After the Crash

The following was originally written on December 4, 2011, but not posted until today, August 11, 2012.

Dear Pat,

Once again I’m apologizing for taking so long to post you a note! You’ll understand, I’m sure. My last note was written on the eve of Petit le Mans, which I had to miss for the first time EVER this year. I did keep up by whatever coverage I could attain (TV, ESPN3) and wow, once again you guys drove like demons possessed to your 2nd place finish.

In the bigger picture, that was one of your team’s three podiums for the year, if memory serves. Fourth in points for the championship. I followed your various updates over the season, and while it was rough for everybody’s exemplary efforts not to be rewarded with more podium finishes and points standings, your resilience was inspiring. Because while your ALMS season was rough, you were doing so many other things. In many cases, your exemplary efforts yielded the pinnacle of results, such as your World Challenge Championship. This is what I was thinking about in my last post, “How You Look at It.”

My driving year was very up and down as well. My one accomplishment, and for me, it’s huge, was to be signed off to drive solo at Barber. Due to various intervening factors, like car problems, and health issues, my novice season stretched from late 2008 until Spring 2011! To be quite honest, taking up competitive driving for the first time at the age of 50, I really needed all of that novice time to get good habits truly engrained. I didn’t grow up throwing karts around, or piloting a scooter. Yeah, I had a bike, and a car when I was 16, but soccer and swimming were my sports. I followed motorsports from early on with my dad, and loved attending races. But it wasn’t until my 30s that I started to get the bug to take up driving as sport.

So I’ve really relished this extended novice period. As I’ve been able, I’ve focused on getting as much seat time as possible, both driving, and riding shotgun with some fantastic drivers (something I would love to do with you…my car and yours!). The competitive driving principles my dad taught me as I sat in his lap behind the wheel starting around age 5 (“The car will go where your eyes go…the way to drive curves is to straighten them out…”) came in handy. Many brave, patient souls rode shotgun with me as I got my head around the whole thing. At the end of my three-year novice season, I may not be fast, but I am smooth. Smooth hands, smooth feet, smooth moves. Heh! I have much yet to learn, and I am looking forward to what’s to come.

Autocross is something I really enjoy, but the year was fraught with conflicts, and I made it out for ONE event all season long. Several Porsche Club folks ganged up and went to the October SCCA Solo event together and we ran in a club class. That was a huge bag of fun! I wasn’t very competitive. I was so happy to be out with my buddies, and hanging with the cars and the noise and the vroom and the squeal and the whoooooa-slides…but I had a hard time getting my head in it. In fact, my being there that day turned into an unintentional middle finger at the gods of fate.

The day before, I had found out that I had colon cancer, and the autocross event I was so looking forward to was on the Sunday before my hastily scheduled Tuesday surgery. There was no reason not to go. My cancer was discovered via routine colonoscopy – I never had any symptoms and was not “sick” or anything. But once you find out you have cancer, there is this time of abject terror and fear between the initial diagnosis, and the point at which they have enough info (from surgery, radiology, pathology, etc.) to say how advanced it is, and what your survival odds are. And whether you will need chemo and/or radiation that can make you wish you were dead.

Anyway, all of a sudden, in my mind, this one little autocross event took on HUGE proportions, and it became massively important to me to just be there, JUST DO IT. The fear and terror lurking with my cancer diagnosis kept trying to remind me that this might be my last. Autocross. Ever. So I went, and it was a cool, beautiful Fall day, and my friends were there, and I told a few of them, and got my introduction to The Cancer Eyes. The Cancer Eyes are the eyes that look back at you from a person who’s just gotten tragic news that their dear friend has cancer.

To me, the hardest thing about having cancer is having to tell your loved ones that you have cancer.

So the fact that I’m writing this is all you need to know about how I’ve survived so far. And I’m lucky in that they caught mine pretty early, and I have pretty good survival odds: 88% chance of living five years, 84% I’ll make it ten years. The jury is still out on whether chemo would help or hurt me; I’ll know in another week or so. But even if I need chemo, the kind they use for my cancer is not known for awful side effects, other than “thinning” hair.

I went to my first post-surgery social event on Friday, the Porsche Club holiday party. I finally figured out how to describe my experience. Other than a few rough days recovering from the abdominal surgery, I have not been “sick” at all. My insides have been seriously re-plumbed, and there are challenges related to that. But I snapped back from surgery like a rubber band, was released with no restrictions on activity at three weeks, and other than getting a little lazy from lying around in my fuzzy slippers and robe, I’m good!

So when talking to people at this party, they would grasp my arm and give me The Cancer Eyes, and I’d say, “Really, I’m good now! Other than having a lump of cancer cut out of me, I have not been sick a day.” Then they’d give me the You Are Joking Eyes, and I’d have to reassure them, “Seriously, I know cancer has the potential to really wreck a person, but they got mine early, and other than recovering from surgery, I have not had any symptoms or illness or anything.”

That really is the truth. I’ve got cancer, but I haven’t been sick. So, what a year, huh? This wasn’t the end I expected to my year, I’ll tell you that much. Travel is tough, being in the car any length of time, certain things about how I go about the day have changed, probably permanently, but I can live with the changes.

Crazy damn year. Catch you on the flip side!

x0x0x
VroomGrrl

The Year of Me

Hi Pat,

It’s crazy time around here! I don’t even have time to be writing this note. We are going on a big adventure, my husband and I, to celebrate my upcoming 50th birthday. Fifty freakin years. And Pat, I don’t feel a day older than you look! Hahah! But really, I don’t. When you are 50, you will know exactly what I mean. Strange, that.

Anyway. so I dubbed this, milemarker 50th birthday year, as The Year of Me, and I’ve been doing all sorts of stuff I want to do. Starting The Year of Me off with a trip to Daytona – and getting my hair done the day before I left. JUST BECAUSE. Following through with getting my 911 ready for the track. Getting signed off to drive solo at Barber! And all along, the feature event began to take shape. A great big trip to an exciting, very very far away place. The original plan began as a trip to experience a big week or so of Le Mans love this summer. I have relatives all over the world, and was sketching out this awesome itinerary all around Le Mans, with stops to see family along the way. I could rent a Porsche….

But then! Then an opportunity to do something even special-er came along. And you know if it beat out going to Le Mans for the first time, and taking a great trip around Europe visiting familly, it had to be really special. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back! In the meantime, I have a list about ten miles long of things that I have to get done in about a quarter-mile’s worth of time! So off I go. Wish us luck.

And drive real purty while we’re gone!
x0x0x0
VroomGrrl

Photographic Evidence

Hi Pat,

I still don’t have the CD of photos from last weekend, but I have a couple of shots to share. Nothing flashy, just me and my little 911 at Barber.

Here we are braving the rain down the front straight:

And here, coming over the tunnel turn on my first solo run:

It’s a big day here in Birmingham. Indy cars have been arriving all weekend for today’s testing at Barber, and I just got a Tweet about one of the cars having just arrived at the airport, waiting for a lift to the track. It’s threatening to rain but so far it’s holding off.

You have either been at Sebring testing in Florida, or at Le Mans testing in France. Bad, bad fan, I’m not sure where you are! I’m really curious to see what kind of NASCAR fun you may be having this year after your brilliant showing at Miller in the Camping World series last year. What DO you have in store for us??

Back to the grindstone…
x0x0x
VroomGrrl

And the Angels Sang!

Hi Pat,

For such a big event in my motorsports endeavors, the moment passed without much fanfare – no flashbulbs, no video – just me, my 911, and Barber Motorsports Park. Well, and about 20 other cars! But that just made it more fun! I guess I really have come along. I used to say that I loved driving on the track…except for all the other cars! My head is now in a totally different place about that, to say the least. So finally it’s behind me, my first solo outing at Barber.

I was super extremely nervous sitting in grid. I thought about how relaxed I was about all the things that used to practically keep me up the night before a driver’s ed weekend – everything from what shoes to wear, to how the seatbelt fit over my boobs. You would not believe how much I worried about the damned seat belt and my boobs. As I yanked the thing into place today, I had to smile. Over the 3 years I’ve been doing this stuff, all the goofy crap has fallen away, and my focus was on the driving.

The funny thing is, leading up to this event, I joked with my club guys about who would be my instructor. I think more than anything, they were just flat tired of pairing me up after three years! I think I did my first DE back in 2008 just after I first got my car. 2009 was a busy year, but as you know if you’ve followed my notes here, I was sidelined for most of 2010. So this weekend, they were all, “What? You don’t need an instructor!” and I was all, “OK then, hook me up for a check ride, please!”

In the end, I sort of rounded up my own instructor, an awesome friend I know from NASA-SE, who is now starting up the new NASA-Midsouth. Matt bravely rode with me in the rain yesterday (and may I just add again here…OH. MY. GAWD. THE RAIN!). And this morning, my first session was my check ride, and I was pushed out of the nest!

Of course, me being me, it couldn’t just be a normal thing. Normally one would be “checked out” of the novice group, and advance to the next group. But today, the next group was sooooo full, and I was still the slowest thing in my own group, still. So I ended up in my own little category, a group 1.5 or 1.75, Solo Novice? They just called the grid and told them I was going out alone. And then some of the guys put this on my glass to mark the occasion. Yes, that’s right, a pair of blue balls. Gotta love it!

So..all this yackity yack and nothing about the driving. Well it’s hard to know where to even start! My weakest point right now is still braking. Street braking and track braking are so totally opposite, and I really had to get a feel for that again on the racetrack. And I don’t think I really got where I want to be either, not consistently. Yet. I did improve, and got much MORE consistent, but I have a ways to go. I did not lift in the Esses/Kinks, and I did not brake around the back of the track AT ALL until I got to the turn-in at the last turn that leads onto the front straight. Someday when I am going faster I will need some brakes around those turns, but at my speed, I just did not. And NOT braking where I was so accustomed to at least a tap? Woo I earned those balls!

But then once I got used to it, it was awesome! I really got into feeling the momentum of my car, the weight transfers, the changing sensations from different levels of tire adhesion. So much to think about. Traffic management was not nearly as distracting to me today as it had been in the past. One time, I found myself following a car that had passed me – bad idea! There are some people driving some strange lines out there. MY line is where I need to be. I can change it any time I want or need to, but where I am on the track has to be by MY intention, not the result of mindless following.

I only nailed the hairpin maybe twice the way I really wanted to. Early with the braking. I just have such a hard time staying in the gas going down that little hill into the bowl! I worked so hard on this on a previous weekend, and I reaped the benefits of late brakes and late turn-in there, just never quite got back into that groove completely. Where I did feel much better was the Museum turn. Wow that thing is fun! Hard brakes, then hard turn-in, then back on the gas down the blind hill, then a quick hard jab, hard turn and when done right, you basically get kind of flung out of that thing by momentum. LOVE!

Ok well once again it is late, and I am tired. Back to the grindstone tomorrow, must grab a few winks. I’ll be back with some photos soon.

And I am going to go look at your schedule right now and see what you are up to!

Be well, drive purrrrrty!
x0x0x0
VroomGrrl

A River Runs Through It

Dear Pat,

Life has been happening so fast since I came back from the 24 Hours at Daytona! But at long last, today I got my 911 out on the track. PCA Driver’s Ed weekend at Barber Motorsports Park. A stuck passenger side window sidelined me for my first run session, but I was ready for the 2nd, and oh my heavens, THE RAIN. It got heavy as session 2 ended. By my 3rd session, there was standing water everywhere, and it just kept coming. I have done driver’s ed in my 911 in the rain before, but not at a track like Barber. WOW! WOWOWOWOWOW! Simultaneously the scariest and most rewarding thing I think I have ever done.

And speaking of happening fast, you know what? I am too damned tired to finish this note I’ve started. I may come back later with some photos. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow, and my instructor from today says I am going solo for the first time tomorrow. I’m soooo…so…so…WOOOOO! Haha! Must hydrate, get a good meal, and then to bed.

More later. Promise!
x0x0x0
Kathy

Can’t Always Get What You Want

Hi Pat,

Well I know this weekend had its ups and downs! From Joerg putting the car in pole position in qualifying to Seth’s rotten luck on his first stint Saturday. The team got the car back on track, and you all did an admirable job climbing back through the pack, but it just wasn’t to be this time. Just goes to show – you can have every statistical advantage going in, but it’s a 24 hour race. The good news is – anything can happen. The bad news is: ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. I was so sad to see the car retired in the 23rd hour! All your fans were. And I’m sure nobody was more disappointed than you drivers & the team. I sincerely hope that Flying Lizard campaigns the DP car as many Daytona 24s as it takes to win one. Next year!

All that said, it was a spectacular weekend of racing! The days were bright and clear, just warm enough, with a light breeze. Last night was mostly clear and cool, and the early morning brought a shroud of fog so thick the caution lasted over two hours. The finish was pretty amazing, too! A real dogfight for 2nd place.

My friend Mike Skeen had his disappointments this weekend as well. The #56 Bennett Racing Ferrari F430 Challenge car was out when I checked around 3am. It had been in and out of the pits for several hours, and at some point it retired. I’ll have to go dig around for the details. Anyway, it was so fantastic to see Mike and his band of buddies who put this effort together. Just taking that driver introduction walk at the beginning and getting to drive a few stints – I know for sure he is a very, very happy man.

So next year is the 50th birthday of the 24 Hours of Daytona! That’ll be a perfect endcap on what I have decided is THE YEAR OF ME, my own 50th year. I’m “jus doing it” all year long, and this weekend was my first step in that direction. It would have been great to have had my husband along with me. But racing is not his thing, and the weekend is the busiest time for his job (taxi driver) so he took a pass on this one. He and I will have to head to the beach together soon.

In the end, I decided to keep my hotel room for the night. I didn’ get much sleep last night. In fact, my worker friend picked me up in the van and took me to the coolest spots behind the scenes on the track, just like last year. The inside of the bus stop! It was so cool with the cars flying by so close. Once all that fun was done, I moved my car over to the nearly deserted Porsche corral and parked. I fired up my computer for a little while to see Liz Moses doing her live trackside 24 hour marathon coverage, which was a scream. She is awesome. During that two-hour caution for fog, I wrapped up in a jacket & blanket, grabbed my pillow, and went to sleep for a bit.

And woke up a 10:00 surrounded by hundreds of cars, with people milling all around me. Ha! Nice 4-hour nap! I quickly got my shit together, went to the restroom, got some breakfast, and enjoyed the rest of the race. Bittersweet in a way, but I have good friends involved with TRG, so it was great to see them get on the podium.

I took my time getting back here, and actually moved to a much nicer room where I should be able to get some sleep tonight. Then I made use of the last of the beatiful daylight to get my car ready for the long trek home. I took her out and ran a few errands to get her up to temp and checked the oil. Perfect. Tire pressures are all good. I torqued my lug nuts, gave the glass and mirrors a real good clean-up, got the trash out, and got everything sorted to leave by five in the morning. Now a bite of something for dinner, then early to bed. I’m whooped!

So I’ll have to start digging around the web to see what my favorite driver is up to. I know you’ll be doing the full ALMS season with FLM but you are into so many other things, and you don’t exacty publish your full schedule on your website! (not saying you should either). I’m sure you’ll be going in a thousand directions and I look forward to following you for what promises to be another incredible year.

Wishing you safe travels home,
x0x0x0
VroomGrrl

Twice Around

Hi Pat,

Well things are picking up here in VroomGrrl land! I had a great 911-centric weekend! Saturday was our annual multi-car-club winter drive. As usual, there was snow and ice the week before the drive. In front of the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum, we assembled a great collection of about 40 cars from the British, Mercedes and Porsche clubs. While we had a Plan B, we took off on the planned route to the summit of Alabama’s highest peak, Mt. Cheaha, assured the roads were clear.

Of course, we found out soon enough that there was some treacherous ice to be navigated. We had about 40 cars and miraculously, we all managed to stay together until about a mile short of the mountain summit, where a good bunch of us bailed out in the face of a passage that looked like an uphill glacier, and we headed down the “clear” way. It turned out to be not so clear when we set out, but once we got off the mountain, the roads were fine.

Whew! We were ravenous at lunch, and passed the time waiting for our meals by reliving our most grueling “pucker moments” from the drive. Everybody made it to the designated lunch spot except the Brits, all of whom tried to make it to the summit, but had to be pulled out by the rangers (four of them, I believe). No cars or people were injured, and everybody who participated had a good time. The organizer had some stickers made up, and as we picked them up, we joked about how we’d just earned our merit badge in ice driving. Another great Winter Fahrt is in the books!

On the way home, I stopped by Barber to see my buddy at Porsche Sport Driving School. I’d given him my copy of Vic Elford’s 911 High Performance Driving Handbook which he thought he might be able to get autographed by the author for me. It’s been about a year, and I have seen Vic Elford twice since I left the book with my friend! I thought the upcoming Daytona might present another chance so I stopped by to get the book back. He was there on Saturday because PSDS was having a weekend school session.

I had never seen the 2011 Porsche 911 GT2RS in person, and really enjoyed ogling this one, along with all the other awesome cars out there. After the day’s driving, I was exhausted, and headed back home after a quick visit. Sunday I got a call from my friend – when I picked up the book, I dropped my gloves! Dammit. Did I want to come pick them up? I was still in my pajamas and since I had to be back out there next weekend anyway, I said I’d just come get them next weekend. Did I want to come pick them up at 3:40 and take a hot lap ride? Oh hell yeah!

Sometimes I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I quickly got my shit together, hopped into my 1988 911, and zipped over to Barber. My buddy lined me up for a 911 Turbo ride with John Lewis at the wheel. As I got into the car, my friend said to John, “OK, she’s done this before, she’s ready for the advanced ride if you know what I mean!” and they both laughed. I was in for a good one! And a good one it was! It took me a minute to get comfortable, but holy hell the launch on that car just about peeled my face off! It was awesome!!

John said he’d been dying to cut loose and I was his last ride of the day. We were going twice around, and I was sooo tickled about that because it meant that I got to experience how he’d tackle Turn 15 into the front straight. This is a famous spot for folks to do a little hot-dogging, aka drifting, if they are of a mind to do a thing like that. John did not disappoint! Then he took a rather…playful line down the front straight to amuse the guys standing at the track wall, and ended up on a rather…interesting approach to turn 1! WHEW!!

This was a great reminder for me as the year begins. Once again, I am reminded of what the world is like at speed. What Barber is like at speed. Man, that is a fun little track. My favorite turn is the corkscrew, the roller coaster, Turn 8, the “Museum” turn. LOVE that thing! Obviously, it’s very different from my 1988 911 to the 2011 911 Turbo. Man the speed we carried into that thing, the drama of the weight transfer with some rotation at the bottom, the thrill of shooting out of there…fun, fun, and fun! More fun to drive, of course, but I absolutely enjoyed it as a passenger with John. I would never see it quite like that in my car!

Things are getting very busy with my local PCA, and as the Secretary this year, I have some work cut out for me. These guys are fantastic, and there is some great energy to try new things. The leadership that’s transitioning out are all racers, and they were not much on recordkeeping. It’s a nasty job, but somebody’s gotta do it! I hope to institute some document retention policies and put some simple systems and templates in place to cover our recordkeeping bases. Having more and more people coming out to new events is, hokey as this will sound, all the reward I could want for the time spent on the back-stage paper-shuffling that comes with a big national organization. It’s not just the cars, it’s the people!

Wow that was boring. Moving right along, things are falling into place for Daytona. I’m bringing my SCCA-worker whites and buddying up with the same friend I did last year to sign up in with SCCA as Worker Support Workers. Last year, the work was about the most fun I have ever had, riding around on a golf cart from midnight to 7am delivering water and hot coffee to corner workers, and ferrying corner workers to and from their corners, while the race was ongoing. I loved it, and hope to do that again. Finances are not as tight as last year, and while I have not plans to spend a wad of money, it’s just going to be nice to take this trip without the stress of pinching pennies like I had to in order to make the trip last year. More boring! The best part is I’m driving the 911. I got fresh wiper blades today, and everything else is good to go.

The really really best part is the 24 Hour Race, of course, twice around the clock! And your team in a DP car flying the #45 Flying Lizard colors! I wasn’t sure if and how involved Thomas Blam would be, but I shot him an email after Roar and sure enough, he’s all up in the middle of the Daytona effort. I’ll definitely take him up on his invite to come by and say hello in the pit!

And to add to the excitement, a friend I’ve talked about here, my buddy Mike Skeen, will be in the GT class in the #56 Bennett Racing Ferrari F430 Challenge along with Jonathan Allen, Michael Davidson, Jean-Francois Dumoulin, and Glynn Geddie. When I ran across him in the GRM corral last year, he was so excited about a plan he was hatching with his buddies to do this race. The guys who ended up on the team are not the guys he started the plan with, and I will have to ask him what happened to the Grassroots Motorsports Magazine plan to document their truly grassroots effort. But by God, he’s going to be out there racing in the 24 Hours of Daytona! I’m over-the-moon thrilled for him, and so excited I’ll be there to see him race and cheer him on. Oh my and let’s not forget my buddy Spencer Pumpelly in the #67 TRG Porsche! I believe they posted fastest time in GT for the night practice.

And last but not least, Hurley is back! And a PCA-bred racer and local hero by the name of Leh Keen will be teamed up with him in the #59 Brumos Porsche GT3 along with Marc Lieb. They looked great in testing, posting the fastest time in GT in the 3rd session on Saturday.

Heaven only knows what you are up to between now and the race. I should be scouring the NASCAR schedules, shouldn’t I? Ha!

OK well that is quite enough for now, don’t you think???

Be well, drive purty!
x0x0x0
VroomGrrl

Driving and Crying

Hi Pat,

Well first things first – 24 Heures du Mans! Oh my. I never cease to be amazed at the way these 24 hour races go like gangbusters right through the entire 24 hours. So much can happen, and does. It seems job #1 is just staying alive to the finish. You, Pilet and Narac were fantastic in your #76 Porsche. I saw the Vettes P1 and P2 in GT2, and thought I could probably live with a win from them, some loyaly to the great Corvette brand of course, but you know I was rooting for Porsche, you and the #80 in paricular.

So the #80 Flying Lizard car. I just cannot imagine the disappointment of hauling everything it takes to compete in 24 hour race around the world and have the whole team & all that huge machine of human and other support working there for a full week, drapeau vert, and four hours later it’s over? Talk about driving and crying!

Anyway, the 24 was a superior race, exciting for the whole time (most of which I watched excep about 1-4am) – incroyable!

So the title of this entry! My little race car is still sidelined. My wheels are still in Pascagoula, and I am having a hard time getting in touch with the guy who’s working on them. No worries – he’s a friend & wouldn’t screw me over. I suspect he hasn’t done a thing with them yet so he’s dodging me. So still no competition – I’ve skipped another autocross event since my last post, and that sealed my fate – I am now ineligible to compete for points. Not like I was competitive anyway, but I do have goals and I was hoping to get full season in at last. Not to be this year. C’est la vie.

I’ve been pretty good about at least starting and driving my car at least once a week, but a mound of “life” intervened, and before I knew it, a whole MONTH had gone by and I’d not so much as opened the door on my 911. Finally a couple of weeks ago, I planned an hour out of the day for a drive. I had to rinse the DOG HAIR off my car! Shameful, I know. I’d tucked it under the deck, and the dogs’ had been sitting right above her. Got her cleaned up, checked things over, got in, and she started on the first try, bless her heart.

I had a super enjoyable drive, cruising around town, and taking some big easy back roads where I could really open her up. Wow. I turned off the stereo, settled into my seat properly, and took in all the beautiful feedback my car provides. Without any warning, I had tears running down my face. These older cars are so physically feedback-intensive. It’s been a stressful time, and it was just a huge sense of relief, with a little touch of “WHY DON’T I DO THIS MORE OFTEN???”

So I did it again yesterday. No tears. Just 100 degree heat! My car’s AC doesn’t really do any good at all so it was like riding in an oven, but once I got out on the interstate, windows down, all was well. I took a longer trip, to Tuscaloosa and back (120 miles round trip). It was another fanastic drive. As long as these tires will carry me around (balding, but no cord – I just avoid driving in the rain for now), I’m going to be sure I get her out once a week.

A dear friend called me from Montreal where he worked yellow flag at turn 10B of Cirque Gilles-Villeneuve in the F1 race today. It’s been a race-full weekend! I didn’t get to see all of the F1 race, and apparenly I missed some good stuff. Can’t wait to get the behind-the-scenes story when he calls later tonight.

Meanwhile, you are all over the world! I saw on Twitter that you were in Atlanta, then off to Le Mans, and in between, I think, coaching Ron Hornaday at Road America? Well I’ll be watching for you in ALMS and wherever else you might be running.

Be safe and keep driving purty,
VroomGrrl

Catching Up

Hiya Pat,

Wow it’s been awhile since I wrote here. To tie up loose ends from last time, I did not, in fact, find out how I’d do at AX in a Miata and I don’t even remember why. Oh! We couldn’t swap cars because the Miata driver was having back spasms and decided that powering my car around would not be advisable. I did not argue! Another time for that.

So you, and the catching up! Fantastic run at Long Beach! Congratulations!! I didn’t get to watch the race live. I didn’t get to watch the tape rebroadcast. I didn’t get to keep up by Twitter or any other internet-based means. I unplugged and spent a long weekend at the beach with my husband. Our phones didn’t even work 99% of the time. It was great!

But it did drive me rather crazy to have no information, so when we went to dinner, our phones worked and I texted a friend for the results. By the time he texted me back, we were already back at the beach house. I did have my laptop and was able to get the broadband connection for just long enough to bring up the timing & scoring page at the ALMS site and see the results. Since then, I have seen a couple of highlights features which show all the good parts. I particularly enjoyed the view of you passing the BMW – from the BMW! Ha! Awesome!

I mean, come on, of all places…Long Beach is like the Barber of the Indy circuit. Haha I slay me. But from all indications, including interviews of yours I’ve seen and read, opportunities to pass at Long Beach are few and brief. Add the traffic and whoa. Yet you managed to work your way from P4 to P1. !!!!!! Wow. That’s why you get the big bucks, man. Spectacular run!!! Edited to add: I understand from reading up a little more carefully that the first position or two were gained with an incredible pit stop, leaving you with the other two positions to reel in when you took the wheel. So kudos to the crew!!! And to you!

As of last week, I am now in possession of a set of new black-centered Fuchs for my 911. Hooray! I am trying to work out the logistics since I really really need new tires, too. I thought it would work out great to put the new tires on the new wheels. But my next track day is April 30. I don’t think I’ll be able to get the tires by then. Plus I wanted to take the “new” wheels to a friend who offered to pretty them up for me (just clean & polish the rims and repaint the faded black centers) for a song. I hoped to get that done before getting new tires mounted on them. If a big pile of money falls on my head this week, I’ll get into high gear. Otherwise, I’m on to plan B, which is to just drive the tires off the old wheels while the new wheels are getting their makeover, then get the tires when I can, mount them on the new wheels and put those puppies on the car.

I’m thinking about changing classes in autocross, but I have to do some more research. I’ve only earned points at one event so I can run a complete-enough season in the new class if I end up moving. My last event was….meh. The course was extremely challenging to my brain, a most unusual layout. After going thru the finish line, I actually got lost trying to get off the course. Eegads! We had three runs in the morning, then switched the start & finish and ran it backward for three runs in the afternoon. I started out with a much smaller margin to the FTD, and brought my times down incrementally. The one time I was sure I would have my slowest time, because I took some risks and did more slipping and sliding around than I usually do? FASTEST TIME. There’s something for me to learn there. As hard as I drove that one time? The bar has been raised. I need to start every run like that! A real eye-opener.

That autocross is the only driving I’ve done all this time! But I did give the 911 a thorough clean-up and shine, and took her out to Barber for the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber, April 9-11. My birthday was the 11th, and it was a great way to celebrate! As an officer in my local PCA, I was apparently expected to show up at 7 every morning and work the club tent until the end of each day. Well now I know! I played the birthday card to slide in late (9:00) Saturday, and ducked out early Sunday to beat the traffic. The weekend was a tremendous success, and I really enjoyed all of the Porsche corporate support, in addition to great support and collaboration from PSDS and our local Porsche dealership. We picked up several new members over the weekend, so I was constantly being called upon as membership chair to meet folks and welcome them. It was my pleasure!

Our car corral was limited to 110 cars and it was packed all three days. We had a byooootiful collection of cars every day! (Except, strangely, not a single 356 all weekend). My official work shift was Friday (opening day) at 7am! They didn’t provide me the right parking card and I had to beg my way thru credentials to start things off. Then our corral had not been marked off and while the tent was there, everything else needed setting up. I didn’t know what I was in for. And I was on my own!

Well my Miata-driving friend, The Greasegirl, was with me, having ridden to the park super early with her boyfriend who works in the restoration area in the museum. The trams weren’t running yet and she asked me to pick her up. Good thing I did. She offered to get the corral set up (and run off all the random non-Porsches already invading our space) while I handled the tent and the visitors who were already showing up as I put down my pack. I don’t know what I would have done without her! But we got it handled and everything went so well all weekend. We had a fantastic spot on the hill overlooking the back side of the track between turns 14-17. Lots of great action to see!

I’m having a hard time balancing the administrivia with the driving and car fun! I worked all weekend and really never left the tent to even see the paddock, the drivers, all the fantastic cars. other parts of the track, the new grandstands….in that way, it was kind of not the best. But I can’t say I didn’t have fun. I thoroughly enjoyed everything right where I was. And we had Hurley Haywood and Bobby Rahal give brief remarks and answer questions, so I definitely saw the cream of the race car rock star crop.

Looks like I will be working instead of driving our next club DE at Barber as well. Several reasons for that. It’ll be in June and I am sure I will not mind working the credentials building. It’s just kind of a crazy year. And I’m just kind of rolling with it!

So there you have it, the catch-up. You are off somewhere exciting – aw hell yeah. SPA, BABY! Gawd I want to see a race in Europe. I’ve been to concerts over there, but never a race. It’s on my big life’s to do list! Le Mans is, actually…anyway, be safe and have fun. I’ll try to do better about keeping up via Twitter! You’re great about posting updates and photos there. I’ll get some photos added to this entry eventually…

Congrats again to you & Jorg!
VroomGrrl

Patience, Grasshopper

Hi Pat,

Wow it’s been a busy couple of weeks. As a new officer on my local PCA board, my involvement in our Spring DE last week took on a whole new dimension. Driving took a backseat, and I spent most of my time working registration, troubleshooting all manner of little things, and making sure every participant was welcomed with the true Southern hospitality they have come to expect here. Doing so at Barber makes it sooooo easy. What a fantastic facility!

I did get to drive on Sunday. And I felt like I rather sucked. Overall I know from objective sources that I am improving. I’m maintaining smoothness and increasing speed. I needed much more 4th gear this time out than I ever have before at Barber. My 2nd gear slotting-in problem reappeared, but only once, until I remembered the micro-hesitation technique my buddy Paul showed me. Just a lot to remember in the corkscrew (Charlotte’s web, the Museum turn) at Barber.

Speaking of which, that is not the place one wants to have a lapse in concentration, otherwise known as a brain fart. Which I did on Sunday. The end result was just a seriously stupid line through there, and a “WTF?” from my instructor. And a rather shaken up driver, I have to say. It was immediately apparent the potential very high cost of a brain fart anywhere on Barber, most of all in that spot. Lesson learned.

Another thing: I seriously forget what proper threshhold braking feels like! I hate this. I don’t get out often enough as a passenger or driver to really get this ingrained, second nature. In fact, I drove home Sunday feeling seriously discouraged, all WTF am I doing this for? It’s humbling to suck, and something I am not generally accustomed to. I’m much more used to picking things up very quickly and excelling. This? Not so much. But that is seriously OK. I love a challenge. I love being nearly 50 years old and feeling the youthful excitement of doing something physically challenging and thrilling. I wasn’t born into this car stuff, didn’t spend my childhood around it, didn’t race karts, never did much beyond watch and drool for my first 45 years. But I’m here to tell you that old dogs can learn new tricks. I have the desire, and I firmly believe that with persistence and practice, I CAN DO THIS.

In the “Uh oh!” department, at pre-tech for this event, it was pronounced that my tires barely passed, and my wheels were declared “signed off for the last time.” Very long story there, but suffice it to say, my season has taken on a whole new look. I have a couple of autocross days coming up, but beyond that, I will be lucky to get anything else out of these tires. I have a line on a great deal for the wheels, but la cash flow, elle n’est pas supportif! My husband’s new venture is starting out very slowly, as in, he has been working since January with no pay. This was not ze plan, shall we say.

So we roll with it. Other than my AX school next Saturday, and maybe my first AX points competition the week after, my car is parked for the purposes of competition until further notice. I’ll have to forego driving the next club DE in June, but I’m OK with that. I have pre-paid to do a private track day at the end of April. Not sure if that date is even going to fill up as needed to pay for the track rental.

Meanwhile, I have been doing a little studying on tire pressures. Amazing the difference adjustments there can make! I had no clue. I mentioned something about reaping some reward from minor adjustments in an email to a certain race engineer (YOURS in the #45 car), and he actually put one of the guys in his shop to work on researching and coming up with a recommendation for me. I swear, I could not ask for better friends in this sport. For a newcomer like me, at least one who does not present any possible threat of competition, people are so kind and eager to help, it just blows my mind. So I have the incredible Flying Lizard #45 brain trust at work for me in this small way. I now have a new strategy and very specific instructions for handling tire pressures at my next AX event, and I cannot WAIT to try them out.

While I have no help to give in terms of cars and driving, there are other ways to help folks along. I have made a new friend of a newcomer to the club, and have made it my business to encourage him and do what I can to bring him into the fold. He is a fantastic guy, his car is GORGEOUS, and as I suspected he would be, he is a good driver! He signed up in DE1 and was signed off to drive solo by the end of the weekend. He made a few new friends, which I was tickled to see, and was absolutely over-the-moon exuberent in his appreciation of my attention. He passed me a couple of times on Sunday, and at my instructor’s suggestion, I gave him the super-special middle-finger point-by. HE LOVED IT and insisted I replicate it in this photo:

Looking back, it’s clear my hesitation to commit to a big season calendar of events comes from all the uncertainty I’m dealing with. So let’s own that: Contrary to prior pronouncements, I will not be posting a big, ambitious schedule of events after all! I’m just going to have to be patient, and see how things come together over the next few weeks and months.

There is certainly plenty of good racing to watch! I’m looking forward to Sebring next weekend! I realize lately if I am curious where you are and what you’re up to, there’s Twitter! I kind of hate all these “social networking” things, there are so many to keep up with, but I have to admit they are great for keeping up with friends.

Happy driving!
VroomGrrl