seat in – a 1966 Mustang. LOVE that car. LOVE. The driver is a really great guy. I went to the guy in charge of signing up for charity laps, and I got myself signed right up! Sadly, I couldn’t get in until Sunday afternoon, and I was not at my best. Worn out, and just after lunch. Add a face full of fumes, and I lasted four laps! But oh, they were four laps of heaven. We were alternately chased by and then chasing a GT40. Yow – music to my ears, both of them!

So there we were, late Sunday afternoon, slowly breaking down and packing up as the last DE sessions went out. For HPDE1 at 4:35, there was ONE car on the grid. I was on the radio all, “I think I’m going to take my car out on track in this DE1 session…” The response was “You need an instructor – good luck with that.” There happened to be an instructor standing not six feet away. listening to the whole thing. He said he’d go with me. “Got that covered, and grid-in is covered…” To my suprise, they said, “OK go for it!”

I had five minutes to track prep my car which had been sitting dead cold all day long. Of course I was up for it -Road Atlanta!!!! I would get out late in the session but even if I got ONE lap I was thrilled to do it! I went to start my car up and…..DEAD BATTERY. Yep. Left the defroster on and didn’t turn the key all the way off and several hours of that drained the battery so completely that it wouldn’t jump start. So I spent that last few minutes of DE1 pulling power off a kind friend’s battery to charge mine enough to get a start. Oh well – next time! I do like that they let workers get out on track when it can be arranged – I’ll be sure to keep that in mind in the future.

For my lunch break on Sunday, I ran over to the pro-side to check out my friend’s new race car. He had stopped at my spot on grid in his breathtaking midnight blue Cayman S, and I asked if he’d traded his 2000 996 for the Cayman. Silly me! This is his DD – his race car was in the paddock. This is the guy who crashed his “brand new” car late last season at Road Atlanta in the rain. By “brand new” I mean “recently completely refurbished and souped up.” He got lots of the guts out of the wrecked car, and got a new tub & chassis, and went to work. Or rather, his builder-buddy went to work.

The outcome is stunning. His car sounds like a ferocious howling beast on the track – awesome! He says he still has the passenger seat, and he’ll be sure to bring it in the trailer next season. This is the guy who gave me the nearly life-altering (in a good way) ride at Road Atlanta last year, and I’ve enjoyed keeping up with him and his progress. He’s left Georgia for Michigan, but this club is his home, and RA his home track. It was super fantastic to see him!

Of course, the very best part of the whole weekend came on Monday. I finished taking care of business with my mom by noon, and then it was off to Tucker to take my car to…Franz Blam Racing! I was due for an oil change, so I thought this would provide a good opportunity to have them meet my car. Lucky for me, they had time when I got there (Thomas had warned them I might be by Monday afternoon). I also had my new wireset in the car, and they made time to put that in for me as well. Finally, all the messing with my battery on Sunday had resulted in a couple of blown fuses which left my stereo inoperable. They tracked those down and replaced them for me. So when I left there late that afternoon, I was good to go!

I had no clue what all had to be undone and moved around to properly install my spark plug wires. It almost looked like it’d be as easy to drop the engine. Very tight in there. Of course, Franz knew his way around everything in there like the back of his hand, and he showed the tech how to twist things this way and that to use bendy tools and snake things around to get everything well-seated in there. Franz himself chased my electrical demons from the battery connections to the front of the car where the fuses are. I confess, it was pretty awesome to see THE FRANZ BLAM shoulder-deep in my engine bay.

The work took a few hours, and I brought what I needed to entertain myself – my laptop with broadband card, and a new book to read. There’s a nice seating area with a table and chairs and I was completely comfortable. But I ended up chatting with Connie (office manager) and Melvin (service manager?) off and on for much of that time. I made a few trips into the shop to watch the guys work, and to snap photos of all the pretty Porsches in there.

The drive home was great – it was a crisp, clear afternoon, and once I got past the Atlanta rush-hour log-jams, I was driving into a lovely sunset all the way. It was just dark when I got home, and I was tickled to see that my husband had begun stringing Christmas lights around the porch. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Turns out the Flying Lizards were at the 24 Hours of Thunder Hill over the weekend, I believe supporting the Team Mercer Motorsports bunch who came out victorious! I notice that Johannes van Overbeek was one of their drivers, and now I know what Thomas Blam was doing in California. Franz was so proud to tell me when I got to the shop on Monday. He has been pretty quiet around me – very kind and sweet, but kind of quiet. I had paid up and left the shop on Monday, and was standing in front of my car, going through the contents of my purse which I had dumped out on the hood (DON’T ASK). I didn’t realize he’d come out the front door, and I turned around to see him coming toward me, arms outstretched for a hug. What a sweetie!

Well I really enjoyed that car-centric weekend. Now time to focus on work things and family fun and all the rest. Hope you are happy and well, wherever you are!

x0×0x0x
VroomGrrl

This is What I Do for Fun

Hi Pat,

I’ve made it to Road Atlanta safe & sound, a couple of hours ahead of the snow. My husband sent me this photo of big fat flakes falling at our house in Birmingham just as I was crossing the Georgia state line. The weather looks potentially nasty for tomorrow morning. I have packed tons of layers, and will leave here tomorrow in long underwear, long sleeved T-shirt, sweater, hoodie, another fleece if necessary, and a hooded rain-jacket/windbreaker, over all-weather pants over tights and leggings. Two pairs of socks. Hat, two pairs of gloves (one with no fingertips). Lord help me, I’ll be out on the grid lining up cars at 9:00, and I’ll be out there all day long. We may get rain or snow between 5-9 tomorrow morning. Things could get very interesting!

The PCA party was really nice. The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum provided a stunning backdrop. It was very well attended, and great fun to see everybody. I was introduced as the new Membership Chair. La ti da! I do look forward to playing a more active role in the club. They are a great bunch of folks.

I’d packed my car for the trip to RA and hubby and I drove separately so I could leave straight from the museum after the party. It was a very pleasant drive. I wanted to make the best possible time to beat the weather, but it was flashing blue lights everywhere I looked. So it was a speed limit ride the whole way. I’m tucked into my hotel room now and winding down.

Surfing the web, I see a little mention that you are in Stuttgart this weekend at the Porsche Museum doing an autograph session with some of the other factory drivers. You do get around, don’t you? What fun that must be. I could look back and see, but I can’t recall if you guys do your big annual fitness camp in the winter? I would think so. I can’t wait until further along when folks start to announce what they’re doing in the coming year. The GT2 competition in ALMS has gotten VERY interesting. It should be a great year.

I’ve got a couple of opportunities to drive coming up, and I may take advantage of one or both: an autocross, and another track day at Little Tally, coming up in the next couple of weeks. Must see what the work schedule and pocketbook will allow! For now it’s time to hit the hay. I have an early all-hands meeting, then a long, damned cold day out on the grid. I cannot wait to see all my friends and their cars – I’ve missed this bunch!

Ready for a weekend of Brrrrrrr!
VroomGrrl

Red Velvet Cake Makes You Drive Faster

Hi Pat,

I wanted so badly to write about the day last night, but I was exhausted! I got a METRIC TON of track time. Turns out, it was just what I needed!

The photo of the red velvet cake that I posted here in my last entry was also posted to my facebook page, and I got a comment back from one of my Honda friends saying simply, “I hear red velvet cake makes you drive faster!” This was the guy who’d told me about this track day, and I had plenty left, so I packed some up and brought it to the track to give him.

But first, I needed to get my plug wire situation worked out. Sadly, My Real Driving Coach did not make it out there as planned to do this before the event started. But my Honda buddies? Oh my heavens. They just jumped in there. The red velvet cake guy? He found the wire that needed replacing, and rigged up one of my new wires in place of that one. Turns out many braces and brackets have to come off the engine to replace the entire set and it’d have taken a good couple of hours. No time for that. Replacing this one clearly bad one (and rigging it into place with zip ties) fixed me right up. My Real Driving Coach showed up in time to go out with me for the first three sessions. He was not feeling well, though, and riding shotgun was not sitting well with him. He ended up leaving after about three sessions.

Again, my Honda buddies bailed me out. One of them, whom I’ve seen in the paddock at SCCA AX events, the plug wire fixing red velvet cake commenting one – turns out to be a licensed racer, and a Porsche nut. He used to race a 79 911, and has had his 86 944 since 86. Who knew? He loves my car, and insisted that he would be my instructor for the rest of the day. How completely awesome is this? Of course, it was a bit of a risk in both directions. But it turns out he is an incredible teacher.

I’m still having a hard time coming up with the words to put on the whole experience. It was mindblowingly incredibly good. Having run this track twice already this year and once last year, it turns out I actually know the line around there pretty well. I had gotten used to doing it mostly in 3rd gear. I was ready to step it up, and changing that is ultimately what was THE NEXT LEVEL for me. Learning how to use my engine’s power. Throttle steering. USING the back end’s tendency to step out to my advantage. Taking turn 1 with NO BRAKES and carrying more speed through there than I ever had, and doing it faster and faster each time. Pushing the limits until, one time, I pushed too hard and around came the back end by about 90 degrees. I reacted by doing the wrong thing, letting up too quickly, and started into a tank-slapper – and it all happened so fast – but I saved it, keeping all four wheels on the track the whole time. I still got in my share of pointing folks by!

But very best of all, I got a real feel for the WHOLE thing, a real sense of the rhythm of the whole and the balance of the car as it moves through the course and and different ways of placing the car on track and using the balance and and….

Really, can you believe it? I’m nearly speechless. My instructor insisted that I shaved 5 seconds off my time in the afternoon with two crucial changes in the last two sessions, and it really felt like I did. I know from looking at some of my onboard video that in the morning alone, I took about 4-5 seconds off my time from the first morning session to the last before lunch. So all in all, I may have cut about ten seconds off my time over the course of the day (about 1:32 to 1:22). We’re talking about a tiny road course, 1.4 miles, so the change was dramatic. Utterly thrilling. So gratifying.

Pat, I am telling you, on the drive home, I just wept. Endorphin rush and physical release and…I’m so serious – it was that completely intense on every level, and I was completely overcome, in a good way, I guess.

Sometimes it’s like this for me with something new. I trudge along with the basics, a little part clicks in here, another little part there, but overall I feel I’m progressing on a very slow incline. And just when I start to feel bogged down, BAM a big leap. It was like this for me playing the violin. And it’s been like that learning high performance driving. It’s not always so dramatic, but wow…just…WOW. I cannot wait to get out there again!

Here’s the feedback from my instructor:

You drove GREAT! Your lines were almost perfect from the start . I am guessing you cut 5 seconds off of your lap times from the beginning to the end. I must admit you surprised me most all of the day. Very good job.

Here’s a video that starts with early laps and finishes with laps from around midday:

TGPR 11-28 snipets for comparison from VroomGrrl on Vimeo.

So I guess what my buddy said is true: Red velvet cake makes you drive faster!

Hahaha!

Now I have next weekend to look forward to: PCA party at Barber Museum Friday night, then straight from there to Atlanta in my 911 to work pit & grid for NASA at Road Atlanta (LOVE). The Sunday race is a charity run and last year they had 83 cars in a single charity race that was a total scream! Then Monday, it’s off to Franz Blam with my car to introduce them. In between, miles to travel for work and much, much to do.

Hope this finds you happy & well!

Finally living up to the name….
VROOMgrrl!

Wired

Hi Pat,

I am winding down and a little late getting to bed, but I have everything ready to leave at 5:30 in the morning for my impromptu track day. This is so awesome I can hardly stand it – a first chance for me and My Real Driving Coach to spend a day together working at a track. It seems so simple, but unless one has buckets of money to do private rentals, it is really tough as a rank beginner to find opportunities to work with a coach if it’s not part of some kind of club-sponsored thing. And as was the case with the track day I brought My Real Driving Coach out to, they are really not set up for doing it that way. When I’m further along, I can buy in to group rentals and there will be many more opportunities. I should be signed off to drive solo early next season.

As excited as I am, that excitement is tempered by recurrance of the skipping in my engine. Gah! On Wednesday, I came home at lunch and switched cars so I could get the 911 out to My Real Driving Coach to get my brakes bled. That went fine, but oh my heavens, on the way there, the car just ran like utter and total CRAP. Skip skip skiiiiiip. Not good. Not good at all. JB got in there and looked around, and it was another plug wire sparking and arcing in the engine. Dammit. This is the third one to crap out, or they may all be crapped out and they are each revealed as we replace them one by one. So when I got back to work, I got online and ordered a complete OEM wireset, and got next-day delivery to get it here by Friday. It arrived today as planned, and fingers crossed, JB will be able to deal with this in the morning.

It’s a 90 minute drive to the track, and I’m just going to take it easy and hopefully there will be no issues replacing the wires trackside in the morning. JB knows to bring tools to supplement my non-mechanic’s collection of bare essentials. We talked about it tonight, and I am braced for the worst but hoping for the best. If the wires go in OK and solve the skipping problem, off I’ll go on a super fun track day. If there are any issues getting the wires changed out, or if the wire change doesn’t solve the problem, that will be the end of my track day. My motto is that I do not want to kill my car, and I don’t need to be running it in a track setting if the engine is skipping. Just not smart. As I said, hoping for the best.

Oh, yeah, Thanksgiving was great! The Red Velvet Cake came out really well. The turkey was pretty spectacular for a turkey, beautifully browned skin and super moist, even as leftovers. Best of all was having my sister and her three kids here to share a few days with me. I’m glad we are continuing the tradition of Thanksgiving at Aunt VroomGrrl’s! Sadly, because of the skipping issue, I decided not to take the car out with the kids for another driving lesson. Maybe next year. Anyway it was just a great couple of days. It’s been a whirlwind with the keeping everybody fed and comfy, then cleaning up after the kid-cyclone once they were on the way back home, then we had the Crimson Tide football game to watch. . During that time, I used the last of the daylight to get my car prepped and packed up. Soon as the game was over, it was off to see some friends in from out of town, then back home and here I am and I better get to bed or I’ll never get up in the morning

Happy Turkey to you and yours! Wish me luck getting my car going in the morning!

Fingers crossed,
VroomGrrl

When Opportunity Knocks

Hiya Pat,

Just when I thought I was done for the year, I got an email about an open track day at Little Tally – this Saturday. I absolutely cannot “afford” it. My husband is still unemployed (he’s found a job but his start date is iffy) and it’s been tight. But I have my priorities! I worked it out to bring My Real Driving Coach with me at no extra cost and he’s available and voila! SEAT TIME! Now I just have to get my brakes bled and I’m good to go. My Real Driving Coach may be able to help me with that as well. I wish I could pay him what he’s worth, but he’s offering a really low rate for a day of coaching and I appreciate the break – it’s going to be awesome! Of course if he can do my brakes I’ll be sure to compensate him for that as well. Seat time! Seat time! Woot!

And the good news is, even if My Real Driving Coach ends up not being able to make it, I know a whole bunch of awesome drivers who will be there, and they have assured me I will not lack for company in the car if I let them know. My Real Driving Coach allowed as how he is really glad for a chance to generate some extra holiday cash, so odds are it’ll work out as planned. I was kind of hesitant to tell my husband what I wanted to do, but I just laid it out there, and he was fine with it. There should be plenty of college football on Saturday to keep him amused. And it’s the cheapest track time around, so that’s good.

As I type, it’s Tuesday night and I have to work all day tomorrow and then my sister and her kids arrive after I get home from work tomorrow night and then we cook, cook, cook and then we get up at 5 and put in the turkey and come 11:00, it’ll be turkey time. I’ve spent a good bit of time getting everything ready, shopping, cleaning, food prep. I’ve made up a couple of dishes which will finish cooking on Thanksgiving Day. Squash casserole is underway right now. My niece asked if I’d teach her how to bake a Red Velvet cake from scratch, and I am all about sharing the kitchen love. So we will be up late Wednesday night doing that.

Well I just stopped in to report on my track day this Saturday. I am psyched for the opportunity to get out there. Yaaaaay!

Hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving wherever you are!
VroomGrrl

Had I Been Paying Attention

Hey Pat,

Had I been paying attention, I’d have noticed your post over a week ago about the Central American GT Championship race you ran in Costa Rica – and won pretty spectacularly, along with setting a track record, then shattering your own record. Way to make a first impression! Ha! OK well I have no idea what I’m talking about – I don’t know if you’ve done that race before or anything like that. But wow! Looks like there is very little “off season” for you. I will have to keep an eye and ear out.

Speaking of not having any idea what I’m talking about, I will be very curious to see what you end up driving in the 24 heures du Mans this year. I saw that the first round of invitations went out last week to all the championship winners in various series and classes. Your ALMS championship with Joerg gets you a seat that way, but I know from last year that you have all kinds of partnerships with all kinds of teams and drivers and organizations. I’ll just have to wait and see what you’re up to.

And speaking of alliances, Kevin Buckler has dropped your name a couple of times recently. He’s putting together quite a stable of cars for the coming year, and I think I read that his bunch, TRG, is running five cars in the Rolex series (!?!) along with a NASCAR entry and lord knows what-all else. I just cannot keep up with this stuff. One thing I can say for sure is that you keep it very interesting and I can’t wait to see what you put together. I’ll be watching!

The coming weeks are starting to look a little nuts for me. We’ll have family to our new place for Thanksgiving. Then I’ll be going to a party with PCA at Barber on Friday 12/5, then leaving straight from there for Atlanta for that Saturday and Sunday to work pit & grid for a big weekend of NASA races. I’ll stay over Monday and help my mom take care of some business in the morning. And if I have the 911, I’ll swing by to introduce my car to Franz before I head back home. Thomas will be in California that week, probably doing Lizardy things.

After that, all bets are off. I’m trying to put together my own off-season plan. Sadly, it looks like my doggone j-o-b is going to get in my way. Instead of getting quieter as folks would expect, my work schedule tends to go totally insane through the holidays. I’ll have to stay close to home. I keep threatening to do this, but I think perhaps a program of racing simulator work would do me some good. I just do not have access to real seat time in the off-season. We shall see – stay tuned!

Happy Turkey, Happy Everything!
VroomGrrl